The road to Caloundra

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18/05/09 Monday Day 276
After leaving Hervey Bay in beautiful conditions this morning, we had a quick look at the beach there. Nothing special. Then it was some 30k’s away to a place called Maryborough. This was where the Mary Popping Author came from and there’s a statue of Mary Popping there! For some reason I was expecting something huge. Instead it turned out to be the size of a normal person. Pretty neat though.
Once we had that seen, we headed for Noosa and Noosa Heads. We were hoping to spend a day or two here relaxing but as soon as we were heading towards the place, the heavens opened….again! We had a quick look at Noosa, which is divided into smaller places, like Noosaville, Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach to name a few. We made an executive decision to continue down south moving closer to Brisbane. On the way down we stopped at a Ginger Factory in a place called Yandina. This turned out to be more than just a shop! It’s like a mini theme park for kids. There’s a train that goes around the place and also some kind of boat ride too. There other little shops there too including a Ginger Town Motor Garage. This is a real boys toys place. It had loads of model cars and also a few larger older ones too.
After all the excitement we headed to a place called Caloundra for the night. It’s only some 70k’s from Brisbane and also very close to Steve Irwin’s Zoo, or Australia Zoo.
Being a Monday night in Caloundra, we had to check out the town. Extremely quiet. Nothing was open. We asked a convenience shop owner where the nearest bar was. He pointed us in both directions, one up the street and one down the street past out caravan park! The one up the street was closed so we decided to stroll to the other place, an RSL club. Luckily it was opened and there was about 15 or so people in there. The place is massive. It’s also used as a function hall and there’s loads of pokies too!
After getting back from the RSL club, it started raining when we got to the van. Then around 1am the heavens opened, so much heavy that it woke both of us, and it was raining for ages. Sunshine Coast my bottom!!

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