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Hello from Hervey Bay in Queensland. We thought the Whitsundays would be tough to beat (it is after all the 7th wonder of the world according to Australia) - we were wrong!
We took the plunge and drove about 800km on Sunday to Hervey Bay. We had an early start to get straight on the road as soon as it was light and made good initial progress. Most of the landscape stayed the same with the occasional kangaroo roadkill (we call them a stiffaroo). However at present they are re-surfacing the Bruce Highway and if you thought the M6 was bad wait until you see a road sign warning of continuous roadworks for the next 50Km! We crawled through and our day got longer and longer.
We had a fright when a bird decided to fly into the windscreen, bounce off then disappear (as large as a duck at least). No damage to NEMO but no sign of the bird either. We hope it managed to limp to a nearby bird doctor for help.
Eventually as dark was falling we got closer to Hervey Bay and saw a field full of wild kangoroos chillling out. It was relatively late and we had to search around for a campsite, they all seemed very into security with locked gates/toilets etc which meant we couldn't get in but eventually we came across a lovely security guard at one site who helped us to get a site and filled us in on the things to do.
Our plan for a lie in went out the window when at 6am the bird world awoke. An Ibis landed with a thud on our roof and proceeded to bang around. Then a large bird similar to a moor hen but with a bright blue belly sat outside and wouldn't move - it has a call like a screaming woman! Abandoning all hope of sleep we got up and went for an early morning stroll along the beach which to be fair was lovely.
No time to waste though as we jumped aboard a boat at lunchtime to go whale watching (aka to get some WHACTION = 'whale action' as the tour guides here say). Hervey Bay is one of the best sites in the world for whale watching and August-September happens to be the best time of year. The humpback whales love to pass through on there migration south and often choose to have their calves here too.
Random fact - a baby whale consumes 300-600L of milk per day and gains approx 90Kg a day. The milk is the consistency of toothpaste and the mum squirts this into the ocean and the baby swims around to catch it.
Humpback whlaes are also very curious and love to come up to the boats to people watch. Once out in the bay we came across a pod of male whales and had one of the most amazing experiences of our lives as they came so close we could almost touch them. They swam up to and under the boat and at one point came right out of the water to look at us. (However they are extremely difficult to photograph in time!)
The fun didn't stop as the next day we took a tour to Fraser Island. This is the largest sand island in the world and now a national park. There are no roads and so access is only by 4x4 therefore the majority of visitors go by tour. We considered driving a 4x4 ourselves for about 20min and then changed our minds. Seconds into the trip we realised we made the right decision. The roads were big sand tracks and even our large truck nearly got stuck several times.
First stop was the Wanggoolba creek where we went on a short 1.8km walk. It felt like we were going into Jurassic Park with all the trees and ferns. In fact this is where they filmed the BBC's "walking with dinosaurs". The water in the creek is some of the cleanest in the world but because it is in the national park you can't touch it .
Many lakes have formed over the island because sand and vegetation mixed to form rock allowing rainwater to collect into lakes. To cool off we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie. The ph is 4.5 and supposedly the perfect level required to produce soft skin and hair according to the beauty industry. Not sure it worked though as it was so cold we could only jump in and swim for a few minutes and then run out again. We also had to watch our bags closely as dingoes are always close by and have run off with bags before.
After a massive lunch (courtesy of the premium tour we had accidently been booked onto for the price of a standard!) we headed out in our truck and raced along the beach jumping over small creeks and dunes. When we stopped we went mad and paid to go aboard a small plane. We had a beach take off and landing to see the island from the sky - it was amazing!!! Whilst in the air we even saw a mother humpback whale cradling a newborn over its nose! We knew its age because the baby was white and they only start to change to grey once they are 3-4 days old.
After the flight we had more stops and sights and then a nail biting wait to see if the ferry back would make it down the creek to the bank in the low tide. Thankfully it did (we were told they have had to sit and wait hours sometimes for the tide to rise before it can make it). Full, exhausted and very happy we went to sleep.
Today we are chilling out and making plans for our trip to Sydney. Unfortunatley tomorrow we hand NEMO back in Brisbane but we have an evening flight to Sydney where we have plans to see Bondi beach, the opera house, Sydney Bridge, the Blue mountains etc.
- comments
Paul & Tori I'm loving the whole new aussie lexicon...Whaction, stiffaroo. Brilliant! Seems like you got plenty of whaction which is great, something you won't forget in a hurry. Well done Nemo! Shame you can't keep him, you'll just have to go 50:50 with us on a campervan when you come home :)