Because we liked Elliott Heads and Bargara so much when we visited yesterday we went back today. It was another glorious day and we decided to dust off the kayaks and go for paddle in the estuary (Elliott River). It was a good day, John tried fishing but only caught a small flathead so threw it back. We then drove to Bargara Beach to grab a coffee. This coast here in Bundaberg is quite stunning and along with Coolangatta/Tweed Heads is one of the few spots in Qld we would could think about living in for a while (haven’t seen any cane toads yet). Compared to Busso houses here near the beach front are quite a bit cheaper. Tomorrow we leave Bundaberg to head north but are diverting inland (220kms west) to a national park called Cania Gorge National Park. It is near a town called Monto. The national park has a caravan park right on the edge of the park that allows dogs and we figured as we have so few opportunities to go into national parks with Coco we should go and see it. Heaps of wildlife venture into the park and the gorge is formed from sandstone with ochre sands and many overhangs. It sounds really nice and has had some good reviews. Lake Cania is nearby and is well stocked with fish and you are able to kayak on it. From there we will head north east to Glasdstone and then to Rockhampton.
12 July 2010
11 July 2010
Day 301 – Bundaberg, Qld (11 July)
Coastal drive, Elliott Heads to Moore Park Beach
Explored the coast today and discovered some great beaches. The closest beach is 9kms from Bundaberg city and whilst the coastline is mostly rocky there seems to be a lot of snorkelling and diving spots. There is an artificial reef about 3kms offshore called Cochrane Reef where they have sunk things like an airplanes (2 mohawks and a 15 seater Kingair plane), a gravel barge a landing barge and a gravel dredge, a water tank, concrete pipes and steel prisms and 2 lightship and an ex trawler. It is a very popular dive site and over 14 species of fish inhabit the area including wobbegongs, leopard sharks, batfish, turtles, dolphins and manta rays. To get there you need a boat and off course diving gear which we don’t have but would be a great site to dive. There are many offshore snorkelling sites that can be reached by scrambling over the rocks but as it is tidal here you need to pick you time and day and today wasn’t a good day due to the low tides and being a little windy. We found a wonderful place called Elliott Heads which is just delightful and still a quiet hamlet, the beach was lovely. Another spot we liked is Bargara Beach which has some lovely modern homes and is well catered for the tourist with some high rises, restaurants etc. Some of the houses back right onto the beach. We had a look at a home open and the backyard bordered the ocean edge. The ocean would have been 10m from the edge of the verandah! It was a 3x2 and the agent estimates it will sell around the $700K mark. Not as expensive as we had expected. We had a coffee at a spot called Nielsen Park which is right on the beach. Today was fantastic about 23 with lots of sun. Perfect! From here we went to Burnett Heads which is popular fishing area not as popular or as nice as Bargara or Elliott Heads and the pre-requisite for the guys there seemed to be a tinny (boat and drink) and a beer gut that hangs well over your belt! Next stop was Moore Park Beach which is a golden sandy beach which goes on and on for 20kms! Not a doggie beach unfortunately. We are quite impressed with the beaches near Bundy – didn’t expect to see anything quite so nice here. Apparently the weather here is fairly moderate all year around and compares with Hawaii and there aren’t the big temperature fluctuations in other parts of the country. We are quite impressed with Bundy. There are lots of sugar cane fields around and it seems a lot have been sold off and developed into housing estates.
