Scarborough

We have spent the last couple of days here at Scarborough after travelling 286klm from Hervey Bay. We have already been to Morgan's seafood for our fix of large Tiger Prawns, we made sure we disposed of the bodies well away from our caravan !

Today was a hot and hazy day and we went for a very pleasant bike ride around the foreshore to Redcliffe. Bazza has just said that he thought it was the most enjoyable yet, when the next thing I could hear swearing and cursing coming from behind me, Bazza was being attacked by a dive bombing Magpie. Upon returning to the caravan it was into the tool box to produce some cable ties, only to find that the ones we have on hand are only small ones, not long enough to deter another attack ! Have seen quiet a lot of cyclist supporting cable ties on our travels not expecting we would have to succumb to the same tactics.

A lovely new Cafe has opened up just outside the gates to the park and Bazza has become their chief cheese cake critic, it was a good thing we had had some exercise before today's tasting.

Hervey Bay

After spending a pleasant 8 days at Bargara where we enjoyed a couple of games of bowls, one out at Elliot Heads on Sunday and then on Monday at Bargara. It was also a great place for riding our bikes and spending time at the beach. We will defiantly be going back there next time we travel the east coast and hopefully be able to spend a couple of weeks.
Today we left Bargarga and travelled 130klm to Hervey Bay, where our friends Carlene and Rex are staying at the Big 4 Fraser Lodge Caravan Park. We had an enjoyable happy hour and evening with them & their group of friends, they seem a very social lot !
We are only here at Hervey Bay for the one night and then it is off further south to Redcliffe where we have booked in at Scarborough Caravan Park for four nights. We thought it will be a good location to stay so we can visit our friends Sue and Tony at the weekend.

Bargara Beach,,,,,cont

While Carlene and Rex were here with us at Bargara we rang Maxine and Henry whom we had met at the bowls club back home, and caught up with them for a drink. They have a beautiful unit on the Esplanade over looking the water. Maxine has organised for Bazza and myself to play bowls on Sunday at Elliot Heads bowls club, it will be an early start for us as we are meeting them outside their unit at 8.10 am ! Bazza thinks he may have trouble getting rigamortis there on time. Monday we are playing in the Turkey Triples here at Bargara, that is a later start after lunch, so should not be such a problem.

We have been into the Bundy factory and stocked up on our supply of their Royal Liqueur to take home, another six bottles.

This morning we thought we would go for a 6klm ride on our bikes out past Mon Repos Turtle Rookery, we must have been nearly there when I thought it is getting very hard to keep up with Bazza, only to find I had a puncture ! Lucky we had a pump with us so after a few choice words from the old boy I was told to peddle as quick as I could back to the caravan park, before it went flat again. Will have to try that ride again now my puncture is fixed as it was an interesting track.

This afternoon we went for a drive out to Elliot Heads and on the way drove up to the lookout, where there was a panoramic view over cane fields across to Bargara.

Bunderberg/Bagara Beach

We left Callopie Tuesday travelling to Bargara Beach Caravan Park, after spending 2 nights at Callopie free camp. We only passed 2 wide loads on the 288 km trip, one donga (6.5m wide), and a mine truck (5.5m wide). The weather was overcast but warm, but since we been here at

Bargara we have had continuous rain and a big bit cooler, only 16 deg yesterday!! As the weather was not the best thought we would go and have a look at the Hinkler Hall of Aviation, which is dedicated to Bert Hinkler who was a pioneer pilot from Bunderberg who flew from England to Australia solo in 1928. Also next to the Hall is Hinkler House (Mon Repos) which was dismantled in England and relocated and reassembled in Bert's birth place of Bunderberg.

We had a surprise visit from Carlene and Rex who are staying here at Bargara for two nights before heading down to Hervey Bay.

Callopie

Yesterday we left Rockhampton heading a little further south, diverting into Gladstone and seeing the coal loading wharf area and just a short drive around the town before heading off to the free camp out at Callopie. We had planned only to stay here the one night, but as it is such a clean green area have decided to spend a second night before we travel onto Bundaberg, where we are booked in at a caravan park out at Bargara Beach. Yesterday when we arrived there was a market being held at the Heritage Village just above where we are camped. so it was left to Bazza to set up while I went for a look at lots of handcrafted wares. We also had another surprise as just after pulling in Bridget & Don who we had met at Seaforth pulled in along side of us. We have said goodbye to them four time already, but we keep coming across each other along the way after Seaforth it was Theresa Creek Dam, Emerald, Bedford Weir and now again here at Callopie. It is not even because we are travelling the same route as they have been going a different way to us, just ending up in the same places, tonight I am cooking a roast of pork as a farewell dinner.

This morning we had a ride around on our bikes to check out the area, we are camping on the northern side of the river so we went for a ride over to the other side and have decided that we are in the better spot. On the way back to the van we cycled up the hill and enjoyed a coffee and hot chocolate at the little kiosk at the Heritage Village. Last night one of our fellow campers counted the vans and motor homes here and there was 87 just on this side of the river.

Rockhampton

We left Bedford Weir to drive appox 300klm to Rockhampton, the country side changed from Coal Mines to Beef grazing land. Upon arrival at Rockhampton it is evident that it is beef country due to the many statues of cattle that you see around the town. We are staying at the Big 4 Discovery Holiday Park on the Bruce Hwy as we are meeting up with Alan & Fay who we met 2yrs ago when we were crossing the Savana Develepmental Hwy. Since we have been here we have been out with them for the last couple of nights, and last night we went to see the Bull Riding that is held every Friday night at an indoor arena attached to the Great Western Hotel which Lee Kenaghan used to own. The Bull Riding is very entertaining especially when the big bulls come out, they average in weight between 700 - 1000 kilograms. I am sure some of those cowboys are very sore today after being bucked off, stomped on and kicked. There were many young children there with their big cowboy hats on and some were even wearing spurs.

Today we had a look around the town and then went to the Botanical Gardens which has a Zoo within the grounds, with many animals, birds and reptiles to view.

Emerald - Bedford Weir

Our second day at Emerald we took a drive out to Fairbairn Dam, it is huge and a very popular spot for camping and fishing. On the way into the dam the roadway takes you over the spillway, I would not like to be going along it when they open the gates. We then decided we would go back out to Sapphire & Rubyvale to check out around the townships a little more and get an opinion on the Sapphire that Bazza acquired. After speaking with a couple of gemologist's it seems the stone is worth around $200 as it is a little cloudy, if it was a clear stone, then it's value would have been around $2,000. We also visited the Heritage Mine and watched while some tourist did some fossicking from the buckets of wash they buy for $10, they didn't seem to be having a lot of luck. We think next time we came out this way we will stay out at Gemfield which is close to gemfield's when you can fossick for yourself. While we were in Emerald we went out for an Indian meal at the Golf Club, where we had a very friendly cat rubbing around our legs while we were eating, good thing it was not "Chinese", as we became quiet attached to the cat by the time we left.
We left Emerald on Wednesday and travelled out as far as Bedford Weir which is about 20klm's in from Blackwell. We met up with some friends there that we had met at Seaforth and had a lovely happy hour with them. Don dropped his pots that night but only caught a couple of small Red Claw.

The extent of the coal mining in this area that we have travelled through is massive, evident by huge dump piles that we could see in the distance. We passed many coal trains which were on an average 1.5klms long also on the road we often had to pull over for over width mining machinery of up to 5 mtrs wide.