Emu Park

Sorry that we couldn’t get on the internet for a day or two but I did manage to write them and chose photos so it was just a matter of finding a connection. We had a driving day today so not very much to report anyway. We headed up the Bruce Highway to Rockhampton then took a right to Emu Park. It’s a lovely little seaside town and judging from the photos on a wall in the hotel has been up and running since at least 1920. There is very little here but the basics, like Bakers (they love their pies), supermarket, Chinese, Thai, Two hotels, a Motel, a backpackers place and a camp site. We opted for the Motel because we couldn’t find the backpackers place until after we had checked in. It’s called Endeavour Inn www.endeavourinn.com.au , and the downstairs rooms have all been upgraded and they will be starting on the upstairs ones shortly. They charge $110 a night for two and it’s very tasty with a Queen bed, flatscreen TV, aircon, fridge, toaster, grill, microwave, kettle, fans, balcony, nice bathroom, chairs and two tables all of which are in very good condition. They have been completely revamped with new floors, windows, doors, paintwork and there are even ample electric sockets and all controls are from the bed. A very good job has been made of it all too. They have a Chinese restaurant which also does Australian food, a laundry and a small pool. It’s a pretty coastline with islands along the horizon. I believe that Captain Cook mapped this area and named the bay, at least that’s what it said on the sail statue by the sea.

The views were good and the photo’s came out fine but following the views from Fraser seem to lack something. I guess it will take me a few days to adjust to just ordinary beautiful views again. It’s also getting noticeably hotter the further north we are travelling, every time we get out of the airconed car it seems to hit us more than we were expecting but we are now in central Queensland. The sky seems to be getting bluer and bluer; I’m not sure I have ever seen such a blue sky maybe it’s because there is so little pollution or maybe the sky is a little higher than at home. How high is the sky?

Another driving day tomorrow and we are not sure where we will be staying yet but probably somewhere in MacKay. This shouldn’t leave us a long drive on Friday to Airlie beach where we catch our cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. The honeymoon couple we met on Fraser had just come from there and their cruise was cancelled because of bad weather so hope we will be OK for ours. I guess it will only be another short blog tomorrow as we won’t have much to say and not sure if we will get internet or not wherever we will be staying. Claire has booked a backpackers place at Arlie beach for the next night so that will be yet another type of accommodation for us to experience. We were surprised how little the guys at the YHA talked to each other, they all seemed to keep to their own little groups. I expected hectic drinking and parties but they seemed more staid than us.

After I took the picture of Mr Snail, he crawled under Claire’s chair while we were sitting outside relaxing away the tensions of the driving day and gave her such a shock when she saw it. I know that you won’t believe this, but I swear it’s true, when we sat outside a little later on discussing our moves for tomorrow and beyond, a similar smaller snail, almost certainly family, from the snail research I did with the OU last year, slithered up Claire’s shoe. Neither of us noticed it until Claire was cleaning her teeth in the bathroom when I saw it; I hesitated as I wasn’t sure how to break the news, thinking of the alternatives fast in my mind. I considered getting the camera first, but she would have clocked on when I pointed it towards the floor, after considering the alternatives I ended up laughing and just told her. Claire literally jumped out of both her shoes and ran, it was a while before I could recover enough to pick her shoes up and knock it off by the cane type bamboo looking tree where it came from. Claire said why do they always come for me; but it hardly jumped on her, she must have been moving slower than a snail.

Because our room is so nice, and the Thai restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet is almost next door, we intended a takeaway night in our room together and just popped into our motel bar for one, to see what it was like before we collected it. We were the first there but the place was set for a party and Claire asked the little girl that served us what was going on. She was the daughter of the owner and also had 3 older brothers and was so sweet we ended up staying there to eat along with the 50th Birthday party of a local school teacher and all her mates. This place has been going for over 20 years now and still doesn’t get a mention in the Lonely Planet; if I were coming back to Emu Park I know where I would stay.