Brisbane to Hervey Bay

It has been a mega busy week, camper vanning slowly up the Sunshine Coast to Hervey Bay, so this blog is a little longer than usual. It’s been an amazing week and now we’ve finally taken a couple more relaxed days I can catch up! I’ll continue where we left off:

Having Googled whether the Apollo camper we were destined to pick up the next day had a toaster or not, I managed to happen across numerous forum pages on Trip Adviser which painted Apollo and their campers, to say the least, in an unfavorable light. Trip Adviser, for those of you  not in the know, is a travel complaints site disguised as a genuine reviews site. Those whom post on it are seemingly very angry all of the time or in need of a hug. Needless to say I was happy enough to pick up our practically brand new Hiace Hi Top camper and begin our month long journey up to Cairns!

Before we completely headed out of Brisbane we drove a few minutes south to BOUNCEinc, an indoor trampolining centre which provided us with an hours workout, moving around the warehouse filled with varying trampolines surrounded by kids that made us look like grandparents or actual grandparents! Afterwards we headed north out of the city and found a little campsite in the Blackall Ranges, just north of Australia Zoo, to spend the night.

We awoke the next morning nice and early and as soon as we realised the ambient temperature outside off the Doona (That’s Duvet for those on the Hampshire/Surrey border) we thought “sod it”; resetting our alarm clock for a slightly later time in the hope it would warm slightly. It didn’t. It has become apparent from our time in Australia that we aren’t the only two people to have made a fundamental mistake which can only, truly, be blamed on Australian Soaps. Contrary to popular belief, in winter, Australia IS actually COLD. Advice if you are looking to travel to Southern Australia in the winters: a hoodie is not enough clothing to see you through the Aussie winter!

Once we had defrosted, which only happens once you’ve actually managed to removed the Cane Toad from the shower, we headed on down to Australia Zoo. Now it was as we walked through the gates to the zoo that I realised the 10 year old me, who had spent some time sat watching the late Steve Irwin jump on crocs for no apparent good reason, was now in control and stayed as such for most of the day. There’s nothing that keeps childhood enthusiasm going like watching a grown man struggling to get a particularly grumpy crocodile to perform for him, whilst secretly hoping the croc might win this time!

The insanity of the workers at the park does make the shows rather extraordinary and Australia Zoo has to be the best zoo I’ve managed to visit so far and you can easily spend a day wandering around, catching shows without getting dreary and tired. The only downside to our trip was that having visited the Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary a few weeks back the WOW factor was taken out of the Kangaroo and Koala areas slightly which featured heavily.

This aside, the highlight of the day was at last innings with the kangaroos. We were given half a bag of left over kangaroo feed by a family who were leaving. We’d seen people violently thrusting food under the kangaroos faces all afternoon, to which the kangaroos simply responded by lying down and sleeping, but we’d thought we would give it a final go now that most had headed home.

We approached a kangaroo, squatted about 5 metres from her and let her come over, have a smell and eventually start grazing happily from our hands. We got some great photos and were quite pleased with ourselves when we realised that her pouch had something wriggling inside! Now it was more like the film Alien than cute, watching a little Joey wriggle under its mother’s skin, but eventually he popped his head out to see what the fuss was about! What a cute little fella he was!

Having made our day with his appearance we decided to join the other guests leaving the park meaning we would have time to enjoy our favourite pastime, watching sunsets from beaches on the wrong side of Australia. This evenings beach of choice was King’s Beach!

Wednesday was our day for taking a leisurely drive around the Blackall Ranges, at the suggestion of one of the campsite owners. It took us a few hours of rather magnificent scenery to make our way around as we took the opportunity to stop at a few lookouts to get a magnificent view of the Glass House Mountains. Around lunch time we stopped at Gardeners Falls for a walk followed by lunch in the camper. We traveled to the coast once more and arrived just in time for another “reverse sunset” at Mooloolaba Beach.

Thursday, we made a slow amble towards Noosa stopping off at a few of the beaches along the way. We spent a short while near Arkwright Point climbing the rocks in the bays and stopping to examine all of the rock pools, because you never get to old to get excited over a small crab hiding in a rock pool! A stop off at Main Beach in Noosa in the evening showed us for the first time a beach in Australia loaded with tourists and sunbathers. It has only taken a month to find a beach with more than a handful of people on!

