We’re not sure how many cold mornings you need to experience before you start to get used to them, but it seems we have some way to go yet. This morning felt colder than any other we have experienced on this trip. Yet again, we woke to a cloudless sky with only the slightest breath of wind blowing. It took the sun’s rays some time to take the edge off the chill, with little impact made while we had breakfast.
After breakfast we packed up camp – but went for a walk down to the beach to check things out before hitting the road again. We entered the beach near a small rocky headland to our right and a large, crescent-shaped beach disappearing to our left with the sun directly in our eyes (to the east). There was some warmth starting to be felt in the air as the sun rose higher in the sky. We walked along the beach and scrambled over the rocky headland, only to find a mirror image beach to the south. The coast is very similar to the beaches further north in the Eurimbula National Park, which is very similar to the Fraser Island and Cooloola coastal fringes. Yet another great camping destination to pencil in for next time.
On returning to our campsite, Chris extracted the tyre compressor from the back of the Prado and proceeded to re-inflate the tyres to the correct pressure for our journey south on tracks that were shown to be 2WD friendly on our maps and information sheets. The information proved to be correct, and we followed a firmly-packed, rocky track for some time as it meandered alongside Deepwater Creek before breaking out into farmland once outside the National Park boundaries.
Initially we headed towards Bundaberg – where we would skirt the town, avoiding traffic lights and possible delays, following a bypass to Gin Gin where we rejoined the Bruce Highway. As Bundaberg approached, sugar cane became the crop of preference. A network of narrow gauge railway lines appeared running parallel to the road we were on, with many branches turning off the main line between properties. The network converged at the sugar mill to the east of Gin Gin. Clearly it wasn’t time to harvest the crop as the mill stood inactive, with no tell-tale plume of smoke belching from the large chimney atop the main part of the mill.
We rejoined the Bruce Highway at Gin Gin but were soon sidetracked with the lure of fresh produce in the form of citrus of all shapes and sizes on sale from a rather large orchard. We walked away with a carton of mandarins (around 10 kgs) and 6 large limes. How many mandarins can you eat before you get tired of them? We will report back later on the findings from our research.
Wendy had found a secondary road that would take a more direct route to our final destination at Hervey Bay, and we kept an eye out for signs that would confirm the turn off. This was upon us in no time and with only 30 kilometres or so to go, we were checking into our new home for the next couple of days at around 12.45pm. With camp set up and lunch behind us, we ventured into town to restock on essential items such of fruit, veggies and dairy goods.
Our first impressions of Hervey Bay have been tainted by the number of obese people we spotted in the supermarket. This may have been a statistical aberration, but if it isn’t Hervey Bay feels a lot like parts of the USA in terms of morbidly obese people in the streets and shops. We will test our theory more fully tomorrow and reflect again on the results when we have a larger sample size to work with.
We lashed out tonight and tried the local fish and chip shop for dinner. We both now feel as though we have eaten too much greasy food and a walk will be in order tomorrow to work off the fish and chip effects.