Ekka

The Ekka is Queenslands State Fair.  This poor Aussie didn't
get to see much of it though.

There were lots of baby lambs...

little goats...

and baby chicks - or chooks.

This is our friend Alan Tibbits.  He and wife Helen live south in Jimboomba.    He cooks for all the workers at the baby animal exhibit for the two weeks of Ekka.   Lucky workers!

This is how you eat bar-b-que ribs without a knife and fork.

We watched big Toyota Heilx trucks go all the way around the
track on two wheels.

And saw motorcycles fly through the air.

Then came the fireworks!!!  Really cool!
The End

We stopped in Rockhampton on the coast for a couple of days. This is called the Singing Ship.

Rocky is the beef capitol of Queensland.  So Elder Adams asked where he could get a good steak.  We were told that the Great Western Hotel has two for one on Wednesday nights.  Plus there was practice bull riding in the arena behind the hotel.  So for $26, he got steak and I got barramunda and we watched the bull riding.

This bull didn't like his rider very much so he got rid of him fast.

Then it was on to Emerald.  This is the train station built in 1900.  It was while they were surveying for the railroad in the 1800's that they started finding sapphires on the ground.  Volcanic action had brought stones to the surface millions of years ago.

They used to grow sunflowers in Emerald for the oil.  So this giant
painting is in the town park.

The actual gem fest was outside of Emerald in the little town of Anikie.

This is Poppy's Cafe in Rubyvale.  We had scones and hot chocolate for breakfast.  Yum!

Paul even shared some of his scone with a lorikeet.

We went down into the Heritage Mine.  It used to be a working
sapphire mine but is now used for tours.  Sapphires come in every color
of the rainbow, not just blue.

The light is shining on a stone in the "wash".  That is the flow that
contains the gemstones, with granite below and clay above.

This is the chapel in Emerald.  It was great to go the church
on Sunday with the elders and the saints.  Many thanks for
our warm welcome.

This is a pretty little "Queenslander" that we spotted on our way
back through Rockhampton.  They build on stilts because of the
frequent floods and to cool the house in summer.

Thanks to the Hale's great spotting, we saw our first real "herd" of
kangaroos up close.  They were having a feed on the soccer field
on the way into Gladstone.

After a good night with the Hale's, we hit the road for home.
It would have been a better trip if we hadn't had to stop for
road construction so often.

This is a field of sugarcane. 

And the weather was perfect!  We did enjoy our trip to Whoop Whoop!