Rockin’ Rockhampton

After a long ride we made it to the Welcome Home Motel in Rockhampton just up the road from Hungry Jacks (Burger King).  Again it’s not the Ritz but the room is clean, they provide coffee, have hot water, and the bed was comfortable. Oh and did I mention CHEAP!!!

I spent about half an hour trying to photograph the flocks of birds flying around our balcony.  They were going crazy playing with each other.

Afterwards we went to dinner at a bistro recommended by the hotel manager, which turned out to be a little casino.  We all had the daily special of chicken schnitzel for $12.  It was great.  Bruce and I played a slot machine and won a little bit of money.

In the morning we went to the visitors center to get information on where we wanted to go today.  At the visitors center was The Spire Tropic of Capricorn which divides the Tropic zone to the north and temperate zone to the south.

We ate breakfast at a cute little coffee place in town.  It was a long walk but I needed to get my 10,000 steps in today.  We had bacon, egg and cheese on bagels.  It was really good.

 

We visited the Dreamtime Cultural Centre where we had a private guided tour on aboriginal history.

Francis, our first guide was from the Island of Mer or Murray depending on whether you use the Island name or English name.  He explained about the Islands being part of Australia and that once there was a land mass connecting Papua New Guinea to Australia.  When the sea came over the land mass it created the little islands.  There are different creole dialects from the east to the west.  Also in the old days, heads were used as money and wealth was based on how many heads you had.  Then pearls became the bartering power and many islanders died diving for pearls.  Cannibalism was also practiced in the island’s many years ago but no longer.  However, Francis said that it is still practiced in Papua New Guinea.

Some of the shells were from the Great Barrier Reef.  Francis said that the shells clean the reef and when the shell dies they honor the shell.  Also a turtle shell he had on display was very large.  He said that the turtle was probably 50 years old.

Wayne was our next guide and he played the didgeridoo which had a deep sound.  He showed us how he made different sounds with it by using his tongue.  Young boys begin to learn how to play the instrument and it is a sign of manhood when they can play it at a function.

Wayne then gave Bruce and Stan a short lesson on how to throw a boomerang.  A returning boomerang is the mid size boomerang and that’s really a toy.  A very large boomerang doesn’t return and it is used to hunt kangaroo.  A very small boomerang is used to hunt small prey.

We enjoyed walking through the cultural center and learned a lot today from our excellent guides.

In the late afternoon we went to the local zoo to see the koalas being fed.  I am not much for zoos but it was free.  Actually the place had a wildlife feel to it so it was fun to walk through.

At the kangaroo exhibit, one of the females was pregnant and the joey’s foot was sticking out of the pouch.

Birds were flying overhead and a flock of lorikeets came in to drink out of a dish.  They are such colorful birds.

 

It’s late afternoon and the birds are flying overhead again.  We sat on our balcony so I could write and Bruce could smoke his cigar.

For dinner we headed back to the little bistro/casino we ate in the night before.  Tonight we had battered barramundi fish.  It was delicious.  Afterwards we played the slots and won again.  We were going to treat Linda and Stan to coffee and cake but it was on the house.

We really enjoyed our stay Rockhampton!