The aftermath of the big fish and chip feed up last night has been a rather extended walk from our camp site on Point Vernon into town and back again. The day started like all others, cool and clear (although nowhere near as cool as we have experienced on this trip). We also took the opportunity to sleep in and were slow to start, not departing for our walk until roughly 9:30am.
Our walk followed a well-defined path that started just south of our camp site and closely followed the crescent of Wide Bay, from Point Vernon around to Dayman Point. We only walked part of the way to Pialba where a long jetty stretched out across sand flats that were exposed during low tide. It made you question why a jetty would be constructed if it falls a long way short of the low water mark (which was at least 100 metres further to the east).
Given the distance we covered, it seemed appropriate we stop in at a beachfront café for coffee and a light lunch. This gave us more time to observe the locals in action and confirm our growing suspicions/prejudices. Some gross generalisations, based on a trip to the mall and supermarket yesterday, our walk into town today and time spent in a café for lunch follow:
1) Natural hair colour is out of favour and the brighter and more outrageous the artificial colour, the better. Some colours we have seen would pass safety standards as part of a hi-vis requirement.
2) Our own lack of tattoos draws disparaging stares as we pass people in the streets. It’s as though we are seen as wasting opportunities to express our individuality by not adorning our arms with buxom amazons, our calves with skeletons riding flame-spewing motor bikes, or behind our ears with a butterfly / marijuana leaf / peace symbol, like everyone else.
3) Ugg boots, trackie daks, and hoodies with fake fur fringes are the dominant fashion. One variation is for women of all ages to wear cut off jeans that are so short the pockets hang down below the hem of the shorts.
4) Body piercings appear mandatory and we’re surprised we haven’t been handed a ticket by a council bylaws officer for being seen in public without one.
5) The language spoken is more succinct with words like “youse” featuring. Correct spelling also takes a back seat, with many local variations – the best being one spelling of Schweppes as “Swheeps”.
6) The aisles in the supermarket are unusually wide – possibly twice as wide as we would expect to find elsewhere in the country. It doesn’t take long to work out why, with a disproportionate percentage of the population falling into the obese and morbidly obese categories.
There seems to be something that draws an unusual number of bogans up this way. A contrast when you consider the complete opposite with a more pretentious demographic gathering further south in Noosa.
This afternoon we ventured out in the Prado to check out the harbour and marina that sits at the southern end of a Wide Bay. Whale watching tours depart from here, as do car ferries for the west coast of Fraser Island. The marina also seems to provide services for a local and visiting fleet of yachts and cruising power boats.
We returned to the centre of town for a few more supplies for dinner and continued our sociological observations. A group of obese young girls adorned with tattoos, body piercings, cut off jean shorts, coloured and partially shaved heads stood outside the tobacconist waiting for the shop assistant to serve them. Maybe they were getting supplies to help them through the State-of-Origin Rugby League match tonight. The local bottle shop was doing a roaring trade and we felt very much out of place with our bottle of Pinot Gris in a queue of patrons each with a slab of XXXX beer for the big match tonight.