Yee Haaarr! Kinka Beach and a rodeo in Rockhampton.

We headed to a place near Rockhampton called Kinka Beach.  On the way we left Daniel a geo cache under a tree on the back roads of a small town.  He would be passing that way in a few days and we hoped he would be able to find Ben’s gift of a drawing, a lollipop and a bag of popcorn.  We sent Ross the GPS coordinates and set them the challenge of locating it.

A present for Daniel.

We left it hidden under this tree.

We had to drive through Rockhampton to get to Kinka Beach and stopped off at the big shopping centre to get a few things.  While we were there Jenny discovered that there was a rodeo on in Rockhampton that night!  We were very excited because we have wanted to see a rodeo since we started the trip but have always arrived in town a week after they’ve been on.  We decided to head to Kinka Beach, set up camp and then drive the 40mins back to ‘Rocky’ that evening.  It was a bit of extra driving but meant that we wouldn’t have to move the van two nights in a row.

The ‘Top Gun Rodeo’ was awesome.  It was held at the Great Western Hotel, which has a rodeo ring out the back.  There were cowboys and cowgirls everywhere – big hats, dusty boots, checked shirts and diamante studded belts aplenty!  We saw horse agility trials, steer riding, bull riding, bucking horses and little kid cowboys on small bucking bulls.  The thing that struck us most was how tough those competitors are. 

Agility time trials.

One of the big bulls.

They get thrown hard and just get up and scramble off.  A few of them got kicked or stood on by the bulls, some got their hands caught in their leather straps and looked like they’d had their elbows or shoulders dislocated and others got mushed against the fence.  They just get up and limp off or stagger away cradling an arm and not one other competitor or official goes over to see if they are ok.  I saw one guy squatting out the back, hunched over in pain as he held an injured arm and about a dozen people all walked around him not even sparing him a look.  We didn’t actually think there were medics in attendance until one guy got bucked off and kicked in the chest.  He didn’t get up and then some St John’s volunteers appeared with a stretcher and carted him off to hospital.  We have a new saying now – cowboy tough.  When Ben hurts himself and we want him to be brave we remind him of the courageous cowboys.

It was a late night and we had a lazy morning the next day.  Kinka Beach is nice and quiet and we went for a walk along the beach. Ben made friends with some people with dogs and then played with their 7yo son. 

Kinka Beach.

We found a whole dead stingray stuck in the mud, complete with barb still in the tail.

The caravan park had a pet emu.

That afternoon we drove through Rosslyn Bay and the Marina before heading to nearby Yeppoon where there was a skate park.

We had a message from Ross, Barb and Daniel to say that they had moved more quickly than they anticipated and were nearly at Yeppoon.  We laughed, accused them of stalking us and told them to meet us at the skate park.  We don’t know why we bother to say goodbye to each other anymore.

Daniel and Ben scooting.

They came back to Kinka Beach with us and stayed the night there.  They had found the geo cache we left them and Ross showed us an app that lists all the different geo caches that people have left all over the country.  The idea is to find it, write your name on the log and then put it back for others to find.

We left Ross, Barb and Daniel (again!) and headed towards the town of 1770.  They were staying in Yeppoon for a couple of days and headed back that way.

We stopped at a geo cache site along the highway and found the hidden tube in the top of a roadside pole. 

Someone had cut the top off the pole and hidden a tube inside.

It was really fun and when we stopped for afternoon tea at a rest area later on, we found another in the frame of a nearby billboard. 

Another find in the billboard frame.

That rest stop was right next to someone’s front yard and we enjoyed looking at their incredible metal sculptures before we set off again.

Awesome metal art.

There were at least a dozen sculptures.