Rockhampton

After the rest day, I checked out of the cabin and hit Rocky for a bit of sightseeing.

The day before I'd gone to the Visitor Info, and when I asked what there was to see in the town and was greeted with a few "ums and ahhs", I wasn't holding out much hope.   But I did find a few things to do in and around town.

The first stop was the Botanic Gardens.  The gardens are spread out over a massive area, and when you have a tropical climate it would appear possible to grow just about anything (the only thing they might have trouble with would be maintaining a "desert" type garden).  There were japanese gardens, giant strangler figs, rainforest areas and a lagoon.  While I was having coffee at the cafe, a small cute lorikeet landed on my table - "lovely" I thought.  It then started edging it's way closer to my cup and saucer, and finally made a lunge for the empty sugar packet!  They must have learned that even though the packet was empty, there are probably still a few grains left in the bottom.   I just managed snatch it back in time.  It hung around for a little while, but after realising I would relinquish my sugar it flew over to another table to try it's luck with some other patrons.

From here it was on to Archer Park Rail Museum.  Here they have a recreation of an old railway station, along with ghostly white lifesize figures.  They also have working trains, along with a working Steam Tram (yes, Tram) that operates about once a month.   It's the only example of a Steam Tram I've ever seen.

A guy called Russell took me on a personal guided tour of the place, including a tour of the carriages on one of the trains.   He also explained how the "staff" system worked that used physically metal staffs being taken out of a machine and handed to the driver to physically lock certain track connections, to ensure that only one train could be on the tracks at one time.   It was a nearly fool proof system that prevented two trains colliding, except on the odd occassion where the staff was mishandled.

 

Next stop was the Rockhampton Heritage Village.  It was a recreation of a mid 19th century village that would have existed in the area (with a few additional bits here and there, including vintage cars).   It was spread out over a massive area and included blacksmith shop, slab huts, horse drawn carriages, and a newly created hospital exhibit complete with an example of a an Iron Lung and medical equipment from the era.

 Next, and final stop for the day was Capricorn Caves. A bloke names Olsen discoverd these caves a long time ago (precise, hey?) and managed to conceal the caves from the government inspector when he applied to buy the land.   The caves were full of bat guano (poo) which apparently was worth a bit of money, so he employed several people to mine it, on the proviso that they didn't damage the caves.   They mined several metres of the stuff, but after he found out that they'd dynamited a new entrance he sacked them.   Something, something, something .... and then he turned into a tourist attraction.   One of the rooms is called Cathedral Cavern and Olsen had hosted a few weddings down there.   These days they still hold weddings there, and the acoustics are said to be so good that they also host opera performances in the cave.   On the tour to demonstrate the accoustics, the guide turned down the lights and played a rendition of Leondard Cohen's Hallelujah (I think it was Rufus Wainwright) - very moving.

To exit the cave they gave us a choice, we could take the easy way, or we could try to get through the "zig zag" tunnel that the miners had created to get the bat poo out.   I tried the tunnel and it certainly was a tight squeeze, at one point I was down on my knees in some very strange positions trying to get through - how they thought this made it EASIER to get the bat poo out I'll never know!

At the exit of the cave is a suspension bridge that they actually ENCOURAGE people to bounce and swing around on, which one of the tour participants took great delight in doing - luckily after I was safely over the other side.

As mentioned a couple of times, the cave has bat poo.  This poo comes from the tiny Bent Wing bat which is about as big as your thumb.   They are not there all year around, and were just starting to come back to the cave, as the humity was starting to increase.   On the tour we could hear them, but didn't get a good look.

Prior to the tour I'd booked a camp spot and set up the van.   There were only a handful of campers, and since the caves are in the middle of nowhere, it was a really peaceful/quiet place to camp.   The other benefit of camping near the caves was that right on dusk, I got to see some of the bats flying around.

Here's a LINK to quite a few more photos from the Rockhampton sightseeting day.