Rockhampton and counting...

We are in a place called Rockhampton. We just stayed overnight at and visited the Capricorn Caves just north of here. A woman there is part of some sort of wallaby/kangaroo rescue deal. She had a 3 month old wallaby she was rearing whose mother had been hit by a car. There were tons of pretty tame kangaroos around. The kids loved it.

We stayed in a cabin on the grounds of the cave complex which had two bedrooms, full kitchen, living room with TV (5 whole channels) and couches. It was LUXURY for all of us. We haven't had that much personal space for 3 months. In the morning 8 of the resident kangaroos came by to graze in an open patch across the road from the cabin. Two of them were obviously males and they had a boxing match. It was fun to watch. They poke at each other and balance on their tails and kick each other. They also have an aggressive behaviour which involves scratching their sides. One did it, then the other, then they got right into the kicking.

It seems that every day is a new wildlife adventure for us. I think I mentioned on our first camping night, the niche of the chipmunk was taken by brush turkeys. The night before last we were staying in a place called Rubyvale and the chipmunk niche was filled by a huge flock of Rainbow Lorikeets. They were really beautiful to watch. Alan fed one from his hand (bad boy, encouraging the wildlife like that). Running out of time will explain more later....