Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Greetings from Queensland and the Sunshine Coast - although I'm doing my blog because it's raining here at the moment! It is still warm though, hopefully it will clear up so I can go for a dip in the sea later.
So we have been travelling in the car for about 10 days now, and still have a lot of driving to do before we get to Cairns. It doesn't look that far on a map!
We started off driving to Bondi Beach, and it looks just like it does in the photographs. Glorious white sandy beach, with a great sea and loads of surfers.
Our first overnight stop was just outside Newcastle in a newly redecorated pub with some dingy rooms above. They haven't got round to decorating the rooms yet! We tried to fit in with the locals and joined in the pub quiz, but didn't do too well - mainly because some of the questions were about Australian singers, radio stations or sports teams. It was the taking part that counted!
From there we drove to Port MacQuarie a lovely beach town. We were there for a few days and spent most of that
time on the beach. Had a very relaxing time.
Then it was onto Yamba (via Coffs Harbour, Woolli and Red Rock). We again entered into the community spirit by going to the bowls club for dinner. We had been given many tips by the Vine family, one of them being that Bowls clubs and RSL clubs (which are like nice British Legion clubs at home) do good food at cheap prices.
After Yamba it was off to Byron Bay, which was a great place, although expensive for the budget traveller. After lots of searching we found a campsite in town that had cabins at a reasonable price. It was like being at a New Zealand campsite with shared kitchen and facilities, although most people there were younger than us this time!
Most of our time at Byron was spent on the beach or in the sea, although Chris and I did go on a walk to the lighthouse and rainforest. I was told it was a 3k round trip, but it took us 2 hours. I think that Chris tricked me into this one - and we did it in the heat of the afternoon! However we
did go to the most easterly point of Australia and saw turtles and dolphins in the sea.
We tracked down the local RSL club and after dinner worked out how to play Keno (a cross between the lottery and bingo). We managed to only lose $2 so not bad for some entertainment. We also did some internetting and found out that our ski-ing trip for next winter has been booked already! At least when we come home we have another holiday to look forward to.
Our original plan was to stay in Brisbane for a few days, but we decided to carry on up the coast. We did drive through the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Can't really say that I liked the look of Surfers' Paradise. I prefer a much smaller beach town. We ended up in Caloundra and had dinner in ......the RSL club. Not just any club but the one voted Queensland's best 4 times! However that was reflected in the prices, but was still cheaper than eating in the restaurants.
Our next stop (and where we are now) is Hervey Bay. Again another small beach town and this one is the main place to
book a trip to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world and you need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get around. Our Renault Megane would not have been any good so we went on a day trip. It is an interesting place and very green - there are loads of trees that have managed to grow in the sand. We walked along a creek and saw a shipwreck, but the best place was Lake McKenzie. It is a perched dune lake 90 meters above sea level where the shore line was made up of millions of tiny grains of sand. It was very beautiful and a shame that we only had a short time there before we had to get the ferry back to the mainland.
You will notice that there is no mention of the RSL club in Hervey Bay. This is because on our first night here we weren't allowed in. Our crime - wearing flip-flops's. If we had arrived before 6.30 pm we would have been allowed in, but because it was 7.45 pm when we got there we weren't allowed in. Despite us telling them that we had been
to Queensland's best RSL club wearing flip-flop's they held firm on their rules. Tonight we are going to the boat club, and we were told that they have the same rules so Mandy has been on a fact finding mission to find out what we can and can't wear!
Tomorrow is a long driving day - the aim to get as far up the coast as we can. We still have a few things to do before we fly out of Cairns on the 17th so need to push on.
Other news - After years of thinking about it Chris has had a tattoo. It is of his Cricket Club and features the words THE LEAF and a gold and green leaf underneath. I think it looks really good and was with him when he had it done when we were in Wellington, on the 2nd day of the cricket. It was done by a guy who was part Maori and he was covered in tattoo's. Chris wanted to wait until it had healed up before telling people and taking a picture.
Other news - Mandy has had her latest check up. All going well - she
is getting bigger by the day (she is eating constantly though!).
Hope everybody is well at home.
Love
Tina
p.s. Belated birthday wishes to Andy for the 3rd and Julie for the 4th
p.p.s. Just seen that Fulham lost at home to Sunderland. What is going on?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0198s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb