Day Six - Rockhampton to Sarina

Rather than look around town hoping we'd be lucky and find a good spot for brekkie, we decided to go back to The Coffee Club. The young man who served us yesterday remembered us, and even asked how yesterday's photography went. He had recommended the Mt Archer Lookout but I had to tell him I hadn't quite managed to get there after going to Mt Morgan and the Rockhampton Heritage Park.

We have been seeing lots of wedgies (read: wedge-tail eagles) on the drive so far - but none where I have felt comfortable enough to pull over and take photographs. That will happen along the trip somewhere - probably on the way to or from Charters Towers. Hopefully the specimens out that way will be as magnificent as the ones we've seen so far.

We are being avid ABC listeners - on the Mt Morgan day we listened to a spider expert talking about jumping spiders, and we've heard about Fat Bears, and also about the rat plague in parts of Queensland which are leading to the decline in numbers of ... alas, yes, wedgies. They apparently swoop down to hunt rats and get hit by cars. It is a huge problem - as is the rat plague. I remember a few years ago there was a mouse plague - I don't know which is preferable - probably neither.

Our lunch stop today was at Carmila - and we did stop there because we were thinking of the Royals. The pub had been advertising for some kilometres on the way into 'town' (how big does a place have to be to be called a town?) - and we decided to give it a go - until we saw that we would have been the only ones there. Who would have thought the service station 'restaurant' could be a better option. It certainly was busier and looked open - and we enjoyed the sandwiches and milk shakes.

I had booked us in to the Sarina Beach Motel for the night. I admit it, I was swayed by the picture of the beach on their website - and we were thrilled when the view from our room looked just like it! We loved the chairs positioned near the beach. We're still trying to work out whether the coconuts peppered over the lawn had been left where they fell or were placed there as a warning. We'd packed my fold-up table and I set it out on the patio so I could sit out there and listen to and watch the ocean while I did some transcription typing.

Dinner was at The Palms - across the road from the motel. It had a bar and on the cocktail menu was ... Long Island Iced Tea. I had one with my dinner - and I can now tick it off my 'to do' list. It was good but I'm not sure I would want to partake often. But I did sleep well - and was fast asleep before Luke Nguyen had left Bangalore on his new India series.

Sooz did hear the sounds of the ocean throughout the night - we ended up sleeping with the door open so we would be able to hear it. I didn't - thanks to the Long Island Iced Tea - did someone say 'strong'?