Almost finished!

We stayed is Tallabudgera for all 4 nights. Wendy said if we had any rain, or really bad weather that we would pack up and head home! We actually had out first rain for the trip, but it was only short, and didn’t cause any probs, so we lasted  it out. It wasn’t a very busy time but more a relaxing time.

We caught up with Con and Margaret, who we had known since Gymea days. It was great to see them as it has been a while, and they haven’t changed at all. K&B went down to Bribie Island and visited Dave and Jenny Mensforth while we were with Dave and Tania. I used to play soccer with Dave – and Con for that matter – back in Gymea days.

We also went up north and saw John Duncan who used to be in our fishing club in Gymea. He still has a lot of the old newsletters, and I saw my name against a few ‘largest catch’ records against some species. I had forgotten all about that stuff. It was really good to meet with him again and relive a lot of old memories. His daughter was there with him, and talk got around to schooling and we discovered Wendy went to Endeavour High with her brother, and I went to school with a lot of her good friends, who she still meets up with.

The days were getting colder and the nights worse, and we knew it would get colder as we headed south.

We left Tallabudgera on Saturday morning, and arrived in our next stop – Yamba after lunch. We got in earlier than K&B as they had called into Beryl’s sister who was holidaying on the far north NSW coast.

When we got to Yamba quite a strong West North Westerly was blowing so the temp was quite cold. We only paid for 2 nights as Wendy repeated her rain/bad weather promise of going home. K&B paid for 3 nights.

Wendy wanted to see her cousin Eunice so she drove back up north on Monday to see her. She was gone all day, so K and I went fishing in the howling, cold wind while B stayed in the van, keeping as warm as she could. We caught some fish, but none to take home, yet again.  

Wendy got back to camp about 10:30pm but as there was no rain, the next day we paid for another night. 

Monday was just a tourist day for us and we went for a drive into Maclean to wander around, drink coffee, eat lunch at the pub, wander around again, then head back to camp, via a bakery to get afternoon tea! 

As we had pigged out most of the day, we elected to forego dinner, and just sit in the van with K&B to keep out of the cold wind. At least the wind had eased off and there was no rain in the forecast. So it was off to bed early-ish as we had to prepare for our last pack up the next morning.

I have picked up a bit of a cough so sleeping was not very good last night, but all should be ok.

This morning, we left Yamba and I am currently sitting in Grandma’s house in Belmont. We are staying here for the night before heading home tomorrow.

We have been away for 7 weeks and 5 days. It has been a long trip and we saw lots of great things, as well as a few ordinary things. I will post up a summary after I get home when the final figures will be in. I have not taken may photos in the past week or so, but here are a few, as well as a few I missed from Hervey Bay which I didn’t get from the camera in time for my previous post. 

Hervey Bay calls itself the Whale capital of Australia, so almost everywhere in town there is some link to whales. These guys are being updated in the water feature on the northern end of the Esplanade. Unfortunately the work is not finished as can be seen by the fencing and bunting surrounding the construction.  

Not really a whale, but dolphins also frequent the area 

The other end of the above whale.

This is a Cold Press Coffee machine. W&B came across this shop while K&I were out fishing. We all came back to taste this iced coffee, and Wendy ended up buying 6 bottles to take on the road. Wendy is going to replicate this process at home.

I was intrigued by the patterns the outgoing tides made in the sand. These shots are from the 800m pier. 

Sun setting over the growing sand floor.  

....and again

...and again.

This was our campsite in Tallabudgera. As you can see, we ended up putting up the walls as well because of the short rain we had.

I took this from the rock wall at Tallabudgera Creek, looking south to Coolangatta Point.

This is the flatty that ended up being legal, but as I measured it wrong, I thought it was under size and thus threw it back into the water.

Our campsite at Yamba, but you cannot see the strong wind in the pic!

When K & I walked out to the rock wall to check it out for fishing, there was a storm out to sea and this double rainbow appeared. You really cannot see the second one very well, as it disappeared very quickly. 

While Wendy was away, I had dinner in the newly created cafe in the camp ground. I wasn't very hungry so I told the guy I wanted something small (that is...cheap) and he recommended this. It was the kids whiting & chips! It was perfect. There were 5 pieces of whiting, chips and salad.

K&I looked everywhere for a place to fish out of the wind. This spot was under the road bridge, but the wind still howled through the tunnels.

