On Sunday morning, after leaving Hervey Bay and our short stop in Bundaberg, we drove north toward our next lodging arrangements in Yeppoon (northeast of Rockhampton) on Australia’s Capricorn Coast.  The drive was quite similar to those in our previous days Two lane roads, lots of green, some times flat, and some times hilly.

As we got hungry for lunch, we found an Information Center which is common in many of the town throughout Australia.  In these offices, you can receive free information on where to eat and what to do in each town.  We found ourselves in the Information Center in Miriam Vale.  Luckily, there was a Main Street only a block away with some lunch options for us.

To start, the Husband ordered a Meat Pie (his first on this trip – something that was highly recommended by his brother) and a Schwepp’s Sasparilla. 

Not wanting to look ridiculous, the Husband double checked how to eat a meat pie.  Should he use a fork and knife or eat it like a burrito?  Burrito it was I had a bite as well and thought it was good.  We’ll be on the lookout for more in future towns!  (The Sasparilla on the other hand – the Husband was not a fan)

I ordered the Fully Loaded Burger – a burger with beetroot (really am loving this stuff!), lettuce, tomato, carrots, fried egg, onions, a little cheese, and bbq sauce.  Quite large but I do like this combination.

The Husband ordered a Crumbed Sausage which turned out to be a breaded hot dog with cheese inside.

After lunch, we actually backtracked a kilometer or so as the Husband had seen a large shoulder on which we could pull off to take some photos with the tripod.

After a few quick shots, we hopped back in the car and returned to my attempts at passenger seat photography

We saw lots of clouds!

And coal trains (luckily we didn’t have to wait at any railroad crossings as these trains were long!)

And before too long (which is relative as we’re now used to driving 5-6 hours per day), we were in Rockhampton, the largest town for many, many hours.  However, we weren’t staying in Rockhampton and continued another 30 minutes northeast.

Driving through Rockhampton, we saw one of many rainbows we’ve seen on this trip – one of the highlights of all of the quick rain showers and following sunshine

Once we arrived at the Capricorn Resort, our lodging for the night, we were quite excited to see our first…

Kangaroos! (unless someone tells us otherwise…) Just hanging out by one of the pools!

We headed to the reception and checked into another nice hotel room.

It was quite large! We found two bedrooms… the main one with the view

And one with two twin beds in the back of the space.

There was both a bathtub and a shower stall.

A nice patio/balcony…

With a great view of the resort pools.  Unfortunately we weren’t going to get a chance to enjoy them since it was late, raining, and we’d be leaving early the next morning.

We think we would have really enjoyed staying at this resort for a longer period during good weather.  There was lots to do including tennis, table tennis, swimming, bocce, mini golf, archery, beach going – just to name a few.   

For dinner, our one night there, we decided to eat at the resort restaurant, Billabong (the only one of three open on a Sunday night).  While expensive, most of the food was very, very good.

On the Husband’s quest to try different beers wherever he goes (if possible), he tried the Victoria Bitter Raw Dry Lager.  Like the other Australian beers thus far, he thought it was fine but not great.

As we’ve mentioned in previous Australian posts, we’ve really taken a liking for what they call Turkish bread.  We decided to get this as an appetizer along with Doukah and olive oil.

We weren’t sure what we were ordering and luckily the waiter explained to us that they are Turkish nuts/seeds to dip the bread into.  They were salty and crunchy and unique.  The Husband really liked it while I thought they were just “interesting???

For my entree, I ordered the Thai Red Curry Chicken.  Wow! We were both very impressed with this dish.  The chicken fell off of the bone and was quite tender.  The sauce was not spicy and just went so well with the chicken and rice.

The Husband ordered the Eye Fillet and roasted potatoes.  It came with a side of mushroom sauce which he enjoyed. About halfway through the drive that day, I knew we’d likely have dessert that night as I had a sweet craving.  I narrowed it down to two options and asked the waiter for his recommendation which turned out to be the one I was leaning toward – Vanilla Bean Cream Brule with Rhubarb Compote. Yum!

The next morning, on our way out of town, heading north to the Whitsunday Islands, we finally had some sunshine and got the opportunity to see the beauty in Yeppoon.  The sun and the water were gorgeous so, even though we planned to not stop at all during the drive, we took a half hour or so to take some photos.  No more commentary here –  just the beauty of the Capricorn Coast See you when we get to Hamilton Island!