Australia Day 17 – Aussie Outback
We arrived at Rockhampton around 11 pm and made our way to the hostel. we got there at midnight and there was supposed to be a key waiting for us. There wasn’t. We called the manager and she got there about 15 minutes later anmd got us a room for the night *phew*
When we oke up in the morning we had nothing to do. We had already booked the trip to Airlie beach at midnight so we had one day in rockhampton hich isn’t really a city full of attractions. Then this great thing happened. The manager of the hostel told us that a one day trip to the outback as departing in about one hour and they had spots left! Of course e didn’t have to think long before we signed up for the tour.
This tour turned out to be one of the best days of the entire trip so far. We pretty much drove straight out into the wild from Rockhampton, about 45 minutes or so. Then we just stopped every now and then to get out of the van and see things. We found spiders, snakes, kangaroos, wallabys (kind of like small kangaroos), turtles, scorpions and a lot of cattle. Speaking of snakes, the guide took us to find a couple of spiders which he knew where to find but the coolest of them all was one we found by accident while searching for scorpions; a Red Back, the second most poisionus spider in the world 
The guide, Dave, as a real bushman. He walked around barefoot, grabbing snakes and spriders like he’s done nothing else (he’s been bit by a Red Back twice btw) and his driveing, albeit good but not very careful out in the wild where the roads aren’t roads
We also swam in a creek and had a mud bath while we where at it. This day as just great. we came back to town around 8 pm and after a shower and some grooming we had dinner. I had a 300 gm sirloin steak on a hot stone. You get the meat raw on a stone that is about 400 c and then you cook the meat the way you want it. Good stuff!
We have just arrived to Airlie Beach now and booked a 2 nighter to Whitsundays tomorrow so we’ll just relax here tonight. It’s hot here, and humid, but I’m not complaining. We haven’t seen much of the town yet but my guess is that as soon as we have checked in we are going to the lagoon
