TODAY IS MONDAY 26TH FEBRUARY AND IT’S THE FIRST TIME WE ARE ABLE TO GET WIFI SINCE LAST THURSDAY! AND HERE’S ME OIN MY MCCAFE OFFICE…….. GOOD JOB I KEPT MY JOURNAL LIVE IN A WORD DOCUMENT….. MORE PHOTOS TO BE ADDED LATER ON!
Friday, 23rd February 2018
Just listening to the radio in the morning – roads are flooded and the radio advise is “If it is flooded, forget it” We’ve had more than 150cm rainfall overnight.
Several car drivers had to be rescued when they got stuck on the flooded roads. According to the weather forecasts, we will be having heavy showers all through the weekend!
So breakfast taken while sitting at our seats in the cabin. Decided to wear my bikini to go to the showers this morning, as I would be getting wet making the short walk to the showers and back! We left the campsite during a heavy shower – I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be over quickly as we wanted to take a look at Hervey Bay itself, or as it is also know in the Aboriginal language, Urangan – and hey – all of a sudden blue patches in the sky appeared and a few moments later it was dry and we could enjoy our drive along the Esplanade. Beautiful old pine trees lined the esplanade and this turned into a park just before you could descend onto the beach.
Onto one side of Hervey Bay, we could see Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world measuring 120km by 15km! This is the only place where the rain forest grows on sand. Well as the weather was not yet settled we dared not take any boat trip to the island so we decided, after taking a walk on the pier, to start driving northwards via Agnes Waters and the Town of 1770.
Something worth mentioning about the pier – it was originally built in 1917 to transport timber, coal and sugar and was actually 1.124meters long with a railroad built on the pier to have easier transport. However when petroleum became more important, the pier’s activities came to a halt in 1961.
Our drive to Agnes Waters was planned through the rain forest and on the secondary highways – the Bruce Highway and Isis Highway but at one point, Serena, our GPS guide directed us to a gravel road and after yesterday’s experience we certainly did not want to drive any gravel roads so we turned back to the main road. We re-programmed Serena and from then on she was never to direct us on unsurfaced roads!
On the way, we had a Mcdonalds’ stop at Bunderburg known for its rum production and this is where the regional radio station was sending out its broadcasts and we thought at first it was Van Den Berg………..
I certainly am ever so happy with McDonald’s WIFI – fast and efficient and a good cappuccino to go with it!. This time I set up office at Macca’s (as the Aussies call McDonalds) – I took my MacBook with me and was able to upload yesterday’s blog and download pictures too! Most campsites have really lousy WIFI connections – just as I am writing this blog on Friday evening in the camper van without any WIFI in Agnes Waters.
Well after our break, we continued our drive and what was really great is that we were seeing more and more blue skies between the somewhat heavy showers. We saw floods everywhere and even rushing waters. No wonder this part of Queensland is so luscious green – also we noted that most houses in the countryside were built on stilts – and now we know why! They would get feet when it rains heavily!
By the time we arrived in Agnes Waters, the weather had changed and the sun was out burning hot – most rooftops were steaming away……… We drove further along the coast, which is actually called the Capricorn Coast, as this is where the tropic of Capricorn crosses Australia, and exactly in the town of Rockhampton.
We drove to the Town of 1770 – so called, as this is the place where Captain Cook first set foot in Queensland back on 24th May 1770. We visited the monument and of course took some pictures and imagined how life would have been back then – whether Captain Cook was actually greeted by the local people or whether Abel Tasman got really annoyed with himself as he did not continue his discovery of Australia but rather went on to look for spices in the name of the VOC!
By this time it was nearing 17.00 and we had to think of spending a couple of nights here so we made our way back to Agnes Waters – we pitched up camp at the beach campsite and then went for a walk around to get acquainted with the neighbourhood. After getting information for a boat trip to a reef island, Lady Musgrove, we strolled to a restaurant in the neighbourhood for a quick meal – steak for Gerry and fish for me.
Our walk back to camp was in utter darkness and by the time we were at our campervan, the sky was reasonable clear that we could see the stars. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day to spend on the beach – I am badly in need of a relaxing day!!!
