After a relaxing start and latish breakfast we drove into Rockhampton from Yeppoon. It’s a city which lies slightly inland on the Fitzroy River and straddles the Tropic of Capricorn. Here are two photos of us showing that south of the Tropic it is a temperate zone and north of it you’re obviously in a tropical zone.

Whilst there we popped into the Tourist Information for a few ideas of how to spend the day in Rockhampton once we had been to a nearby caravan supply shop to grab a few things.

From there we drove to the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens. First up we found a spot to eat our picnic lunch we had prepared. This was in an area shaded by massive fig trees and their root systems.

After finishing lunch we followed a trail through a collection of fruiting trees.

At the end of the trail we backtracked a bit, taking a shortcut across a lawn, to reach the peaceful Japanese Garden.

Rockhampton has a small zoo next door but we preferred to begin our drive back towards Yeppoon so we could visit the nearby Mt Archer National Park. It was a winding road up to the main carpark. First up we walked along the Nurim Circuit Elevated Boardwalk.

Different points along the boardwalk offers us views in many directions. To the north we could see a many layered landscape of small hills and mountains in the distance.

Closer in to the west was this exclusive bunch of houses which would have 270 degree views high above Rockhampton below.

As we continued along the boardwalk we had views over Rockhampton, with the Fitzroy River winding its way through the landscape.

The circuit brought us back to the carpark area. Passing through the carpark brought us to another short walk to the Grasstree Lookout. As you can see it was aptly named as we passed many grasstrees.

Here’s the view back to the east from the lookout point.

On our return to the carpark we headed back to our caravan, stopping in Yeppoon for a few supplies to have an enjoyable barbecue dinner.