'Wherarwee' in Oz: Log 17-04 Gladstone

Hervey Bay to Gladstone

We’ve spent 2 great days in HB, dropping the scooter off the back we’ve done sightseeing, shopping, markets ( Friday night & Saturday), they were disappointing, just baubles bangles & beads, AND womens clothing. There have been showers every day but other than that it’s been warm & sunny. Libby loves the place & would live here tomorrow, but I tell her this is nearly winter.

Sat 9^th, we drove to Elliot Heads today via any little town on the way, mostly they are just fishing towns with no real facilities for other activities. EH was different, great beach, kiosk open till late, windsurfing, paragliding, swimming, fishing, the lot. There was a nice grassed area adjacent to the beach with BBQ’s, picnic huts, toilets & showers. There were also signs saying no camping or overnight parking, but we did. Almost every place we come to now stops overnight camping, what is wrong with these councils, we buy food, fuel & do a bit of shopping. If we can’t stay it’s the small business owner who loses out.

Today we drove to Agnes Water. We have found a great little bush camp, all the bays are marked but you just pick the one that suits you, plenty of trees & native animals. A huge goanna shot up a tree right next to the van a couple of hours ago, chased by a dog that a camper had brought in. Bush turkeys roam freely, stone fish lurk in the surf, what more could a person want? We plan to stay 3 days & just do little trips on the scooter.

Well, that was a fast 3 days, but relaxing & great weather too. We’ve been swimming, sunbaking, going for short runs. Liz has had to have another cancer on the back of her hand cut out so we had it done while we were here.

Thursday now, we have a flight booked to Middle Island where we stay overnight in a tent, cook dinner on a camp stove & generally just bum about on the island. We have been told there will be 12 of us altogether, staying in 3, 2 man tents & 1, 6 man tent. A great trip over on the 4 seater, single engine plane, Libby’s 1^st time on a small plane. She told the pilot NO doing 360’s! So he just took us for a ;ittle joy flight around the island. When we had all arrived our group consisted of 3 teeny bopper females, 7 boys in their 20’s & us ….. We had a good afternoon, walking the beach & splashing in the almost calm sea. Dinner was provided but we had to cook it, it was a stew so all the ingredients were thrpwn into a large pot & simmered for 2 hours, Libby was volunteered as the cook. Dinner was plain but went down well as we were all hungry by then. Some of the boys gathered some driftwood & Adam Sandler set it it up. He made a great fire. We retired about 9:00 PM but the other kids partied on till 3:00AM so no sleep for us. Libby was really p…ed off especially as we had got the kitchen area fairly neat before going to bed but the next morning it was a mess. Libby spent the morning sitting on a chair on the edge of the sea with her feet in the water while I went for a walk up to the lighthouse, met the keepers, had a cuppa with them & learned the history of the island. We took the 1^st flight out, let the pilot know how we felt about the difficulties of trying to fit in with 10 young adults & suggested they tried to group people by age in future.

We arrived back at camp, showered (there was only water in some containers on the island), had lunch & left for Tannum Sands, driving through a tropical storm on the way.

Another beautiful place but the locals tell us that the world has passed them by, we can't see that as Camp ground prices are extremely high. Both Liz & I have multiple sand fly bites, probably from the island. There is a local repellant made around here, it's 1 part metho, 1 part baby oil & 1 part detol. It doesn't stop them biting you but there is no itch & our skin looks really good. As usual I'm the worst off with legs, arms, back & even my scalp covered in welts. We apply the mix about 3 or 4 times a day.