mike & rhonda's latest adventure: History Lessons

While driving into Mackay I noticed a sign saying that the Races were being run that day and, after spotting very large racetracks in many small towns along the way in Australia but never any racing going on, I was intrigued. We pulled into the Mackay Turf Club in the late afternoon to find that there were two races left on the card. They had a small grandstand with less then two hundred people watching but the races were also being simulcast to a much larger betting audience. Both horses that I bet on crossed the finish line first but since they were all running the wrong way around the track I wasn't sure if my horses came first or finished dead last......they cashed my tickets though so our 45 minute sidetrack resulted in a quick $100 profit. Watching the horses run clockwise around the track also helped me understand better why one of our previously owned Ponytrail Stables standardbreds, born Down Under, never mastered the North American system of running counter-clockwise around the racetrack. We must feed them the same though.....our horse didn't have any trouble in that regard (as we noticed on our monthly bill).

The next day we continued driving south to Rockhampton, Australia's beef capitol (still no match for Alberta), and accidentally returned to a Caravan Park that we didn't like the first time through when we were heading north. Our memories clicked in as soon as we had paid for a site and drove past the front gate. Perhaps we are not as sharp as we used to be. In any event, our reason for stopping was to take advantage of the many activities taking place the next morning celebrating ANZAC Day which is their version of Remembrance Day for us. The Parade and Civic Service by the riverfront were attended by many of the locals. April 25^th was selected to honour the 35,000 Australian and New Zealand forces that perished while trying to land on the beaches of Galipoli in Turkey, similar to our Normandy experience. The surviving veterans of the older wars (WWII, Korean, Vietnam) are shrinking but their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were part of the parade wearing medals earned by their forebearers. It was a good time to pause and reflect how fortunate we have been in our lives to have not had to make those difficult decisions.

With almost all of the businesses closed for the day, and in every other town and city, we decided to drive several hundred kilometres inland to visit Carnarvon National Park which we had heard many good things about. The 15 km hike that we did was exceptional. The main trail followed the creek at the bottom of the gorge with 7 different rock-hop crossings and white cliff walls above us. There was plenty of vegetation around us providing much appreciated shade on a sunny 25C day. We made side trips to the Art Gallery (over 2,000 Aboriginal engravings, stencils and paintings on the rock walls), Ward's Canyon (world's largest ferns and amazing stream colours caused by oxidization), the Amphitheatre (a 60 metre deep chamber carved by water with towering stone walls) and the Moss Garden (water from the top of the canyon seeping through the sandstone and dripping off the moss-laden walls). Ranger Fred, an Aboriginal descendant, filled us in on the meanings of the canyon wall art and the stories it told about his ancestors. Together with the superb views, it made the long drive from the coast well worth the effort.

We are now back on the east coast in Hervey Bay. It was raining on our previous visit so we postponed our two day trip over to sandy Fraser Island which we will embark upon tomorrow.