10 July 2010
Days 299-300 – Bundaberg, Qld (9-10 July)
Left Hervey Bay after having a wonderful time there. We really enjoyed it and it is a great spot. Bundaberg is about 130kms north. As we got closer to Bundy or Rum City (local speak) we came across lots of sugarcane fields and fruit farms. It is avocado season at the moment and they can be bought so cheaply. This region is known at the ‘salad bowl’ due to all the fruit and veges produced here. We are also in the area known as the Coral Coast and southern Great Barrier Reef. We decided to do our normal system which is drive into a town check out the caravan parks choose one and set up. Well not to be here. All the parks were full! Fully of southerners we were told on more than one occasion. Southerners being NSW and Victorians escaping the cold winters. So we ended up free camping at a recommended free camp by the Information Centre. It is called Sharon Gorge about 20kms out of town. Basically it is a layby on the side of the road, a busy road I might add. The free camp has loos, bbqs, picnic tables. There is a 1km walk to the gorge but not the kind of gorge we were expecting. Basically it is a track through a forest to the Burnett River that has very limited access due to being private property. In a quieter area it would have been a good stop as the bbqs were spotless and the toilets very clean. We have noticed that the free camps on the east coast aren’t as good as in WA ie. here they just tend to be on the side of the road whereas in WA they tend to be further off the road. We quickly made a call to a caravan park to check availability for tomorrow (Saturday) and booked ourselves in. After leaving the free camp we headed back to Bundaberg and settled into the caravan park. After lunch we did the tour to the Bundaberg Rum distillery. $25/head so not a cheap tour but interesting. The basis of the rum is mollasses and there is a huge holding pit up to 5m deep of mollasses, the smell was overbearing but I liked it. We saw the bondstore where they hold the rum for 2 years where it matures in oak vats. The raw rum gets it flavour from the wood. The wood is oakwood from the American/Canadian border and vats are made locally in the traditional manner. It costs $75,000 to have a vat built but they last 80-100 years. The next process is bottling which is done on site and the premix cans are canned in Sydney. There is $2B worth of rum on site! The entrance fee includes two free tastings and not the piddly tastings you get in wineries, these are standard size drinks so for non rum drinkers this was quite a challenge. We tried the Royale liquer which was very tasty. It is made of rum, caramel, chocolate, vanilla and coffee flavour and it was delish especially with cream. Comparable to Baileys or Kaluha. Will buy some of that as the distillery is the only place it can be bought. Some trivia, the bear was introduced in 1961 due to the southerners (ie Vic, NSW) not drinking Bundy as they had the belief it was a tropical drink only drunk in tropics not to be drunk in cold climes. So to capture the market the company wanted to depict that if you drink rum on a cold day you will get warm. They wanted to use a cold weather animal to promote the product and the only Australian animal to resemble the cold is a fairy penquin not the image they wanted so the polar bear was decided upon. The idea being that a nip of rum on a cold day will warm you up and the bear has been an institution since. Now Bundaberg rum is drunk all around Australia in big quantities I might add.
08 July 2010
Days 295-298 – Hervey Bay, Qld (5-8 July) – Week 44 (month 11)
Not to much to report the last few days – getting ready to leave tomorrow (Friday) heading north to Bundaberg (at this stage). We visited with Rod and Lynn a couple we spent Xmas with in Streaky Bay who are staying in the caravan park about 40kms away at Burrum River. It was lovely to catch up with them and we had a nice lunch. Hopefully we’ll see them again when they head west – Lynn is keen to do the Margaret River wineries again. The weather has been really miserable, wet and cold. The coldest day today at 17 degrees! Seems like all of Australia is having an unseasonally cold and wet winter. Thought global warming meant warmer weather – more like the ice age. At least heading to north NT will be warm. As it was our last night we went into town and had a Balti curry – very very nice. Balti cooking originated from northwest Pakistan and is a style of cooking curries that uses very aromatic spices but not overly spiced with chillies so not as hot as normal curries but very spicy. The first Balti restaurant opened in Birmingham UK and took off enormously with lots of Balti restaurants now in the UK. The chef at the curry house we went to was trained in Birmingham by a Pakistani chef and opened about 12 months ago in Hervey Bay. They also had UK style curries which are much hotter than what we are used to here and we had been warned so went with the milder choices. I had a biryani curry which is rice based and John had a Malay curry which as mild and he said it was hot. We really enjoyed our curries. Must say we have not eaten out as much as we did in Hervey Bay – more opportunity and choice. Steve the house owner got home about mid afternoon and we had a chat with him in the evening. He has telling me about the cane toads and how in the wet season he has had upto 10 of them sitting at the back door trying to get in, they sit in the dog bowls (even though they are empty) looking for food and putting the washing out on the line at night time he says can be a challenge and he says they are big! Well if I wasn’t put of Qld already now I really am! Apparently from Hervey Bay north we hit cane toad country big time all the sugar cane plantations I expect. Not looking forward to that, think we will be using the port loo in the van for any night time visits.
