29/5/17 Around & about

  We’re baaaack , sorry for the lack of posts , but here’s a catch up .

 We have been occupied with relaxing , golf , bike riding , swimming & walking along the beach - yes I know , it’s a hectic life we lead !!!

  About a kilometre down the road we find ourselves at the beach , this is where we have been swimming .

  In between all this busy schedule we managed to go for a drive out to River Heads and Turtle Cove . River Heads is a small village that is two hundred metres up the hill from the barge that travels regularly over to Fraser Island . It has a supermarket , real estate office and a tour office , many houses , but not a lot else . Further up the road is Turtle Cove - a large residential area , with large blocks of land and some very large houses . Driving around , we checked out a lot of the houses before finding a vacant block with views over Great Sandy Strait to Fraser Island . The tide was still on it’s way out , showing a lot of sand bars before the blue water takes over . 

  A few days later we drove up to the north through Dundowran , Craignish , Toogoom and finally to Burrum Heads . The following are some photo’s of the beach at Craignish looking back toward Point Vernon and then north to Toogoom .  The beach and bay are also shallow , you can walk out a long way before getting water up to your waist at low tide !! 

  Next photo is at Toogoom , and is the estuary of Beelbi Creek . There’s a restaurant and bar right beside the boat ramp , as well as a real estate office . 

  Continuing on to Burrum Heads where the Burrum River flows out to sea . There are many fishing boats based here , and the river is a popular anchorage with many yachts & boats . There’s a really long channel that they have to travel before reaching deep water . There’s a couple of caravan parks , some shops and a bowling club .

  From here we headed back out to the Bruce Hwy at Howard , and headed down toward Maryborough . About 10 klms down the hwy we turned off into a forestry reserve and drove 9klms out to Lake Lenthall . There’s a camping area and day use area at the dam wall , and you can also put your boat or kayak in here and fish etc - no swimming however , it is the water supply for Hervey Bay . The lake disappears to the left & right , we could see what we thought was the end , but it turns out that was only where it turned and headed further off into the hills . The lake stretches for 9 klms and the catchment is 700 square klms and involves 6 creeks  and has a capacity of 29,500 Megalitres . It’s a really nice area that is controlled by the resident ranger .

   Well that’s it for now , we will still be doing the blog while we’re here for the next few weeks , maybe not as regularly as when we are on the move .

 Here’s a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R4Cx8LhxinHYZ7XtgVRQkSnBm-I&usp=sharing

22/5/17 Around the point & garden

   Our weather hasn’t been ideal , rain spoiling Saturday , but clearing on Sunday , so we headed out to Point Vernon - another suburb of Hervey Bay . 

 The tide was out when we arrived at a park with a boat ramp , boats were being launched & retrieved , the water just lapping on the rocks - that’s one thing about Hervey Bay , Fraser Island shields it from the oceans swell , so no big waves crashing on the sand .

  The boat ramp was just a slot in amongst the rocks .

 It wasn’t untill we’d moved down further , that we saw the rock shelves - layers & layers of rock stretching into the water , and it wasn’t untill we headed back round the point that we noticed the rock shelves continued , nearly running east / west below Point Vernon and reappearing on the other side .

  After lunch we headed back to Urangan , heading to the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens . Not knowing what to expect , there’s an impressive entrance , then once inside there’s a Chinese Style garden . Guarded by 2 lions , you pass through the gateway and met with a white wall and viewing porthole , giving you a glimpse of the garden beyond .

 There’s a water garden with rocks lining the edge and seating beside the water , a waterfall at the end of the garden keeps the water flowing through . There was also a water feature wall .

 Leaving the chinese garden we walked down the other section of the park , grassed areas leading down to a lake & water feature .

 The fountain also had it’s own rainbow , and was very impressive . 

 A bit further down the lake opened up some more , another fountain and some great reflections .

 From here we followed some tracks through the native bush that seems to form a large part of the gardens . We found some flying foxes roosting in the trees beside the gardens , lots of butterflies & birds .

 We emerged at the community garden nursery where they grow a lot of the natives , these can be used by the local residents . There was also a new area where turf had been recently been laid surrounding a sandstone edged maze . 

