Day 29: Mon 24 Jul 23

Day 29: Mon 24 Jul 23 - Yeppoon

July 24, 2023

Mon 24 Jul 23 - Yeppoon

Weather: Raining, 13 Deg feeling like 10 Deg at 6am and the same all day.

After breakfast I drove into Rockhampton to deliver the Ranger to the Ford dealership for a 60k service. Because it was raining, Noeleene decided to stay behind in Yeppoon. I dropped the car off at 8.45am then set off across the road to Stockland to buy a new rain jacket from Anaconda, and after an early coffee I was on my way walking through the lovely Kershaw Gardens into the city via the old Fitzroy Bridge. Walking along the esplanade past a few groups of drunk indigenous folk (not even 10am yet), who were threatening and abusive was very unsettling. I was the only silly bugger out walking, so they picked on me. No harm done thankfully, I just walked across the road into the museum. It's not good for tourism and I'm surprised they hadn't been rounded up and locked up or moved on. Inside the new gallery building was very nice though, but it was a bad day as the curators were in the midst of changing over exhibitions. Nevertheless, it was nice to look through this lovely new building, and it provided some respite from the rain. Rockhampton has some great old buildings, but the weather today just wasn't playing nice. The city centre also looked a lot more quiet and drab than I remember from previous visits, maybe the rain just made it appear that way. By midday, my tummy was calling for sustenance, so I started walking back towards a Vietnamese Pho restaurant that I found in google maps. After a 3.5km walk back through the rain, I was soon sitting down and tucking into an OK hot Chicken Pho Soup and a pot of Green Tea. The timing was perfect, as by the time I finished, I received a call to say that the car was ready to be collected. Another 2km walk, and I collected the car and was on my way back to Yeppoon by 2.30pm. Despite the rain, I really enjoyed walking through Kershaw Gardens. Today I clocked up a respectable 16km of walking, bringing the total for the past 7 days to 82km. My plans were to drop in for my daily visit to Uncle on the way back into Yeppoon, unfortunately, as I was leaving Rockhampton, I received a message advising that Capricorn Gardens was in lockdown due to an outbreak of COVID. I later found out that 2 staff and 3 residents tested positive - Uncle thankfully was clear. The message read that residents could have one visitor, but when I arrived, I discovered that I would have to dress in full PPE and we would be confined to the room. I called Uncle from the front office and we decided that I would not see him today, rather we'll see how the situation unfolds over the coming days. The risk is, if they have further cases, they could go into full lockdown, and we are leaving in Friday, so I may not see Uncle again. It will be back to daily phone calls for now, such a shame given we're almost at the end of our visit in Yeppoon. Eventually, back at the van, the rain was falling more heavily and the wind also picked up. It was a good night for doing a little more reserve work, catching up on some personal admin and doing the blog. Fingers crossed, the weather clears tomorrow as forecast. We'll wait and see what tomorrow brings, but for now we have no plans.