We got away from Rules Beach before 9am and set off towards Yeppoon some 270km away.

At Miriam Vale, population 500, we had to stop at the train lines for the City of Maryborough train to make a quick stop at Miriam Vale station before continuing on through the intersection. There was a sign on the pub that said ‘Our town is so small we don’t have a town drunk, so we take it in turns’. Katie pulled into the Lions Park to use the dump point.

We rejoined the A1 Bruce Highway at Miriam Vale. As it is still Qld school holidays there were lots of RV’s on the road. Quite a few were parked up in the Lions Park in Miriam Vale, probably having some morning tea.

We’d booked into Elysium Retreat & Stays for two nights which is a 10 minute drive inland from Yeppoon. I was excited to be setting off and travelling on roads I’d never been on before.

What a lovely surprise was Gladstone. Gladstone parks & gardens department must have a huge budget. The town is gorgeous with lovely manicured lawns and gorgeous gardens. I didn’t really know much about Gladstone but after our quick visit it is somewhere I would definitely go back to for a further look around.

Gladstone has a population of around 45,000 people and is home to Queenslands largest multi-commodity shipping port and is the fifth largest in Australia.

We drove down towards the boat harbour and found the Visitors Centre. The lady there recommended we drive around the boat harbour to the other side and we would be on a little spit of land between the boat harbour and the coal terminal with views across to the islands and the aluminium terminal.

The Gladstone area is known for coal mines and the coal export terminal is the fourth largest in the world. There was a huge ship at the terminal and some huge tug boats waiting to go out to sea to guide the huge ships in. 50 million tonnes of coal pass through each year.

The Gladstone aluminium smelter is further down the harbour. A fellow in the visitors centre told us 2 tonnes of bauxite makes one tonne of alumina powder and then 2 tonnes of alumina powder makes 1 tonne of aluminium.

We stopped for a bite to eat in the lovely park before heading back out of town.

We passed by a huge power station. The NRG Gladstone Power Station is Queenslands largest power station with six coal-fired turbines. Power has been generated there since 1976. It is jointly owned by Rio Tinto, NRG Energy and others.

We crossed the wide Calliope River and its anabranch with mudflats and mangroves. The kids were convinced they saw croc slides in the mud. They might be right.

A little further on we passed the Rio Tinto alumina mine at Yarwun. The highway went under a conveyor belt bridge that takes 3 million tonnes of alumina to the terminal each year. Continuing northwards and at Mount Larson we rejoined the A1 Bruce Highway again.

Our next stop was for fuel and a gas bottle in Rockhampton on the very busy Bruce Highway. Rocky, as the city is known, is home to some 80,000 people and it felt like a big city. Gold was found in the area in the 1850’s and this led to an influx of people seeking their fortune. The Mount Morgan gold mine was one of the most productive mines in the world at the time and the result of this is the many heritage Victorian buildings.

The Central Queensland University has its main campus in Rocky. Agriculture, particularly cattle production, is a dominant industry and this is recognised in the town by seven statues of bulls, known as ‘the Big Bulls’. I managed to get pics of 3 of them!

We were a bit surprised leaving Rocky that the road to Yeppoon was dual lane but pretty soon we came across roadworks where the road was being made dual lane then it dropped down to single lane for the rest of the way.

There were lots of cone shaped hills that looked like they might be remnants of old volcanos. No wonder the grass was so lush in the paddocks that it comes up to the bellies of the cattle. It’s growing in volcanic soil.

We found our way to Elysium Retreat and after checking in, set up camp. We were next to each other again.

I made a big mistake while Rich was backing in to our site and the motorhome ran into a tree branch. It doesn’t look too bad but I think I’ll get up there and put some tape over it in case there’s a hole in the sikaflex. We don’t want water getting in. Will have to get it looked at when we get home. My bad!!

It was still quite warm so we all dressed in our swimwear and headed into Yeppoon to check out the Yeppoon Lagoon. The water was really cold at first but we all enjoyed a swim. It was great to hear the kids laughing and having fun.

As our tour to Great Keppel Island was the next morning we decided to drive out to the harbour and find where we need to be at 8.45am the next morning. We found it with no difficulty and then timed our trip back to camp. It took 20 mins so we need to leave around 8am to make sure we are on time. There’s a large carpark near the wharf where we can leave the car for the day, and it’s free! Even better! Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea is supplied and they have tea, coffee, water and cordial available all day so we really only have to pack our beach wear, towels, hats and sunscreen. Wetsuits and snorkel equipment are also supplied. How exciting! We will be snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef!