BACK TO THE CAPRICORN COAST AGAIN...

I have a good friend who loves plants and was keen to come on one of my many outings to the coast, so I decided to see if she was free on Monday as this would be the last chance I get to go down that way for a while as we are planning to head off on a little caravaning adventure ourselves in the next few weeks..

Our plan was to check out a nursery down at Yeppoon, and then have morning tea and lunch somewhere else on the coast...

My friend Eleonore was keen to come again also and in the end, Marg asked if she could also invite her sister Coral to come along also...

We got away around 9.30am, and the weather in Rocky wasn't the best,  quite blustery, overcast and even a sprinkle of rain, but we set off anyway...

By the time we got to the coast, the sun was out and it was a beautiful day even if it was still a little windy...

Our first stop was at "Picko's" Nursery in Yeppoon.  I had heard good things about this nursery and their facebook page always looks interesting.  

situated right in the shopping heart of Yeppoon...

Even from the outside, this nursery was a blaze of colour....

It is no where near as big as some of the nurseries we have visited recently, but they do have quite a good variety of flowering plants for the garden.  They also have some lovely and unusual garden pots and decorations....

 

  I could have been tempted to buy so many lovely colourful plants...

Eleonore admiring this beautiful hanging plant...

They also had many stunning water features...

Just loved the colour of this plant.... such a happy plant...

After having a good wander around the front of the nursery, we went inside where there were some lovely home and garden decorating ideas.  Lots of lovely pots and statues and ornaments, although some were quite expensive....

They also had a resident cat who was quite happy to sit on the counter and size up all of those that entered... He was very laid back...

This cat had made himself at home on the counter

Loved this and thought is would made a great wall piece in our outdoor entertainment area...

 

Eleonore admiring another one of their lovely water features...

They had some quite large garden displays out the back so we made our way out there and admired may of the beautiful ornamental plants they had for sale, often photographing the names of plants we liked for future reference.  

I am not to keen to plant many more plants this year as we are coming into the heat of summer and I am keen to see how my garden survives before spending too much more on plants.  Also we plan to be away on and off over the next couple of months so we are relying on a friend to keep our gardens alive.  I don't want to overload him too much gardening either...

 

Marg and Coral admiring all the beautiful orchids..

 

Eleonore and I loved all the beautiful tropical hibiscus that were flowering...

Eleonore and I

 

 

 Right at the back of the nursery was a beautiful built in water feature and they had a massive Hippo garden ornament sitting down amongst it...  Definitely photo worthy..

Marg enjoying a lovely water feature at the back of the nursery..

Bit wide jaw..

One of those big things...

WE would have spent a good hour and a half wandering around this nursery.  So much to do and see and even just appreciate...

 

So much bee activity amongst the plants.

We headed out of the nursery by walking down the left side of the building where we found yet more ornaments and pots along with a beautiful selection of rose bushes... As yet they were not flowering but they did look very healthy..

Large selection of rose bushes

It was after 11am by the time we left so felt it was time to think about getting a nice hot drink somewhere.  We were also keen to check out a lot of the beautiful Street art along the Capricorn coast and what better place to start was a little arcade in Yeppoon where street art abounds along with the Yeppoon Town Car Park, so we made our way there first..

The Capricorn Coast has so much Street Art and more is being added all the time...

We first explored the little alley way between the Yeppoon Town Car Park and Chapter's Coffee Bar and found these quirkly little pieces.  My favourite piece here was found in the stair well to the car park..

My favourite here was found in the Stair well to the carpark..

 

 

Loved this one also of the cockatoo looking upside down

From here we wandered through the actual car park photographing all that we could find.  Mostly the art in here were marine life scenes except for a couple... the dog in the pram and some bird life along one of the bigger walls...

This one was not a painting but more of a beaded curtain depicting a bugle.

 

Busby Marou

 

The rest of the murals under the car park were of marine life... all very well done..

