The Tropic of Capricorn

Wednesday March 11th – The Tropic of Capricorn

We decided that as Cyclone Hamish had moved southwards, we would move northwards and see how far we could travel in a day. Leaving early, we managed to navigate through Brisbane with only a minor detour. We headed up the fabled Bruce Highway, motorway near the city though still with a 100km speed limit, through overcast weather with bands of rain.

Calling into a service station for a big Aussie breakfast, a tourist guide told us it was quite possible to drive to Rockhampton in a day, and gave us maps of the area. We hadn't thought that this was possible because the slowness of driving in Australia caused by having to crawl through each sprawling community (no bypasses) and overtaking lanes at approximately 5km intervals on the single carriageway roads, usually limits daily travel to three or four hundred kilometres.

We drove northwards following the inland route, only stopping for a coffee and fuel, until we reached Rockhampton at 4:30pm. The country was quite tame, grassy plains with eucalyptus trees dotted about and a few sugar cane plantations, with forested mountains inland. The rain became less frequent and the temperature steadily climbed to reach 87F. Unfortunately the radio reported that Hamish had unexpectedly done a 'U' turn and was now following us.

As we neared Rockhampton, we crossed over a railway line with a long coal train crawling along towards the coast from the hinterland. It was quite a sight as the trucks must have stretched for the best part of a mile in length.

The information site at Rockhampton was actually situated on the tropic of Capricorn with a monument at the line and markers for the tropical and temperate zones either side. The nice lady at the site suggested a caravan park on the coast just south of Yeppoon, but it would shut a 6pm.

We hurriedly stocked up on provisions at the nearby Woolworths, then drove to the coast. As we neared Yeppoon, I saw a road heading off to Emu Park, which was close to our destination. However as we drove down it, we became concerned that we weren't passing through the villages marked on the map. Luckily though, it turned out to be a faster route and we arrived at the Coolwaters caravan park just as the owner was in the process of locking up the reception office.

We have a very comfortable cabin with air conditioning, two bedrooms, kitchen and shower room on a very well maintained quiet site. Altogether we covered 724km during the day and travelled further north in a day than we had originally planned for the complete trip. The new plan is to travel in shorter hops back via the coast to Brisbane