A DAY ON THE CAPRICORN COAST...

My friend Eleonore is on holidays at the moment.....
With all the covid restrictions she has had to remain at home for her holidays this year, so the last couple of Wednesdays we have headed to the Capricorn Coast for a day's outing...

This week we left home around 9.3oam and headed down to Yeppoon where we parked on the beachfront and headed to a little cafe under the Keppel Bay Sailing Club where we picked up a Hot Chocolate and a Coffee 

It was an absolute gorgeous day on the coast... So clear and calm... The ocean was like a mirror and the sky was a brilliant shade a blue with lots of wispy clouds stretched across it... The sun was warm and and it was just a real delight to be outdoors...

Beachfront at Yeppoon

 We went for a walk around to the Yeppoon Lagoon where we found a couple of chairs to sit and enjoy and drinks and just bask in the warm sunshine whilst we listened to the water lap the shore.... Totally relaxing and calming to the soul...

We would have spent a good hour here...

 We had planned to drive from one of the coast today to the other, so once we had finished our drinks and enjoyed the view here, we headed back to the car to continue our journey...
Our next stop was the Roslyn Bay Harbour...
We parked at the base of Double Heads, a rather unique volcanic plug....
Double Heads is part of the Capricorn Coast National Park, which has several walks (mostly uphill) that highlight the amazing geology in this area and also the stunning views of the coastline...

The west peak of Double Heads is an imposing dome 82m above sea level and it overlooks Roslyn Bay....   The western face of this peak exhibits some of the finest exposed columnar jointing to be seen in Queensland.   The eastern peak extends 70m above sea level and contains a well know feature referred to as the “Blowhole’’.

The Blowhole is the result of the inland collapse of the roof of a sea-cave.  The name Blowhole refers to the fact that during storms, spray is forcibly blown into the air each time a breaker surges through the cave beneath.  The Blowhole used to function during times of extreme strong winds from the coastal east, however the top opening is now too large to act as a water spout.  A large slab of the cave roof has caved in and is lying at the bottom of the Blowhole.  “Fan Rock” is located at the side of the cave.  It comprises numerous spectacular hexagonal columns that were form when rock fractured as lava, cooled beneath the volcano.  A rocky tidal platform extends beyond the base of the cliff along the south-western and southern sides of this section of the park. 

Double Heads - Roslyn Bay

Great example of some of the spectacular hexgoanal columns

Another good shot of the spectacular hexagonal columns

A few blokes enjoying a spot of fishing... we didn't see the catch anything...

The coastline is dotted with islands...

a jet soaring across the sky...

Some of the many sea caves...

Abundance of different coloured rock...

Large amounts of fossilized coral on the platform ledge....

Also remains of a fossilized tail...

 We didn't have time to do the walk to the top of Double Heads today as by now it was almost lunch time.  We did however, promise ourselves that we would come back and do it earlier in the day on another of our jaunts to the Coast...

Instead we decided to go for a wander out on the rocks and explore the tidal platform.  There were a couple of men fishing out there and a couple of woman sitting and having a natter and enjoy the beautiful day also...

It was well and truly lunch time by now so we decided to head through to Emu Park to grab some fish and chips and then head down onto the beach front for lunch....

stunning views of islands off shore

Lunch at Emu Park

Eleonore with her lunch

My lunch

Playground at Emu Park

plenty of ibises around here also,,,

 After lunch we decided to do the Anzac Memorial walk around to the "Singing Ship" This monumental structure which is the gem of the coast celebrates it's 50th year this year....

Anzac Memorial - Emu Park

These poppies are painted on the floor in remembrance of the men who went to war...

The purple poppy is in remembrance of the animals that served in the wars...

The Singing Ship at Emu Park

 The Singing Ship is one of the most iconic landmarks in the Livingstone Shire, and will celebrate its 50th anniversary this Saturday (30 May).

It is set against a spectacular coastal vista of blue seas and Great Keppel Island in the distance, the Singing Ship  is a majestic monument that commemorates the area’s legacy of the historical explorations of Captain James Cook, who sailed into this bay in May 1770.

One of Queensland’s most original works of outdoor public art, the unique design represents the billowing sail, mast and rigging of his ship Endeavour. Over 12 metres in height, its concealed organ pipes use the sea breezes to create the musical sounds.

Overlooking the Capricorn Coast and islands...

Since Cyclone Marcia in 2015, so much money has been spent on the part of the Queensland Coast and it has really been bought to life.... It is now a great destination for traveling tourists especially those with young families..

There is still a little more work planned for the area... last year another stage was completed with the errection of lot of emu's throughout Emu Park, detailing the history of the  area... They are all very interesting to read.... There is now a trail of them through town....

Example of some of the many emus dotted around town detailing the history of the area...

 It was after 2pm when we finished our walk...
We had one more visit to make and that was to call in and see our mutual friend Ann who lives at Zilzie, where we enjoyed spending a couple of hours with both her and her husband over afternoon tea.....

She was so happy to see us... Ann is quite a social person and when they lived in town, would often have people just drop in....  she misses that now that they have move to the beach so she welcomed us with open arms....

We left her place around 4pm to head back into town.  We had a good run in with little traffic.  We did stop at Doblo's Fruit and Vegetable Market on our way home and stocked up on some fresh fruit and vegetables straight from the farm...

I dropped Eleonore home and then headed to Woolworths to pick up a chook for dinner and was greeted by the most amazing sunset as I came out of the centre...

Sunset from the shopping centre carpark...

 As I drove up the hill towards home, the whole sky was ablaze with colour... It really looked like the whole sky was on fire....

The sky looked like it was on fire.....

 There was no way I could head home with a sunset like this....
I took off to head towards our sunset viewing hill overlooking Jardine Park and the airport to take in all it's splendour... It truly was magnificent...

Whilst there I met a man from Western Australia who was there photographing it to send home to his family.  He felt it was magical to see it set over the mountains and to see the mountain and tree silhouettes... To him it was breathtaking beautiful as they are only used to seeing it set over the ocean..

I did share with him has majestic we thought Western Australian sunsets were and how that when we were there, we couldn't get enough of them and you would find us most days just sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying them...

It was quite a magical end to a perfect day.....