Rockhampton
may seem like an unusual destination for someone like me. Rockhampton
is actually quite an unusual destination for anyone. It doesn't have
much to offer travelers in the way of tourist sites. Anyone who would
be interested in what the town has to offer already lives there, and
are mostly very proud to do so as well. There was one person living
there that had prompted me to visit. Someone staying there as a
matter of convenience, with the remnants of pride still beating
underneath the recognition of how that appears to someone not
conditioned to Rockhampton's appeal.
Stepping
outside the airport door and looking immediately to the left, one
sees Rockhampton loudly announce its self importance with its name
written ostentatiously in large steel letters, a.k.a the Hollywood
Hills. Perhaps in self mocking, this proud name sits at ground level,
at the edge of the car park, behind and to the side of the airports
collection of rubbish bins.
The
benign countenance of the first of many bull statues greets you soon
after. Before traveling far around the city, these effigies of
potential dinner remind the visitor what lays at the cities heart
with their proud countenance and prominent positioning. The bovine
beliefs influence business concerns with remoovabull and leasabull
being noticed to maximum advertorial effect.
Miners
had flooded the town from the surrounding districts in a Christmas
shopping frenzy adding to the cowboy appearance of the population.
The other most noticeable aspect of the inhabitants is their girth.
Obesity seems endemic and my suspicions rest squarely upon its love
of beef. Making a connection between weight gain and beef may seem
like a vegetarians efforts to criticize the consumption of meat. That
is obviously the case when I make the statement without any
justification or attempt to uncover the actual reason. Feel free to
draw your own conclusions, or just stay ambivalent to a fact that has
no bearing what so ever on non-Rockhampton residents.
The
time I spent with Rockhampton's most important resident was an
amazing and inspiring time. Similar aspirations were uncovered over
many jugs of beer and quickly fermented into plans to travel to South
America together at the end of the year. I needed a good reason to
break my ongoing love affair with Asia, and traveling around with
such a wonderful person is the best reason I have yet come across. I
know absolutely nothing about the continent but I have started my
research by reading the book 'Marching Powder'. That particular tale
of a Bolivian prison and the cocaine it produces might fill me with
the wrong sort of expectations though. Like all new experiences, I
will aim to take either A/ No expectations whatsoever, or B/ Lots of
drugs.
I did
have an ulterior motive for stopping in a place that had zero appeal
beyond the presence of one person. I was seeking some peace from the
hectic and hedonistic life I had been living for far too long, and
needed some space for some soul searching. I've long struggled to
resolve inner turmoil from seeking a balance between the pragmatic
and the spiritual. Loathed am I to tie myself to any sort of life
that engenders commitment at best, enslavement at worst. Yet I desire
the rewards such endeavours provide. How can I earn a steady income
without actually doing anything to deserve one? And the universally
compassionate slant of my Buddhist heart is ever so inexorably
yielding to the numb emptiness of nihilism. What is the point of it
all if our bodies turn to dust and our hard fought battles, with
their noble losses and jubilant victories are soon forgotten? With
dwindling faith, it is this ending that I fear most.
How
does such contemplations fit in with a vegetarian visiting the beef
capital of Australia? A bean pole of a human visiting one of the most
obese cities in the ever expanding waist line of our country? A loner
at heart seeking some peace for reflection in a place that holds a
dear friend now two years a stranger? A Buddhist who has been abiding
by certain guidelines while blatantly ignoring others? I don't really
know because I didn't stay long enough to resolve anything. After a
few promising days of contemplation there, I moved on to Brisbane and
Port Macquarie to visit friends whose agenda was intoxication instead
of introspection. With so many Bowen friends heading to Melbourne, I
inadvertently found myself drawn back into that vortex and any soul
searching got lost amongst the usual concerns that plague me there.
It wasn't until escaping to Tasmania that I was able to break to
usual cycle of non-socialising and return to positivity and
productivity.