05 July 2010
Day 295 – Hervey Bay, Qld (4 July)
Maryborough (Mary Poppins Festival)
Had a good day today at the Mary Poppins Festival in Maryborough. It is an annual event when the town celebrates the Mary Poppins phenomena. There was a best dressed nanny, nanny races, chimney sweeps and chimney sweep races. Heaps of stalls selling food, nic nacs, vintage car exhibition, workshops for kids, steam engine rides. Heaps to see and do and lots of people. I stuffed my face on delicious mini panckaes with cream and caramel sauce, yummy. The day was beautiful and sunny although a bit on the cool side. Would have taken a lot of organising as there was a lot happening. On the way home we stopped at a conservation park which is know to have koalas and we were lucky enough to see one and it was awake feeding on gum leaves which is unusual we think for the middle of the day. Almost forget we had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant in Hervey Bay called Santini on the Esplanade. We both had seafood dishes and they were delicious followed by homemade gelato with rhubarb crumble for me and crepes for John. Can recommend it if ever this way. Thank goodness for free days!
03 July 2010
Day 294 – Hervey Bay, Qld (3 July)
After yesterdays coldness and more rain overnight we had a day hanging around Hervey Bay, walking along the foreshore and beaches. It really is a lovely spot especially when the sun is shining! Went to the Matthew Flinders lookout which is the spot where Matthew Flinders landed on his ship the Norfolk in 1799. It is a good lookout across the Sandy Strait to Fraser Island. Went for a walk along the beach at sunset and surprising there was a camel train on the beach, so Cable Beach in Broome isn’t the only beach to offer a camel ride at sunset! The sunsets here are quite stunning the the pink on the beach tonight was quite beautiful. My pics don’t really don’t do it justice.
Days 292-293 – Hervey Bay, Qld (1-2 July)
Maryborough
We spent the day (Friday) in Maryborough which is about 36kms south of Hervey Bay. It is one of the oldest cities in Australia being first settled in 1847. Many of Australia’s first settlers entered the colony via the Port of Maryborough between 1859 and 1901. It is a very historic town with lots of museums and restored and not so restored old buildings. It has a population of 26,000 and its rainfall is between 900-1100mm annually – hence it is green! Maryborough’s claim to fame is that the author of Mary Poppins, P L Travers was born here and there is a statue outside the building where she was born and many testaments to her around town. An annual event is the Mary Poppins festival (on this Sunday) where they have the best Mary Poppin’s lookalike competition, chimney sweeping competitions, stalls and lots of other fun things. We are thinking of going for something different. We did the 1.5 hour walk heritage walk around the city taking in a lot of the history and looking at the old buildings, a lot have been restored to their former glory. We then did a drive tour around looking at the old Queenslander homes the city is famous for. Apparently Maryborough has the most old Queenslanders in the State. Some are just gorgeous and are immaculate. From what I’ve seen on the internet some inside look just like modern homes. The cost of houses here is really very reasonable $350K could easily buy you a nice home and in some cases on acreage. One thing we have noticed here and in Queensland generally is that people don’t seem to have landscaped gardens. Its almost like they plonk their house on the block and that’s about it except for the hills hoist and a shed. Hardly any homes we looked at in Maryborough had gardens to speak of. Not sure where they entertain guests, must be indoors or on verandahs.
