Offroad adventure from Rockhampton to Agnes Water

On the evening of June 8th, we went to the rodeo in Rockhampton.

But before that... we discovered a HUGE SPIDER on our windshield. We then identified it as a 'Huntsman' spider. Thankfully, it wasn't a dangerous spider. It likes to bite in defense, but it doesn't harm humans. Still, it's not a pleasant feeling when you sleep in the car. Since Kenny was the driver and the spider was on his door, Krissi had to get out and try to remove the spider with a stick, but the spider was already gone. The question is - where? The imagination knows no bounds...

But we still arrived safely at the Great Western Hotel. :D You can watch the rodeo for free while having dinner there. You don't even have to buy anything, but since we wanted to try the highly recommended steak of the meat capital Rockhampton, Kenny had a steak and Krissi had a burger.

You can always watch the free rodeo on Wednesdays and Fridays. Because of that and because there wasn't really a great atmosphere in the hall, we assume it was something like public training.

Since something went wrong with our table reservation, we ended up sitting with Juliane, another German backpacker.

With some delay, it finally started. It was exciting to watch and from time to time it was really spectacular and there were also some tense situations. It was also impressive that the riders were all under 18 years old.

But our meal had a really unpleasant aftertaste. Bulls don't get agitated on their own. In this case, they had straps around their belly, which presumably pressed uncomfortably or painfully on their internal organs. These straps only loosen when the rider falls off the bull and can no longer tighten the strap.

After this eventful evening, we dared to camp in the wild again and slept right on a side street.

On Saturday, we had to get up early again due to wild camping. We used the early hour to visit the free zoo in Rockhampton. So we could escape the numerous loud children who arrived around noon. It was especially nice that we could witness the kangaroo feeding immediately after our arrival. So the kangaroos were right at the fence to the visitors - only to the two of us - instead of in the farthest corner of the enclosure, as they usually are later in the day. :) There was also an emu in the enclosure with the kangaroos, which suddenly came very close to Kenny during a photo session but was still peaceful.

We also saw a huge crocodile. At first, it was hiding in the dark water, so we couldn't see it. However, Krissi noticed pretty noticeable air bubbles and after a while, the corresponding crocodile appeared. At first, we thought the size was an optical illusion caused by the water - but no, it was really huge.

Then we went to see a lively wombat, which was so curious that it even tried to climb the enclosure wall.

We also saw a small koala, beautiful parrots, and gorillas with a baby. We also witnessed the feeding of the dingoes, they were very wild with excitement.

The zoo is really beautiful and that, even though it is free and funded only by donations. We would always prefer this zoo over the one in Melbourne.

In the afternoon, we had to deal with some bureaucracy for our car. We spent the night at the free BP truck stop in Marmor. It was quite dusty and another backpacker thought she needed to have phone calls all night, but we had a quiet night there. ;)

On Sunday, June 10th, we drove to Gladstone. On the way, we could already see the numerous coal-fired power plants. Our first stop was at the promenade. We walked along the HMAS Gladstone, a warship, and tried our luck with geocaching, but without success. In the heat, we made our way to the Auckland Street Lookout, where we could see the entire bay and the port of Gladstone. The view was definitely worth it. :)

For lunch, we went to the Marina Parklands BBQ Area - a huge lawn right by the river, the entrance to Gladstone Harbor. Afterward, we wanted to visit the public swimming pool, but it was closed due to the season. However, there was a small park across the street where we saw many hungry ducks and turtles.

For dinner, we drove to the beach, to Barney Point Beach. Nearby, we found a spot right by the sea with a view of the illuminated power plants, which looked really great.

On June 11th, we went to the shopping center in Gladstone to take care of some bureaucratic matters. We had lunch in one of the many Lions Parks - a huge playground with an adjacent park and a large pond.

In the afternoon, we continued driving to Tannum Sands in the Canoe Park. This small day use area was located by a pond and had free fitness equipment. It was only a few meters away from the beach. After a long walk on the beach, we encountered what was probably our first real kangaroo in the wild, and it was huge.