Eleonore and Coral in front of the majestic mural at the entrance to the carpark..

From here we wandered into "Chapter's"to grab a coffee and hot chocolate each.  We had planned on sitting and enjoying it here but due to Covid Restrictions they were not allowing people to sit at tables, but rather just stand... We decided to take our coffee with us...

Ordering our drinks..

There is so much more art work to see around Yeppoon..

The Kraken on Barry Street Yeppoon..

Pie Alley

Near the "Two Sister's Coffee Bar" in Yeppoon

This magnificent piece is in the  Vue Wine Bar & Restaurant.

Then if your wander around the Surf Club in Yeppoon  you come across these great pieces...

The Keppel Bay Sailing Club has also been given a new lease of life with art work adorning it's exterior also...

Across from the Keppel Bay Sailing Club, the toilet block near the Children''s playground has also been decorated with scenes from the district.

Ladies Toilet Block

 

Men's toilets..

By now we were getting pretty hungry and decided to head to the Mariner at Roslyn Bar for lunch.  

As we drove past the Yeppoon Information Centre we admired yet another one  of the murals which is painted on the side of the building... This one also depicts the lifestyle of living on the Capricorn Coast...

The Yeppoon Information Centre

 

Eleonore and I had previously stopped by there the last time we were on the coast and it was pretty busy so we figured the food must be good.  We decided to pay a visit to the Waterfront Restaurant and see if we could get a table by the water there....

Waterfront Restaurant at Roslyn Bay..

 

 Again we were out of luck as they were full and we would have to wait a good hour or more before we could be seated so we decided instead to head to Emu Park and have lunch at a lovely little restaurant called "Jolt".

A couple of us needed a toilet stop so went we drop past Kemp Beach and saw the lovely painted (more street art) toilet blocks here we decided to stop, pay a visit to the loo, and also take some more photos..

 

 What started out as a bit of a miserable day when we left home had turned into a lovely day and we took some time out to enjoy the views of the islands from Kemp Beach...

Kemp Beach

 

We continued our trip along the coast until we came to some more of the beautiful art on the next set of amenitities block.  Whilst none of us needed to go, we still decided to stop and take some photos of the art work here also...

Marg capturing the artwork...

Beautiful scene of a grandfather and his grandson fishing..

wind go carts on the beach

By now it was close to 1pm and we still weren't quite at Emu Park...

We were all feeling quite peckish and keen to get to the restaurant for lunch.  "Jolt" was also quite busy with all the outside tables full and only a couple of inside tables available...

We enjoyed our lunch... They had a good selection of specials... meals that were only $10.  A couple of the girls ordered the fish and chips with salad,  I ordered the Pumpkin and Feta Quiche with chips and Salad, and Coral ordered a burger.  It was huge.  Good thing I didn't order it as I would never have gotten through it...

Eleonore, Coral and Marg enjoying Lunch

My lunch...

The four of us at lunch...

After lunch we headed for a walk down the main street in Emu Park.  Coral was keen to check out Vinnie's and Marg and I wanted to head down and photograph the stunning street art on the Post Office Wall.

Emu Park Street Art

I love Emu Park,  still the sleepy little coastal village but with so much to offer....

I love coming down here for holidays.  So many wonderful uncrowded beaches and the views from the beach are stunning with islands dotted out as far as the horizon..  

Saw this and would have loved to have got if for my grandson in Denmark...

If I knew we were able to travel again next month, I would have splurged out and bought this for Theo... The hard bit is not knowing when we will see them again and what size he will be then..

We still had another good half hour or more before we needed to head home so decided to take a drive up to the Singing Ship and then do the Century of ANZACS walk along the coastline.  This i one of my very favourite walks and I never ger tired of coming down here and admiring the views or reading about our ANZACS..

 

 

We had just enough time to have a quick bite of afternoon tea and a loo stop again before we needed to head home....  I had bought a jelly slice before leaving town thinking we could boil the kettle and ahve morning tea somewhere.  We were too busy exploring this morning to do that so I wanted to make sure it was gone now rather than me take it back home again....

