Today has been a delightful day. Yeah, the temperature was 23 degrees again, the sun was shining and we walked on the beach with our dog. People are friendly here on the Capricorn Coast. We are in our last week up here and so it was good to see a few unexpected sights.

As we drove along the road we came across a letter box that was just begging to be photographed. Earlier on this trip I did a segment on letter boxes and this pic is just had to be included.

We spent a few hours at the Rockhampton Botanical gardens. They were established in the mid 1800s and have included some pics. The lake has turtles and ducks competing for scraps of bread. I have included a few pics of the gardens. I was impressed by the many varieties of Bamboo on display.

Within the gardens is a German WW1 Howitzer. This forms part of a war memorial. This is now the second German made artillery piece that I have come across in this ex British colony.  I am curious how these guns have ended up miles from the battle fields of Europe. The local Kiosk provided some excellent scones and tea.

When we left the park this afternoon for our beach walk we saw new campers with a beautiful Airedale Terrier dog. The context is that our 3 boys grew up with one of these wonderful animals. We got the dog, then a Siamese cat and then 3 boys. I moved house before the menagerie got any bigger. Look at the pics, you’ll understand. So the pics are for my 3 boys.

Yesterday a pink Hotrod (The Pink Peril) moved into the park with a retro caravan in tow. Just had to share the pics.

Our caravan

Byron Bay these days is over commercialized and this has spoilt the feel of this once great place. The charm of previous years has largely evaporated. You have to pay even to park at the beach. Looks like the demon of greed and money has beaten the spirit of Chill Out. The big shark that hangs around the surfing spots and eats a surfer every 3 months is not helping the appeal of the town either. Having said that, the caravan park was great and provided access to the beach.

Whilst Dawn was having her pampering I went to scout out Brunswick Heads, a village just up the coast. This was a pleasant surprise! It reminded me of the surfing towns of old. Relaxed, nice cafes and reasonably priced. There is a river running through the town into the sea with plenty of fishing and surfing to be had. There is a surf lifesaving club with good facilities and showers for the public for when they come off the beach. They even have free camping in the reserve.

We left our caravan at Beaches caravan park whilst we went to visit our son at Gold Coast. We were able to stay with him and had some good family time. Needless to say, mother spoilt her boy. He cooked both evening meals. Turns out he is quite a good cook; certainly better than his dad. On the last day we visited some friends from back home (Trentham) that were also staying at Gold Coast. We had some good time together before returning to Byron Bay for the evening.