We spent the night wild camping next to a kindergarten. We wanted to camouflage ourselves between the parked cars. But it turned out to be a parent's evening or something similar because a little later, all the cars drove away. However, we survived the night undetected.

The next morning, we returned to Canoe Park. We had originally planned to spend the day at the beach. However, we spontaneously decided to drive to the Millenium Esplanade of Tannum Sands and relax on the beach there until noon.

Afterwards, we headed to the Awoonga Lake Dam. There, we enjoyed the view over the huge lake and the dam from three fantastic lookouts.

The next stop was Pikes Crossing Swimminghole. There were many ropes tied to trees for jumping into the water. However, since it was already late in the afternoon and a bit chilly, and we didn't know what we would encounter in the water, we decided to just climb around the trees.

We spent the night at Boyne River Rest Area. Right on the Bruce Highway and as the name suggests, by the river. The property was adorned with numerous metal figures. On our way to the riverbank, we somehow ended up in the cows' enclosure, but fortunately, they weren't really interested in us.

Krissi started June 13th with a delicious and still warm cinnamon donut and a good coffee 'Flat White' from the Retro Café cart, which is stationed at this rest area every day.

The first destination of the day was Turkey Beach. From there, we wanted to off-road to a campsite in the adjacent national park. On the way, we saw a huge iguana feasting on a dead wallaby by the roadside. When we approached, it quickly disappeared into the bushes.

Arriving in Turkey Beach, we saw numerous wallabies relaxing on a clearing by the roadside. Unfortunately, the beach was a bit disappointing. The noodles for lunch were also rather mushy than al dente due to the wind. :(

We spent the rest of the day in the Eurimbula National Park. We drove on an extreme off-road road to our campsite for the night. Huge potholes and puddles, broken sections of road, deep sand, and two shallow river crossings marked our way. It took us a whopping 2.5 hours to cover the approximately 25 km instead of the 1 hour calculated by Google. Maybe we should have paid more attention to the 'Closed Road' signs, but once you've come so far, you don't want to turn back. Some big branches met our underbody and paint. Occasionally, we slid into deep holes, but our 4WD car effortlessly mastered everything. Sandy sections also posed no problems. Apart from the fact that our car now rattles a bit more, probably due to the shock absorbers, it has mastered all the challenges with flying colors. Fortunately, we chose an SUV, otherwise, we would never have had such an adventure and access to our next beautiful campsite ;)

When we arrived at Middle Creek Camp right by the sea, we were rewarded for the exhausting but fun journey with a great sunset and super nice Australian campers. They had come in a large group for 1 week of fishing and crabbing. Bruce and Meg greeted us warmly and were ready for a chat and explanations about crabbing.

They put nets with bait in the sea overnight, and the crabs crawl into the nets and can't get out anymore. They also told us about a friend of theirs who unfortunately found 4 dead wild pigs in his net some time ago. Apparently, at low tide, they crawled into the net and couldn't escape the tide.

Krissi started the cloudy :( day with a great view of the sea and the Australians retrieving their nets. Each net had a huge crab in it. During better seasons, you can apparently catch up to 6 crabs with one net. We watched them tie up the crabs so they couldn't defend themselves with their claws anymore. If one of them catches you, your finger can quickly be broken or even severed. It was impressive, but we really felt sorry for the poor crabs.

The road back was also off-road, but in much better condition, so we quickly arrived in Agnes Water. We briefly stopped at the beach, where we watched some surf students making their first attempts. However, we didn't go into the water due to the weather. We used the BBQ area in Jeffery Memorial Park and then headed to our next campsite.

The Horizons Kangaroo Sanctuary takes care of injured kangaroos. When we arrived, they were lazily lying around everywhere. At half past three in the afternoon, we were able to feed them sweet potatoes. Among them were kangaroos of all ages. Naturally, the moms with their babies in the pouch or the just 'hatched' 12-month-olds were particularly cute.

By the way, the camp also has numerous peacocks and very tame parrots.

We'll see which animals will visit us tonight. ;)