It was an interesting four and a half hour drive drive from Bargara Beach to our new location at Yeppoon northeast of Rockhampton. Shortly after leaving the cane fields behind we were travelling on undulating country roads through a mixture of open pasture fields and thick forests. Still green but not the lush vegetation of late and no longer the deep red and brown soils.

We joined the Bruce Highway at the small crossroads town of Miriam Vale. But while quite straight it is hardly a highway by the normal description with just 2-lanes. Frequent overtaking lanes at least allow faster traffic to pass as well as the odd idiot trying to overtake our caravan when it’s clear the lanes are merging ahead.

At Fairy Bower, just south of Rockhampton, the Bruce Highway joins the Capricorn Highway and we’re now at the most southerly point of the equator where the sun reaches directly overhead at midday in December. This line of latitude, know as the Tropic of Capricorn, is not in a fixed position as you would expect but is moving northwards at a rate of 15-metres per year as the earth continues to wobble on its axis.

Rocky – Literally

Rockhampton was our gateway to the coast and the final leg to our next site at Yeppoon. Then a sudden change of scenery surprised us. Dry grass, dusty fields, flat in every direction but then mountainous rock domes rising near vertically out of the fields. These and the surrounding mountains are responsible for the change in weather pattern here creating its own climate zone. We’re back in volcano country and the rock domes are granite plugs leftover from the days when the region was volcanically active. And, as usual, there’s nowhere to pullover to take a photograph.

One final hill and we were descending into the small town of Yeppoon. Like many small towns in Queensland, Yeppoon’s high street is very wide with angled parking on both sides of the road and even more parking in the middle. If only Sydney was this spacious.

Yeppoon

Our site for the next week is just 10-metres from the beach, perfect. Except 5-metres behind us is the main coastal road. After the peace and quiet at Bargara Beach, though, and with views like this I’m sure we’ll get used to it.

House Viewing

It was a little showery last night so we decided to head down to Emu Park just south of Yeppoon. High on a hill are new houses, some overlooking the marshy estuary and some with magnificent views of the Coral Sea with the Keppel Islands just offshore. Some vacant plots were still for sale but looked difficult to build on with a steep drop down to the sea. Plots with views like these would cost millions anywhere near Sydney.

Blowing in the Wind

High on a cliff sits the aptly named ‘Singing Ship’. More a large sail-styled white concrete structure. The ‘ship’ has several large and smaller hollow pipes suspended on wires that create notes when the wind blows across them, much like when blowing across the top of a bottle. It’s a curious thing and quite a haunting sound but worth a visit. It was built to commemorate Captain Cook’s discovery of the bay in 1770 – though, of course, it was discovered much before that time by the Darumbal Aboriginal mob, who lived here.

Yeppoon’s harbour is also worth a visit being the ferry point for the Keppel Islands as well as for Whale watching tours in season. Sadly we’re a month too early but there’s still plenty to see and do here. And the forecast for tomorrow looks good.