Yepoon and Mackay

A couple of days ago, we left M&M's home to begin a tour of the northeast coast and other areas of Queensland. One of the fun things for me about this is the chance to take note of things we do not see back home and to ask lots of questions as we see things along the way. So let me begin with a few comments before I get on with the photos.

I have enjoyed watching a game of cricket with Murray on TV. I pestered him no end with questions about the rules, and I'm catching on to the game now. Australia played Sri Lanka and won. This was one of the games in the big ICC tournament that is underway down here now.

Whenever we are outside, which is much of the time, Kathie and notice the bird songs and continue to see new species. This has been great fun, since many are very colorful and have beautiful songs. Others have behaviors that are fun to watch. Two nights ago we watched a pair of Curlews with two chicks--they were busy feeding and protecting them. Kookaburras continue to be especially fun since their songs are so distinctive. They are rather large too.

I love listening to Aussie English, which is peppered with fun phrases and words. I think our English is not quite as fun. Murray suggests that we are very literal too, whereas Aussie's do fine with generalities in lots of cases. The best example I can give you has to do with the words bush and outback. I have always imagined these words to exclusively describe the interior of Australia and areas like those we saw around Uluru and Alice Springs. However, the word outback generally refers to anything that is of a rural nature or away from cities or developed properties, while the word bush refers to almost any terrain that is covered with vegetation, including forests, desert shrubs, or whatever.

While driving, we can now say that we have seen kangaroos out in the wild. Several of them dashed in front of the car a couple days ago. This feels a bit like dodging deer back home, but of course, the sight is very unusual for us. Speaking of dodging, there are lots of road signs that warn of possible animal encounters. Back home we all see the signs showing a silhouette of a deer, which is supposed to suggest that we may have those pests dash in front of our cars. Here we have seen similar silhouette signage showing: kangaroos, camels (feral ones in the Northern Territory), koalas (slow to cross the road), emus, and probably others I'm forgetting.

We have seen a number of road trains during our trip too, in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland. A road train is like our numerous semi-trailer rigs, but they pull three and sometimes more trailers. So, they can be very long, and the wind gusts they create can be interesting.

As we have been driving along the northeast coast of Queensland, we are seeing beautiful mountains and hills, plains and pastures, and frequently the sea and islands on our right. The Great Barrier Reef continues essentially all along the coast on the route we are taking. It is much bigger than I previously understood.

Yesterday, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Among other things, this got us all into a discussion about where, exactly, the Tropic of Cancer is located. Kathie and I couldn't remember crossing or taking note of it any time in the past, though we knew we surely must have done that on a Caribbean cruise. After looking it up, we saw that it passes through Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, two places we might have experienced it. Here in Australia, though, we experienced the southern counterpart at one precisely marked location near the city of Rockhampton.

So Kathie and I have now kissed across the Tropic of Capricorn. Not all couples can make that claim!

We also held hands across the line. By the way, that is my new Brisbane Broncos shirt. Murray gave me this when we arrived. The Broncos are part of Australia's National Rugby League.

You may know that Cyclone Marcia recently created trouble in Queensland when it came ashore with very high winds. This occurred a couple weeks before we arrived at M&M's. They escaped any serious damage, but around Rockhampton and other areas we have traveled through, we have seen lots of damaged roofs and structures and damage to trees. One of our stops was at a place called Emu Park. This sign was located near the Singing Ship monument. Note how the steel posts were bent where they were anchored in concrete. It would take a stiff wind to do that.

The Singing Ship is a monument to the explorations of Captain Cook. There are features on the monument that gently emit sounds when the wind blows--flute-like tubes and such.

Much of the countryside is grazing land. Both here and in the Northern Territory, we have seen lots of cattle grazing. With the hills, mountains, and sea nearby, these large grazing areas are very pretty. Many breeds of cattle can be found, but we have especially noted lots of brahma cattle. We are told that they endure the terrain and lack of water, especially in the NT, better than other breeds do.

Margaret has brought along lots of goodies for snacking and lunches along the way. Yesterday, we enjoyed lunch near the sea and then walked on the beach for a bit before continuing on our way.

Today we drive on to a place called Airlie Beach where we will spend a couple days on an actual beach and also have our first adventures out on the Great Barrier Reef.