Friday was our day to get some washing done, so whilst it hung in the cold winds and warm sun we headed to spend some time on the beach albeit wrapped up in our hoodies. We slowly made our way along the East Beaches, South of Noosa, and back up to Noosa to eat and do a little shopping before heading to Little Cove, just past Main Beach, where we spent most of our afternoon relaxing.

The weekend took us to Eumundai Market, which runs on a Saturday and Wednesday and is home to a variety of handmade and craft goods as well as a good selection of food stalls. Nicola picked herself up a little, definately “real” silver, ring and we settled down for a healthy lunch of Churros.

After checking into our camp site we decided to take a drive for a sneak peak at Rainbow Beach where we were booked in with Rainbow Beach Horse Rides the following day, before a long phone home in the Evening.

The next morning heeded an early start to make our way over to Tin Can Bay for a spot of dolphin feeding. It’s one of the only places you can do it and is heavily regulated by the Queensland Government, it’s a bit of a special case owing to the tradition of the few dolphins who can be fed in the bay. It was great to have the dolphins come up an take a small fish from our hands and it’s a good opportunity to see them up close!

After we had finished with the dolphins we headed back to Rainbow Beach for our afternoon horse ride. We were met by Andrew who gave us a warm welcome. He then proceeded to give instruction on riding the horses which didn’t single out new riders or those with previous experience and before long we were given the names of our horses and saddled up one by one. Having been riding previously, the introduction and instruction we received at Rainbow Beach Horse Riding was by far the best.

Myself and Nicola seemed to have mounted the two horses in need of refilling with petrol but that didn’t bother us as Andrew and his assistant were lovely and entertaining throughout, not that they needed to be with the stunning beach to look at. Once we’d reached our furthest point Andrew talked us through a little of the Beach and it’s history before we turned and headed back. There was also the opportunity to take our steeds a little faster for the brave under close supervision of our guides!

As we headed back at the end of the walk the weather turned against us slightly and it started to drizzle for a couple of minutes, well worth suffering through though as we were presented with a Rainbow to look at for the final few minutes of our ride along Rainbow Beach! Andrew also gave us some great advice on where else to travel after the tour and after we’d driven up to Hervey Bay we treated ourselves with Bangers on the Barbie before an early night.

Sunday morning and another early start saw us jumping on the Blue Dolphin Marine Tours shuttle bus and heading to Hervey Bay Marina. Our hosts Peter and Jodie gave us a nice hot brew whilst taking us and the other 15 or so guests on our catamaran through the brief safety talk for the day.

As soon as we had navigated out into the open water Peter came out onto the deck with a few models of various whales and dolphins and explained to us about the characteristics of the various whales and dolphins we might see on the tour. No question seemed to phase him and a true passion for the animals shone through. We hadn’t been out for long when another whale spotting tour’s captain contacted Peter and gave us the location of the first sighting: two Humpback Whales a little nearer Fraser Island.

With that we headed towards the other tour, cut our engines and drifted close enough to see the action. After a while the other captain, to our surprise, invited us a little closer and both boats drifted a safe distance from the whales, who eventually started approaching the boats in turn and gave us a great show. It was then explained to us that early in the whale watching season the captains of the boats share the locations of the spottings and then are happy, once they’ve had a good lookthemselves, for the others to come closer. That was still keeping several hundred meters away and allowing the whales, if they wished to come to the boats.

The small boat left enough room for us all to find a nice spot to watch the whales and the group itself was filled with happy and talkative people. Great to fill the short gaps between the whales showing on the surface. Peter and Jodie were great hosts and Jodie in particular plied us with great food and although Nicola started feeling sea sick a little way into the trip, Jodie did all she could to help her relieve her symptoms and make the day as enjoyable as possible for her.

After several hours of following the two whales it was time for lunch and we headed for the coast of Fraser Island for both to escape from wind and, to Nicola’s relief, a little calmer water. We moored up a short distance from the shore and Jodie provided us with a great little buffet lunch accompanied by a beverage. A little white wine in the sun helped the lunch go down a treat!

We then sailed straight back along Fraser Island’s coastline and back into the Marina. Luckily Nicola, having managed to stomach a little lunch, was feeling a bit better for this leg, albeit a little sleepy. Lying on the front of the catamaran on our way home, chatting to the other guests, was the perfect end to an amazing week and we can’t wait for the weather to improve to do a couple nights camping on Fraser having seen it up close.

We’re taking a couple quieter days in Hervey bay now before we head north again and slowly continue our way towards Cairns.