A forlorn-looking K as he sat out of the wind, under the bridge. We caught some bream, but as it was the last day, and we couldn't remember the size limit, we threw them all back. If there was no wind, it would have been a perfect day. 

Post Hervey Bay

Emerald was a nice camp. We stayed in the caravan park as we needed a bit of a tub, and recharge. The camp was pretty big, but we basically got the last 2 sites, so that was good.

From Emerald we headed east – still with the head wind – towards Rockhampton. Emerald is home to the world’s largest painting on an easel. It is the Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gough – see photo with Wendy standing in front. We didn’t stop there, and just turned south down the Bruce Highway, with no real objective, but it was going to be a road-side camp. We eventually found one about 60kms north of Gin Gin. It was a nice spot, but it was pretty well on the road, and of course, the Road Trains don’t stop when the sun goes down. We were about 100m from the road, but it sounded like they were outside our door. Wendy said she was a bit worried that one may veer off the road and come through our camp. I assured her that they would have to get through the concrete large undercover eating area, and then through K&B before they got us!  

From there, our next sleepover was Hervey Bay. However, before we got there, we had to call into K’s sister Sylvia in Bauple. Bauple is about 40kms south of Maryborough. Bauple is famous –even though no one has heard of it – because Bauple is aboriginal for Macadamia, and that is where macadamias were first found! So there you go. The visit went well, and we had another look over their property with its large variety of tropical fruit trees.

From Bauple, the next stop – after lunch – was Hervey Bay (HB). We arrived after lunch and checked into the Big-4 – after a few strange turns – at Point Vernon (PV). PV is at the northern end of HB, and is a nice little spot. The HB stop was going to be a nice rest for 4 days and that is what it was. We didn’t run around much, but we did get some fishing in, and some nice food, coffee and things. K & I ended up fishing in the Elie Creek run out into the bay at the north of PV, and it was quite amazing. The bay is very flat, so at low tide, pretty well the whole bay. We had to walk about 500m to get to the creek, but it was nice to walk across the sound and see the variety of sand types, contours and puddles. We fished the end of low tide, and stayed until the water was in again, and it was up to our thighs. We caught a few flatheads over the days, and K took his home, but I put mine back in, even though it was legal – only because I measured it wrong and thought it was too small!

We went out to the end of the 800m pier a few times and watched the bogan locals trying to catch fish. They must get something big out there as quite a few people had special carts built to wheel out all their rods and gear. The water is at least 10m below the pier, so if you had a good fish, it would be an interesting lift up to the top as there was no ladder, or landing on the pier.

One of the good things about the bay north of Pt Vernon, is that it faces far enough north so that the sun sets over the water, hence some great shots of the setting sun over the low tide sand and puddles. I think 90% of the photos I took were of the sunset, sunrise, full moon rising and fishing – see below. It was a good 4 days with great weather, but we did have a couple of cool nights.

I am typing this at Garry’s place after spending 3 nights here visiting with the family. It was so good to see everyone again – it has been quite a while since we were up. We haven’t done much except talk, drink tea/coffee and eat! We took Garry and Chris out for dinner last night down to the Boat Shed at Maroochydore and it was really nice. We left Garry & Chris’ after hearing the good news that their approval had been granted to start building on their new property. I may go back sometime and help with the build. Our plan was to head south to the Gold Coast for 4 nights, via a visit to Dave and Tania near Redcliffe. It was so good to catch up with Dave, Tania and Jesse. We missed them last year when they stayed at our place, as we were overseas. Jesse has really grown up and is such a little man, but also a typical little boy! K&B spent some time visiting their friends while we have been up north, and we caught up with them last night when we landed in Tallabudgera. We will visit some friends this week, do a bit of fishing, and then head further south. 

The full moon rising over Fraizer Island

Sun rising over Fraizer Island...

again..

I had some friends with me for the sunrise..

an Osprey trying to get warm

...he hasn't got his make-up on yet !

These 3 loved the morning sunshine..

...the moon again...but behind some cloud

low tide at the 800m pier..

coffee at the beach.

Sun setting in the east??

Elie creek at half tide..

our friend who lived just near the pole in the above picture..

sun setting over the low tide ripples..

sun setting again - beautifully!

My flathead which was legal - exactly 40cm

Klaus up to his thighs in rising tide at the creek..

a heron chasing fish in the pool as the tide goes out