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Published: July 30th 2013
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Hervey Bay
After a nice lie-in and breakfast , we headed back into Gympie to get our food sorted out. we stocked up on a good mix of burgers, veg and chili making ingredients before driving northwards to Hervey Bay.
En-route we stopped off at the rather charming Maryborough, home of the creator of Mary Poppins... we took a leisurely stroll through the park and the town which had a destinctive old western feel to it with its long balconies over looking the wide streets below.
Next stop was Hervey Bay. we had already decided we were going to save our funds and probably do the Whitsunday's instead, so we parked up by the beach and sat down on the tapaulin my mother kindly brought me, and settled back into our books. This was the perfect wind down after some slightly stressful driving conditions. That night I did however cook a mean chili con carne with Andrew on stove duty while I cunningly used the boiling water to make rocky road (melted dark chocolate, marshmallow and in this case cornflakes) while the chatty man at apple tree creek asked us about our cooking and our road trip.
Agnes
Waters
We set of after some tea and cereal to Agnes Waters which the boys in Brisbane had recommended as a good beach to stop at. It was a beautiful day and after a chilli wrap for lunch we headed to the beach to lounge and read some more. We both enjoyed the views of the crashing waves and the Aussie beach being complete with surfers and a lifeguard with red shorts and a matching jet ski.
Our nights accommodation was at Yarra Creek Rest Area overflow, with not particularly wonderful toilets (by Australian, not Asian standards) and a tap which supplied water which was not fit to drink. our Australian beef burgers were pretty foul so unfortunately not a particularly successful end to the day but on the plus side, we did see a Super Moon.
The drive to Airlie Beach
more tea and cereal then a LONG drive towards Airlie Beach, gateway thou the Whitsundays. we spent the day singing along to Rockhampton radio and playing Road Sign Trivia, a game created by the government to keep you awake on the road by answering the tourism based road signs in a pop quiz where you
occasionally have to wait 4 km for the answers. The signs told us that 'trivia games may save your life' so i decided that the Wilson family game on roadkill road (this road runs between West Hunsbury and Milton Malsor), where you count the roadkill, having been so easily adapted for dead horse canal in Egypt would work equally well with dead kangaroos in Australia. all i can say is that the advice not to drive in the dark for fear of hitting a roo must be correct - we cows 41 dead roos over the 120 km trip to Mackay.
Mackay (pronounced Mack-eye) was a good half way point with some great beaches. we pulled in at the rather fully Quota Beach for a different variety of chili wraps. the beach was almost deserted bar one dog walker and a welcome break from the long drive.
I drove the next leg and really loved the long, quiet straight roads. with my new found favourite radio station (Andrew and i have both enjoyed ABC classic FM but this wasn't my cup of tea for driving tunes) being Rockhampton CFM, it really dawned on me how epic a road
trip this is. over the space of three weeks we will drive from Sydney the whole way up to Cape Tribulation living in and out of an old station wagon. And so far, no arguments or space issues! Yes we would both like a mattress, but Andrew is already drawing up designs for his own camper vehicle. I am rather enjoying life on the open road.
That night i parked up at Airlie Beach a allowing Andrew to navigate the 8% downhill gradients to our campsite at Flametree Tourist Park. when I returned from my shower my shower I discovered Andrew taking to our neighbour, the very enthusiastic Dana who was traveling with her granddaughter Montana right across Australia in their lovely quilted campervan they had named Roxy. Before long we had been Roxy invited to share and be beaten at checkers. you really do meet some wonderful and friendly people when you travel.
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