For perhaps the first time since leaving home, I wasn't hot last night and in fact got frequent chills as my bed with right next to this powerful air con. It was nice to be able to properly curl up for a change! I even woke up without my diarrhea after remembering I took the precaution before leaving home to pack some tablets in my first aid kit! I used up my last remaining three packs of noodles this morning which set me up nicely for the day as it was such a big portion. It was all a pretty relaxing morning in the end as my bus didn't leave until 12.40am which meant I had a lot of time to kill.
Due to the fact I had no tours planned for today I opted to go geocaching to explore the town of Rockhampton which lies on the Tropic of Capricorn. After using the hostels free WiFi I headed north of the river which was more away from the main town centre area. It was only 9 by the time I left but it was already really muggy and for some reason I kept getting fly's attracted to me. Despite high expectations for the day I only found one cache from my first six attempts. I can't really say much about the scenery however other than I navigating through streets with a gps and no map isn't easy.
When heading back to the hostel, I got views of the large Mount Morgan (I think) which is a large hill looking over the low lying town. I say I think because there were loads of signs saying mount something. I was tempted to walk up there but I opted for geocaching in the end as I wasn't sure how far it was. When continuing through the streets, entering another park I found a funny cache which I eventually worked out was a manmade pinball machine which used the cache like the ball!
The thing I was fast finding about Rockhampton was the fact it is not really a tourist friendly area, and more of a place to live. I probably should have guessed this as my lonely planet guide spoke more about the steak! There were plenty of warehouse like shops round the town, and I found this one place called the Stockland Centre which was packed with shops and food places. After a look round, I went to the Kershaw Botanic Gardens which included a big waterfall and many plants. It was here I found a further two caches, although I was more fascinated by this playground which had this big monorail piece of play equipment!
Passing the old railway line, I headed back to hostel to write down some more caches, this time south of the river. I didn't find any south of the river however, although I was able to see some of the more historical features of the town. There was this interesting marker which showed all the major flood heights in Rockhampton, and it was considerably higher than the road. It was nice to see this because I studied about Rockhampton and it's flooding problems in geography at school. Other things I saw was the town hall, and further shops. To give you an idea of how tourist friendly the town is, I was unable to get a map or postcard of the area anywhere, and I looked everywhere!
By now it was around 4, so after a look round some shops including this warehouse like staples, and target, I went into another Coles and bought food for tonight and the coming days, the cheap way of eating. Heading back across the river the hostel once again, I relaxed with the free WiFi before going to the kitchen to cook dinner, pasta in a bolognaise sauce. By the time I had finished dinner I just thought to myself what am I going to do until gone midnight waiting for my bus!
In the end I stayed in the hostel until around 9, before walking down to the bus station, where I went into the local hungry jacks, buying a mango sundae and frozen coke, which enabled me to have an excuse to sit in the air conditioned restaurant until around half 11 in the end! If you're wondering what I was doing, I was writing blogs. It was then down to the muggy heat of the bus station where the bus arrived late, although my driver was there. By about 1 I finally boarded the bus, being just 1 of 2 passengers boarding, hoping to get a better night sleep compared to my last night bus!
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