Zelma’s Trip

Before I left Agnes Water the girl on reception booked a room for me in a hostel in Rockhampton.  The only problem with this is that I promptly forgot the name of the hostel and, by the point in time when I had realised this might be a valuable piece of information, her shift had finished.  Another member of staff suggested that it might be “Ascot hotel” so I hoped for the best.  When I arrived in Rockhampton I got a taxi to the hostel.  I had been told that I could collect the key from the bar downstairs but when the taxi dropped me off the bar was closed.  As I walked around the building I found a security guard who made a few phone  calls and was later able to let me into the hostel.  Prior to this point the taxi driver came and found me and told me that he was unable to leave a foreign woman in the area at this time of night due to the high crime rate which was, erm, nice.  So I eventually got into the hostel and knocked on the door of room ten as I had been instructed and there was no answer.  Fortunately two guys in the hostel said there were two free dorm beds in their room so I ended up staying in there.  See, this is why I don’t bother booking places!

The following day I went and got some food and when I got back to the hostel Robby, one of the workers, pointed out that a couple were sharing a taxi to the botanical gardens and zoo so I went with them.  The place was actually very cool and in a lovely spot.  It was free admission and the gardens were tranquil and beautiful.  Amongst other animals, which you see all over Australia in the wild (cynic…moi? surely not), there were koalas in the zoo which excited me as they were the first I had seen.  Koalas have always intrigued me and do even more now that I have learned that they are stoned all the time.  Seriously, it’s something to do with the eucalyptus they eat which has a completely dopey effect on them.  That’s the reason they always look smiley, rarely move far and sleep all the time.  It’s also apparently the reason that they often wee on people who pick them up at the “hold a koala” type places you can visit.  Now when you hold koalas you are given fetching aprons to wear.

Anyway, so I gawped at koalas and walked through nice gardens before going back to the hostel for the evening.  I actually really like the Ascot as it’s more like a house with a central television lounge which suited me down to the ground with all the olympics being on.  I sat and chatted to an English girl in the lounge, watched the olympics and headed to bed.

On the Monday I decided to head to the shopping centre which was a short walk from the hostel.  I bought essentials, like new replacement silver hoop earrings which I then lost (again) within about twelve hours and washing type stuff.  Back at the hostel I got talking to an Irish guy called Mickey (or Squidge!) and we were later joined by Lochie from Australia.  Lochie took us out to rent more Playstation games and, unfortunately, to purchase goon.  The evening was spent watching the olympics, playing Playstation and drinking too much goon.  One thing worth highlighting here is Sarah Claxton’s amazing achievement in qualyfying for the final of the hurdles.  I used to compete against her at school, although compete is perhaps not the right word as I never offered much competition.  When she was in the race we were only competing for second and third place to be fair.

On Tuesday I again looked into possible route options and decided that the best plan was to head North and then try to get a standby car from Cairns to Sydney.  I’m not sure if they have the same thing at home but you are able here to get cheap to free deals where you collect cars for hire companies and drop them off for the next rental.  I also ventured out to get a Hungry Jacks.  Actually that’s one of the odd differences here.  Basically Hungry Jacks is Burger King but when they set up the franchise here there was already someone using the “Burger King” name.  By the time that Hungy Jacks bought the Burger King name, everyone was used to it being called Hungry Jacks, didn’t go to Burger King and they ended up changing the name back, apparently.  Lockie took me to a nice park to eat the Hungry Jacks and also to Subway to buy the biggest Coke in the World which rocked.

In the evening I filled up on more olympic action before an early night.  It’s now Wednesday and I have booked a car which needs to be collected in Airlie beach and dropped off in Cairns.  Well when I say I’ve booked it, there’s no confirmation email as yet and I am unsure as to whether or not to book my bus there as, if it’s not booked, I don’t really want to end up staying in Airlie again and being roped into the obligatory hedonism on offer.  I guess I could always call them back eh?

Later in the evening I went back to the hostel and Lochie drove me around the town including to a lookout point where you could see right down over the town.  It was amazing with sparkly lights everywhere.  He then kindly took me to the place where I was to get yet another dreaded overnight bus.