The Capricorn Coast Tourist Drive

In Fridays post we looked at Things to Do in and Around Rockhampton, Queensland. The ‘around’ bit was mostly about driving down to the Capricorn Coast and I showed you a few images of the relaxing country drive that takes you there.

Here are some more pictures from my Capricorn Coast drive…

I should explain that when I left Rockhampton, I could have saved myself around 100 km of driving in a loop by heading straight for Mackay. If I’d done that though, I would have missed out on a great scenic drive.

Here’s Google maps for those who would like to get their bearings…

Source: Google maps

As you can see from that map, had I headed north on the A1 (Bruce Highway) straight out of Rockhampton I would have got to Mackay, which is out of view on this map, much quicker.

My road trip wasn’t about getting there fast though, but more about enjoying the journey. So I headed on the ‘4’ which took me to Emu Park. I then went south I mean north (my thanks to Peter for the correction in the comments below) along the coastal hugging road towards Kinka Beach, Mulambin and Lammermoor before arriving at Yeppoon just in time for lunch.

Every now and then, I would stop the car, get out and take some pictures. Like this…

The Capricorn Coast Drive

I’ve not labelled any of these photos, for some it’s quite obvious where they were taken, for others it’s not quite so. This part of the coast is so underdeveloped, so natural and so quiet, it was hard for me to know where I was even when I was there. No signposts, no shops, no real clues as to where you are most of the time.

It’s just rugged coastline, mostly, and that is its beauty.

The rest of this journey from day four of my road trip was covered whilst I was on the road in my post on June 23 called The Drive from Rockhampton to Mackay. If you are ever driving from Rockhampton to Mackay and you think that Clairview is an ideal place to stop for lunch, you will need to read that one.

I had my lunch here though, in Yeppoon, in a Coffee Club that you might just be able to see behind those umbrellas in the last of the photographs above. They took way too long to serve me, but when you’re looking at big blue skies over the ocean, that doesn’t seem to matter.

Technically speaking, it’s only 336 km from Rockhampton to Mackay, but by taking this tourist drive a 3 1/2 hour journey becomes a six hour drive. Well worth the detour though.

My journey to Mackay continues back on The Bruce…

You can read about my next stop on this road trip in my post Mackay: The Town, the Shops, the River and the Lagoon