Whilst Bec got to enjoy another sleep in today, I was up at the crack of dawn to take ‘The Beast’ into town for its service. I did only book it in for an oil change, but have decided to get them to do a full service, as I don’t want to have to find someone further north that can fit us in, and don’t particularly relish the idea of taking yet another day out of our schedule to get it looked at again. Not so soon anyway.

The service centre was a mad house when I arrived, with cars lined up ad nauseam, and I was seriously concerned that they were going to turn me away, despite having booked in. I needn’t have worried, although they won’t be done until sometime after lunch.

So, without transport for the next 5 hours or so, I was limited to doing whatever I could find within walking distance. Being that it had only just gone 8:00AM, and nothing much was open yet, I made my way to the beckoning luminous golden arches of the nearest McDonalds, where a welcoming coffee helped to kick start the day. It also gave me a chance to sit quietly and log onto the Internet, uploading all of our latest photos onto Flickr. Be sure to check them out. I still have to reorganise the ‘photostream’, but if you go into the day by day sets, they are all in order there. And just in case you’re wondering, with our peaceful day yesterday, the camera didn’t even get an airing, so don’t hold your breath for those shots.

Before I knew it, I’d whiled away an easy hour or so, and the township was beginning to awaken to a glorious morning, made all the more exciting by the partial solar eclipse that was happening right above our very heads. Although, I only remembered about that later when I saw it on the news, so missed the entire show.

Leaving McDonalds, I headed off for a bit of a walking tour of the city centre of Rockahampton, ostensibly in search of a few bits and pieces for the caravan, although again I had no luck.

I am still after a special automatic switch to put in behind the fridge so that the power turns on and off by itself when plugged into the car. I trawled through electronics shops, four wheel drive stores, camping and outdoors specialists and anywhere else that I thought may on the off chance carry the bits I was searching for. No one had what I needed though, and I may as well have been asking to purchase a motorised unicycle, as no one had any idea where I might even find one. I know they exist, because I’ve seen them back home, but as is always the way, as soon as you start to look for something, finding said object is impossible.

Beef Capital of Australia. Bulls like this are dotted around the town everywhere.

As well as walking back and forth and up and down each street, looking for possible haunts to buy my gear, I took myself on a bit of a tour of Rockhampton. Taking in again, some of the fabulous sights and buildings we had observed from the car the other day, as well as taking a peaceful stroll along the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River.

Overlooking the Fitzroy River.

The beautiful looking Heritage Hotel.

I have found Rockhampton to be a lovely place, although looking closer today, noticed that spliced in amongst the beautiful old buildings are a number of 1960s era buildings, that may have been futuristic in their day, but have dated quite poorly. As I walked past one hotel in particular, I could almost imagine what it would be like to walk through the foyer and into a time warp. I could picture the velour walls, shag pile carpets, a mission brown timber bar in the corner lined with martinis and a bowl of keys. Groooovy Baby! Maybe, but not my thing and it’d be my luck some bastard would run off with ‘The Beast’ and leave me with the Torana from Yeppoon.

By midday, I was just walking around aimlessly, hoping not to look like a homeless bum, so I made my way back to the car dealership to wait it out. It was another hour before my phone chimed, with the message that ‘The Beast’ was safely out of surgery and ready to be picked up. It was me who nearly needed an ambulance next, when I got the bill. I’m sure that they must have given me the special ‘he’ll never be back anyway’ tourist price. Lets just say “not much change out of a grand” and leave it at that. It had to be done, so I paid up, through gritted teeth and went on my now not so merry way. I called Bec to tell her I was on my way back to the caravan, and to break out the baked beans for dinner!

Back at the van, I found that Bec had actually been having a glorious time. Not having had access to mains pressure water, she has been living without the washing machine since we arrived in Rocky. Now that her cousin is home, she jumped at the chance to borrow his washing machine. I am sure she was in her element, plowing through 3 full sized loads apparently, although she alleges that it wasn’t all fun and games. I’m not so sure though, as all my cleanly washed clothes were even piled up, neatly folded, just waiting for me to shove them in a cupboard.

As a thank you, I offered to take her out to dinner and a show again. It’s Friday night and the bull riders are back at the Great Western. I don’t think she heard me though, because she was too busy sweeping, although I don’t know how effective a broom is when it’s swung round in the air at head height like that. Someone will lose an eye if that keeps up!

We managed to have a bit of rest between me getting home, and deciding to head back into town again. At 40 odd kilometers each way, we’re racking up some serious miles just going to and from town. Tonight was to visit a much vaunted night market along the banks of the river. We should know by now that the markets that seem to get the most hype are the ones that have the least stalls. We were yet again faced with doing the rounds of a market boasting only a 1/2 dozen or so stalls. As seems to be the fashion, we did strike up a conversation with one of the stall holders, chatting about his caravanning experiences. It’s always good to hear from other vanners, especially those who have suffered similar issues and set backs as have we. Makes us feel normal, part of the fraternity even.

From the market, it was off to dinner, and whilst I was only joking earlier about taking Bec to a dinner and show again, that is exactly what we did. We decided that since we knew what to expect there and found the food to be pretty good, it was our safest bet. My cunning plan came to fruition after all.

…and not so good.

Looking good…

The bull riding tonight was a bit tamer than Wednesday, and even Bec mentioned that she preferred the adrenalin rush of the rougher stuff, even if it did scare the bejesus out of her. She’ll be a rodeo groupie before you know it.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.