Hervey Bay to Mackay

We spent one more day at the Hervey Bay Scout Camp doing some shopping, washing and beachcombing on the deserted beach less than 100 metres from our caravan, magnificent spot. Late afternoon on beach.

The next morning we were on the road again. We had originally planned to go to Bundaberg but the Scout Camp there was booked out so we decided to travel a little further north to a place called “Seventeen Seventy” which people we met said was a nice place to visit.

Captain Cook (then Lt James Cook) landed in Botany Bay on 29^th April 1770. He then travelled up the east coast and made his second landing at a place half way up the Queensland coast. He was in search of fresh water and food supplies. The cove he landed in is now called Seventeen Seventy as he arrived there on 24^th May 1770.
It was Queensland and NSW school holidays last week so the place was very busy. We were told of a 4WD trip down to a place called Baffle Creek so we decided to try it. I may not have had the thrill of actually driving on Fraser Island but the trip down to Baffle Creek was equally adventurous. The track was 20 kilometres long through tropical rain forest consisting of long tracks of soft sand that we ploughed our way through by sheer speed and momentum – great fun. We met only one vehicle on the way in but met 5 on the way out. There were a few passing points so one vehicle had to reverse into the closest passing point. Photo of track.

The next day we visited the Captain Cook landing memorial, went to a lookout to see if we could see any whales (negative) but I saw a large turtle which Janice missed. The place seemed to be swarming with butterflies of various colours and sizes. We tried to visit a National Park but the road was so corrugated, we gave up as it was so bone jarring it would have taken ages at a crawling speed. On the way we met a family of kangaroos, some as tall as me. Photo of Cook memorial.
 

Then it was off to Rockhampton. Every day has been glorious with blue skies and sunshine but most nights have been cool. It was 25 degrees when we arrived at Rocky so after setting up camp we visited the Rockhampton Heritage Village. It was very good value at $9 each (pensioner rate) and kept us entertained most of the afternoon. There were many buildings spread over 28 acres which had been re-located from the Rockhampton area and furnished with historical items. There was an old church, school, printers, shop, fire station, railway station, various workshops, old cars and trucks and even a hospital that came complete with all the old equipment which was fascinating. There were also a number of houses set up as they would have looked in the 1800’s. Photos- Brian checking out an original washing machine and Janice ringing the fire bell.

 

We are staying at a place called Gracemere which is a suburb of Rockhampton.  It has some cabins here that I would not even put an animal in, and the caravan next to us is unusual – Brian and I were sitting outside having a drink yesterday afternoon and Brian said to me “look at that, there’s a mouse in the window”, and as I looked we noticed there were two mice scurrying about in there.  It looked like an abandoned caravan, so Brian went & told them in the office, and was told that a man booked his caravan in 2 days ago, and sure enough, we saw him later on.  People are odd !!!

The following day we headed for Yeppoon on the coast visiting a national park on the way. The coastal area of Yeppoon has many beautiful beaches and we followed the tourist trail around in a circle back to Gracemere. On the way we passed the “Singing Ship” which is a recent memorial to Cook and makes sounds as the wind blows through it. Photo.

 

 It was then off again to our next stop, a free camping area at Clairview which again is on the coast. The site was great, right on the beach but we were next to the main rail line from Brisbane to Cairns and a train comes through every couple of hours, even through the night and it sounded like it was coming straight through the caravan. We had only planned to stay the one night as a break between Rockhampton and Mackay so we had an early start the next morning arriving at Rowallan Park Scout Camp at Mackay mid morning. It is a great site in almost park like surroundings. We met a retired couple who are leaders in scouting and spend most of their time at the park doing odd jobs. The park was opened by Lord Rowallan when he was World Chief Scout in the 50’s. Picture of camp from our campsite.
 

Spent the day touring Mackay visiting the waterfront (photo of marina below) and a driving through a local national park which has a number of magnificent beaches. Tomorrow we are of to Airlie Beach for a couple of days.