Rockhampton - The Beef Capital

Hey folks,

Continuing from me about our day in the beef capital of Australia: Rockhampton.

Day 23: 09/11/2018

'My' incredibly evil alarm clock rang a little later this morning, as we got up early the day before because of the kangaroos and wanted to sleep in a little. (To explain this in more detail: Julian's 'biggest enemy' rings every morning at a time he set the night before :) His morning self is usually not very happy about it...and then my morning self has the great task of somehow getting Julchen out of bed😊☀️)

Anyway, after a cozy breakfast (which usually consists of muesli with or without fruit, a black tea for me and an instant coffee for Juli), we sat in the car heading to our next destination: Rockhampton. It's a medium-sized city whose main industry is cattle farming, which is why it is better known as the beef capital of Queensland. We drove about four hours over the rough and bumpy Australian roads to the south.

Finally, we arrived at a nice campsite with large and green pitches, where we immediately felt comfortable. During a quick lunch in the form of a potato pan with egg, we were immediately joined by two Australian black ducks hoping for crumbs to fall. There is some kind of bird species searching for food at almost every campsite. The animals are anything but shy and you have to be careful with everything edible.

With a full belly, we headed to a small zoo with native animals just 1.6 km away. As part of a botanical garden, it was free and we were excited to finally see koalas. After spending a long time with the chimpanzees and kangaroos, we came to the little, gray, and fluffy bears. We were lucky that both specimens were awake, as koalas sleep over 20 hours a day. Both lazily sat on a tree trunk and nibbled eucalyptus leaves continuously.

Back at the campsite, we rested a little and then got fancy - we had reserved a table at the 'Great Western Hotel' for dinner. The restaurant belonged to a bull riding arena and we were lucky because that evening there were junior rodeo riding trainings taking place there. We got a table with a good view of the venue and each ordered a Black Angus rump steak, beer from their own brewery, and a cider. A proper guys' night out 😉 Just after we took our seats, it started, a little boy with a cowboy hat cheerfully moderated the attempts of his colleagues to ride the angry bulls. The range was wide. The youngest cowboy, at the age of 10, rode a relaxed pony from a bull through the arena, and older teenagers tried to hold on to completely enraged big bulls. Some of them were really good! Sometimes, the massive animals were simply uncontrollable, and two of the brave cowboys even got injured. I, on the other hand, felt sorry for the cattle that were squeezed into narrow boxes... However, the beef on our plates was incredibly delicious - according to Julian, it was the best steak he had ever eaten. As an old steak connoisseur, I could only agree! ;)

Shortly before the end of the show, we got to meet Bill, the teacher of some of the cowboys. A friendly, plump middle-aged man with a cowboy hat and a green club jacket. Australians are often so unusually friendly and interested that we are always positively surprised after such a scene.

All in all, it was a successful evening with good food and a great show!

As soon as we returned to the campsite, we fell straight into bed. In our retired camping life, we are no longer used to being out so late... :)

Kisses from J&J!