Tropic of Capricorn: Longreach

Our last morning in Longreach we made a quick stop to take a picture of their Tropic of Capricorn monument (statue? marker?).  We parked our caravan next to this very Australian-looking old train station. We crossed the street in front of this interesting water tower.  You might be fooled into thinking that tree is blossoming with big white blooms, but in reality all those blooms are moving… Because they are birds.  Corellas.  Heaps and heaps of noisy corellas.  We’d seen (and heard!) them fly over our caravan park a few times during our stay. Just around from the water tower is the Tropic of Capricorn monument.  (I keep writing Tropic of Cancer and then correcting it.  Most of my life I was closer to the Tropic of Cancer than the Tropic of Capricorn!)  We all lined up for a picture, because that’s what you have to do when you see these things.  Honestly I was confused about the Torrid and Temperate Zones, I thought they were backwards until I looked it up.  The colours on the sign confused me, I thought the Torrid Zone was in blue because it was colder so I thought they must have had something backwards.  My reasoning is brilliant, I know.  Nope, Torrid Zone to the north (along the equator) and Temperate Zone to the south.   This monument is located on a busy roundabout and we drove right past it several times during our stay without realising it.  If they don’t do some landscaping it may become completely obscured before long! We missed the monument in Rockhampton, so I was so glad to see this one!  I know there will be at least one more in our future.