Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
21-23rd August. Hervey Bay.
- ...nope, not a whole lot.
We were only in Hervey Bay for the weekend so there wasn't that much time to do things...but it still took skill to do quite as little as we did. We arrived coming up to midday Saturday and, after being stuck in a queue of old people behind an ATM for a small eternity, we got onboard the minivan the hostel had sent and before long were there. It was called 'the friendly hostel' and while I couldn't really judge its friendlyness as we didn't really exchange more than couple of 'hellos' with the other guests it was very well maintained, small but not cramped and, really most important of all, they offered double rooms at extreemly cheap prices, meaning we didn't have to return to dorms...even writing that word I feel a cold chill! In such circumstances I'd have been happy with a functional yet bland box, so its to their credit that the room was large and inviting, even doing so far as to have two teddy bears sat on the pillows!
We dumped our bags, no need to embark on any unpacking for such a short stay, and went to see what Hervey Bay had to offer. It's a bit odd in that there is no centre to the place, instead attractions, shops and business are spread fairly evenly across the town. The does leave the lingering impression that it lacks a heart but, inspire of tourists seeming to outnumber locals 10:1, it was refreshing to be back in a relatibly urban setting again (it'll tide us over to Brisbane at any rate!), to foolishly blow some cash on frivilous but oh so important when you haven't gor them (actually we'd had tonnes of great things along these lines at Vintner's but, I dunno, it's different somehow) items such as ice-cream, uber bad for you sugary sweets and energy drink. I guess it was also good to be just be ourselves for a time, with nobody else around and absolutly nothing to do, at least for the first day.
We wandered along the beach, it had been over three weeks since I'd seen the sea which I believe is a record for my time in this country, and in the late afternoon we went up a small pier to watch the sun set. It was an impressive sight but more startling still was the sea itself, which due to the giant presence of Fraser island just offshore, lacked even the mildest of waves, instead sitting as still as a lake. Odd, but cool too.
Speaking of Fraser island, Liz went there on the Sunday. I did not...if you want to hear some interesting tales you know who to talk to! Instead I went for a long wander around the town, away from the Torquay area we were staying in and along the shorefront to the Urangan area, eventually ending up in the very beautiful botanical gardens. All the walking took longer than I expected, and taught me the folly of wearing flip flops fo such activity, so I didn't have as much sitting around taking it all in time as I would have liked but it was still all rather pleasent to amble beside none the less.
Plus more ice-cream.
- comments