Bananas?

Rising at the crack of dawn, we’re getting ready to meet Ludwig. Coffee being the best approach to any new introduction, the OK Milk Bar located near the statue of the champion race horse must be a winner, looking more like a hipster Brunswick hangout than a country café. The coffee experience  is enhanced with positive quotes on the counter and on coffee lids, ‘Believe in yourself.’ A good reminder for the next 712 kilometres. I reckon we are ready to meet Ludwig.

Named after the intrepid explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichardt, the A5 welcomes us immediately with cows, emus and a Google Maps detour which we promptly override, in attempt to avoid the same fate as Leichardt. The fertile basaltic soil of the Darling Downs region along this route challenges us to a game of “What Crop Is That?”(A title soon to be filled with expletives after long hours of indeterminable crop gazing). An unconscious undertone of outback mystery and disappearance join Ludwig with The Lost Man. Eleven hours of audiobook, to break up the incessant conversation and travel commentary. “Shouldn’t we stop for fuel somewhere?”

Flood plains, bottle trees, rusty windmills and brolgas chart our path to the waters of Rockhampton. In anticipation of our first mega icon – a big banana, we stop in the one street town of Banana for fuel. No bananas. Not big or small. No mega icons. A British backpacker serving coffee in the middle of nowhere. “Why did you choose to work here?” we ask. “I needed to save some money. I came here for three months and have been here two years!” She must be rolling in it by now as their ain’t nothing in that town to spend it on! A new Banana attraction: A badass saver!

Thirty eight kilometres outside of Rockhampton nestled in the mountainous landscape we strike gold. Not a mega banana. Mount Morgan. The once booming gold rush town where William Knox D’Arcy accrued funds that eventually saw the birth of the BP Company, sets the historical backdrop for the treasures of Rockhampton we are soon to see. A now dormant mine cutting a hole in the picturesque backdrop, was considered to be one of the most important gold discoveries in the world.

Just as Leichardt leads us to Rockhampton, so too were his travels a guidepost for the early settler Archer brothers in 1854 scouting lands for grazing.  Nicknamed the ‘City of Three S’s’ – Sin, Sweat and Sorrow, we add another ‘S’, as we find our hotel along the Scenic Fitzroy River, where beautifully maintained Victorian buildings tell of a bygone era, in which ships steamed up and down the river, loading precious cargo in a bustling, vibrant port straddling the dividing line of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Away from the charm of Quay street, empty roads, dark alleyways, and ‘hidey alcoves’, bear down on our better judgment and draw us back to the vibrancy of the riverside business district. The Fitzroy shimmers gold, boats rock gently on moorings, the cool breeze whispers evening, screeching cockatoos find roost in gnarled gums drowning out dinner conversation, and pineapple PJ’s beckon. “Thanks for your company today Leichardt. Tomorrow we’ve got a date with Bruce.”