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There was a Coffee Club under the hotel we stayed in at Rockhampton so we went there for a dependable breakfast-we always share one as the meals are so big.   After that it was on the road to Gladstone, just over an hour away for a break-we were also picking up some luggage straps there from the Harley Dealer.
We had beautiful riding weather today. We enjoyed a banana milkshake at Gladstone and then onto Agnes Water about 130k’s down the road. We haven’t been to Agnes Water before so the roads were all new to us.
Agnes Water is quite remote, 50k’s from the nearest town which is Miriam Vale, and that’s pretty small too. Agnes only has about 2000 people here and it feels quite residential, not very touristy which we like. Agnes was the name of a schooner the Clowes family owned that got ship wrecked-the Clowes were the first to lease land here. Agnes is just a few K’s away from the small town of Seventeen Seventy-1770, named such because that is the year that Captain Cook landed here-this was the first place in Queensland he landed and from here went up to Cooktown inside the reef!
Agnes is at the most southern end of the reef and as such is the most northern coast to have surf. It’s a beautiful place and I like it very much.
We are staying at a place called Lagoons 1770-a very nice place that seems almost empty.
This is the pool area:
All the school kids are back to school so we can have these places to ourselves. We went for a walk after we had checked in. On our way back I saw a web with a very huge spider in the middle. I had a good look at it but it made me a bit jumpy. Then we spoke to the lady on reception who is very friendly-I told her we just saw a huge spider and she said that when she walked on the beach this morning she saw a thick long white snake. She said it was a sea snake and a man was trying to help it back in to the water but it was too heavy to move. This story made me a bit jumpy, but we then went around the back of the property to look at the beach and there was a posse of big red kangeroos right there in front of us. I was feeling like I was having a bit of a sensory overload and grabbed Stuart who told me I was making him feel like a nervous wreck! I had to pull myself together.
These are some of the kangaroos:
When we got back to reception, I asked the lady if the kangeroos lived there-she said there are so many of them around here, they are all over the place. I asked if they are dangerous and she said you can get about as close as 2 meters away and then they will most likely jump away because they are nervous. However if one felt cornered, like most animals they will attack and they have very long claws. Now that I know they are quite passive I shall try to take a calmer closer look next time. We need to take care when we ride the 50K’s back out of here tomorrow knowing there are so many around-when they are on the hop, they can get up to 50kph in speed.
I’ve just been reading about them. There’s only been one fatal attack, when a big red one killed an old lady in her back yard. When family and then the police tried to stop the attack, the kangaroo attacked them all-they think it went mad and it was put down. Extreme hunger or thirst can make them behave aggressively-but who wouldn’t!
There are about 36 million kangeroos in Australia and they have adapted very well to humans. We have cleared the land to graze animals, which has water available-and we have also gotten rid of the dingo which are their only predator.
They are eaten quite readily-their meat is low in fat and high in protein and minerals. They cannot be killed by anyone unless they have a license to kill them and that is only rarely given and managed when the numbers of kangaroo get too big in some places. Kangeroo meat is on the menu in most places, as is croc-I couldn’t possibly eat either. The other day I went past a sign that said ‘get your fisho at the servo, or try our croc burgers. This means you can buy fresh fish at the service station. Imagine a crocodile burger!