Enjoying afternoon tea down by the beach...

A little dechadent -  Jelly slice...

Time for a quick loo visit, and some more photos of the lovely street art on the public toilets at Emu Park near the Suf Lifesaving Club.  

It was 2.20pm and as I needed to be home at our place by 3.30pm we decided it was time to head home... We have had a great day.  

On the way home Coral was asking us about "St Christopher's Chapel".  This Chapel is just off the Emu Park Road so on our way home we detoured to check it out.  It has been a long time since I had been there.... In the early years we were in Rocky, we went to several weddings which were held out there but it is probably 20 years now since I had been in to check it out...

St Christopher's Chapel was erected by American servicemen in 1943, tat Nerimbera and is an important piece of Central Queensland history. The Chapel was heritage listed in October of 1992.

Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers


, is an appropriate namesake for the little bush chapel at Nerimbera, which was built by American servicemen during WWII.  It was constructed from locally found stone and bush timber by the 41st Ship and Shore Division and served as a non-denominational place of worship for soldiers far from home seeking spiritual comfort. 

St Christopher's Chapel - Nerimbra..

 When the war ended, many people in the Central Queensland area were ready to move on from wartime memories and St Christopher’s Chapel fell into a lot of disrepair. In 1947, Henry Beak,  a third generation Central Queenslander and owner of the property neighbouring the chapel, began to personally care for the site. “It was a little while after the war before people started realising it was unique, and his wife's family, in particular her father, spent a lot of time trying to coerce people into looking after the chapel and maintaining it.” 

 

 The entrance to the chapel is via commemorative metal gates and arch, with the name SAINT CHRISTOPHERS CHAPEL outlined in large metal lettering, fronting a parking area off St Christopher's Chapel Road. Similar gates are located at the southern end of the site. The entrance path is lined by a number of commemorative plaques fixed to stone cairns, and garden beds with stone borders are located adjacent. The site also includes many trees scattered around the vicinity of the chapel.

 

Erected 1943

 The single storeyed open-sided chapel has a concrete base, and is constructed of undressed timber posts and beams supporting king post trusses with struts and a ribbed metal gable roof. The chapel is open at the front and to both sides, with a low random rubble stone wall to the perimeter. The low stone wall has a central opening at the front, and returns either side of concrete steps which provide access to the chapel from the entrance path. The gable end has fibrous cement sheeting with timber battens, and a cross of undressed timber at the apex. The entrance is flanked by two marble plaques; the southern plaque commemorates the maintenance of the chapel by the Returned Services League of Australia, and the northern plaque commemorates the erection of the chapel in 1943 by the United States 542nd Special Engineer Regiment.

The chapel has a wide centre aisle with timber pews to either side. The struts to alternate roof trusses have been painted in red, white and blue, and the Australian and American coat of arms are depicted on panels fixed to the roof truss above the altar rails. Timber planks displaying American servicemen's athletic records have been attached to the upper section of both sides of the chapel.

The rear of the structure has a raised platform separated from the body of the chapel by timber altar rails. A random rubble stone wall to the underside of the roof trusses creates a recessed central altar with a door to either side accessing rear side rooms. The altar has a central rose window consisting of coloured glass in a fretwork frame, below which is a large shelf surmounting a marble cross set in the stone wall. A free-standing random rubble pulpit is located at the southern side of the altar. The rear side rooms are enclosed with fibrous cement sheeting, and each has a sash window at the rear and a door opening onto a recessed porch behind the altar. The northern room contains a commemorative plaque fixed to the side wall.

After having stopped here to check out the chapel, it meant that I really had to fly as this stop was going to make me a little late getting home to Steve.  We had a appointment at 4pm so I really couldn't afford to be late...

It was a great day with all of these ladies and I am looking forward to doing it again soon..