Rockyview

Was woken the next morning with thunder and lightning and a good rain.  Lynn and Tony left at lunchtime and very excited to be flying off to begin their 2 month holiday.

First job was a trip into Rockhampton to buy a lid for Caravan vent over the shower (bought 2 and replaced both vent lids).  I filled up the bird seed dish and we were entertained by blue-faced honey eaters, red-collared lorikeet, brown-backed honey eaters, magpies, butcherbirds, currawongs to name a few.  Very interesting watching who has the authority to eat undisturbed and found a pair of  lorikeets seemed to be the bosses!

Our house sit had several walking tracks and a view over the valley.

Blue-faced Honey Eaters and Rainbow lorikeets 

The Lorikeets seemed to have control of the food when they were there.

Morning walking track.

We celebrated Helen's birthday late October with a stroll around the Rivernites Markets in Rockhampton, where retail vendors and market stalls, food and live music entertain. The Markets are situated next to the Fitzroy River which enhances the atmosphere. Dined at the Heritage Hotel where we enjoyed dinner outside on a nice balmy evening.

During our stay we went to the Yaamba Lawn Mower Races (see separate blog), ANZAC Walk (see separate blog), Bluff Point (see separate blog).

Heritage Hotel, Rockhampton

Rockhampton Rivernites Markets

I enjoyed walking around the track on the property and kept an eye out for any snakes - certainly noticed a few tracks in the sand but never encountered one.  We enjoyed the view and saw some nice sunsets. I also enjoyed the sunrises and took photos for Helen (too early for her!)

Sunset at the end of the drive.

Sunrise

Unfortunately the countryside is so dry and half way into our house sit we received warnings on the phone for a huge fire near Yeppoon, about 20 km away. Quite scary actually as smoke was quite thick over our area and the winds were very strong.  Terrible devastation resulted from this fire as was the case with many more in southern Qld and NSW.  During the later stages of our stay we encountered very hot daytime temperatures (35 degrees - 39 degrees), had 35 degree plus days for over 2 weeks straight, luckily the home had air conditioning.

Sunrise with the smoke from the fires at Yeppoon crossing through the Valley

We also visited the Rockhampton Heritage Village markets, held every 2 months on a Sunday, where you get a large number of stalls displaying some of the local produce, arts and crafts. Some of the Village displays could be seen, I was intrigued to watch the old machinery used in the Print Shop, printing Christmas cards and memo note pads, certainly an art in the "old days".

Heritage Village Print Shop
This was working printing cards and memo pads during the morning market. 

1926 Buick Roadster
I once owned a 1927 Buick Sedan so this caught my eye.

At the end of November we attended The Caves Festival in the Square and had a great night with various stalls, Lions Clubs providing food (even one from Yeppoon), various raffles with donations helping the community and live entertainment.  Great country community atmosphere which topped off with a visit from Santa on a camel - have not seen that before!

Santa arriving at The Caves Festival in the Square.

Early December I started work as Santa in the Stocklands Shopping Centre in Rockhampton which kept me out of mischief!  After 2 months house sitting we were looking forward to hooking up the van and moving on.  Thank you to Lynn and Tony for allowing us to look after their home - greatly appreciated.

Santa settles into the set at Stocklands Shopping Centre, Rockhampton.