  That’s our day done , here’s a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ydEcUxrUFLELy-PZeuNhMGfIbhI&usp=sharing

20/5/17 To the coast

 Hello again , we have moved on from the Sunshine Coast , stopping at Maryborough for a couple of nights at RV Homebase . You can stopover here and check out the Homebase and all their amenities for a couple of nights with power & water supplied for free !! You just have to have a look around with a salesperson , which we took care of on monday afternoon . The next day we looked around Maryborough , did some shopping and chilled out . 

  Maryborough is full of old buildings and old Queenslander style houses , we will have to investigate it further . It was an important port for goods & cargo coming and going via the Mary River in days gone by , and has lot’s of history . Here’s some photo’s of the City Hall , complete with auditorium , stage and upper level seating .

 Tuesday arrived and we were leaving Homebase for Hervey Bay , but before we left , & after we’d hitched up we washed the ute & van in the wash bay - a pretty impressive wash bay it was too !!! There was a gantry so you could wash the roof or awning , and the shed  was long enough for us to fit in !! 

  Off to Hervey Bay where we will spend a few weeks enjoying everything it has to offer . The weather hasn’t been the best with some rain & showers , but we’ve been able to get a couple of bike rides in , the esplanade here is wonderful with bike / walking tracks running along the full length of the bay . 

  We’ve been able to catch up with some travelling friends we first met in Coral Bay WA , which has been great , Kym & Caroline are spending several months here .

  Last night we had dinner with Heather & Kaylee , and got to catch up on all that’s been happening since we’d seen them last , it was an enjoyable night .

  Today after the showers cleared we headed up to Urangan Pier - 800m long now , it used to be 1.5klm long !!! It’s very popular for fishing , today there were at least 60 people out there fishing . Then there were all the people who were just going for a walk and a ride . 

 From here we continued around to Boat Harbour Marina , also a popular spot where all the whale watching cruises leave from - it too will get busier as the whale watching season starts soon . There were lots of boats in the marina , making for a good photo .

 Hopefully now the weather will improve some so we can get out & about a bit and check out the area . Here’s a map update :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d2mL9aB6W6VI2YF8_Au46S96ZPQ&usp=sharing

14/5/17 Water & wildlife

  Today was forecast to be wet , very wet , hmm , don't know what happened there ??? It was overcast and the wind had dropped from previous days , so after chatting to Justin we went paddling on the lake .
  The water was reasonably warm with small wind waves , but nothing to be concerned about . The thing that struck us first was the properties that border the lake . Houses were more like mansions on 25 acres and upwards . These were the first 2 , they even mow their paddocks !!!

  Further on in this arm of the lake , the wind dropped and we drifted into a lagoon , water lilly pads lined the edges then there was a grass poking it's head up nearer the edge of the water .

 after getting to the end of this arm , we turned and headed back out into the main lake .

 The cormorants and darters liked the fences on the side of the lake , using them to dry off .

 
 The birdlife was wide & varied - darters , cormorants , pelicans , snake neck herons , ibis , ducks , waterfowl and jacana's .

 Even some black swans appeared to be sitting on a nest .

 Into another arm of the lake there were more extensive houses & manicured properties - a pleasure to paddle through .

  The reflections were pretty good as well - this one particularly !!

 This next photo is a section of the botanic garden that we walked through yesterday .

  After a bit over 2 hours we decided to head back across the lake to the campsite , having paddled 10klms around the lake .
  Back to the van and cleaned the kayak & gear before having some lunch . Whilst cleaning we spotted a drop bear , just lying in wait for an unsuspecting person to pass by below . Here it is poised ready to pounce !!

 There was a grey butcher bird as well .

  After our close call with the drop bear , we had some lunch before loading the kayak back onto the ute . A lady wandered into the scout camp and disappeared into the bush at the opposite end from us , so we decided to go for a walk into the bush as well - keeping an eye out for drop bears !! The forest was beautiful , trees stretching up to the sky , ferns & palms down below , the ground covered in leaf litter and dead branches - stunning !!

  The track  looped around the bush and came back to the camp , another track took us down to the lakes edge , then along the edge back to the van .
  Time for a beer , what a good day , Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there !!!