What is worse than hearing the part you need for your windscreen wipers to become operational is not where it should be, at Rockhampton, QLD? No idea? Well, let me tell you – it’s that the part was sent to Bunbury in Western Australia instead! Or maybe, to continue on this theme, it’s that when they tried to order another one, there are no others in Australia and there won’t be any until at least August. What did the spare parts clerk at Nissan Rockhampton suggest to Gaz? That they give him a refund! As he informed her, “that’s not getting me home, is it?!”. The latest on the saga is that Nissan Bunbury have booked the said part with TNT to be flown urgently to Rockhampton. Could we all take a moment, right now, to pray/give good thoughts/ask the universe/whatever it is you do that the part arrives in Rockhampton and is installed in our car with no further incident? Oh, and while you’re at it, maybe ask for favourable weather while we try to drive the 300km or so we still have to go to get to Rockhampton.
OK, now that’s out of the way. It was surprisingly dry today with lots of cloud, a few threatening looking, but only a few brief showers. We headed out to Lake Maraboon, also known as Fairbairn Dam, at about 10am. Stopped there for a while and checked it out, did a reccy at a cute caravan park located on the edge of the lake and then drove the 20 minutes or so back to town.
Wayne, Vicky & Gaz took off in search of coffee, while Kev, Maz & I took a stroll through the lovely Emerald Botanical Gardens. Situated on either side of the Nogoa River, not far from town, they are spread over 46 hectares and have 6km of walking tracks. I didn’t walk that far but did traverse a number of sections that included lots of children’s play areas, exercise stuff, picnic spots and BBQs, a windmill and other random features. Lots of nice trees and flowers, of course. Maz and Kev took off one way and I decided to head back a different way, discovering another river crossing section with a floating footbridge, right next to the old road bridge. All in all, a very pleasant hour or two.
Kev, Maz, Wayne & Vicky hadn’t seen the delights of the mosaics and sunflower painting so we came home via that so they could check it out. Lunch in the cabin, Kev and Vicky took off for golf, (apparently it was very muddy after yesterday’s rain), and I prepared to make, as instructed by Chef Kev, some sweet muffins in the air fryer. I whipped up some Banana & Raspberry Muffins using the Roma shot glass as the measuring cup. It worked a treat! They were distributed among the group to great acclaim. (It was during this period of the day that the aforementioned phone calls regarding the windscreen wipers, that will surely be the death of us, took place).
An hour or so to relax, and we were donning our finery to head out for dinner on this, our last night in Emerald. A very pleasant meal at a local pub was followed by coffee at our cabin and we played our second round of Smart Ass. Much hilarity, tie breakers, Kev making up the rules as he goes, and we managed to kill another hour or so in enjoyable company before we adjourned to our respective abodes to pack for our next adventure … tomorrow, Yeppoon (if it doesn’t rain too hard).
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