It’s been another day of clear skies and sunshine here in the Sunshine State. We had heard good reviews for a café further north up the coast from Hervey Bay and decided to weave a visit into our itinerary for the day. We set off around 10am and had found the aforementioned café prior to 11am – at Toogoom, near the town boat ramp on the inlet.
The café had a brilliant outlook – across the inlet, out to sea and also upstream towards the mangroves. We opted for an outside seat next to the jetty and soaked in the atmosphere and warmth from the morning sun. The coffees were pretty good and they helped down a freshly cooked strawberry muffin. We could have spent more time there doing nothing but watching the passing procession of boat launches and retrievals, together with the comings and goings of café patrons, but we had other places to explore.
A bit further up the road to the north of Hervey Bay is the small village of Burrum Heads, again on an inlet that served as safe anchorage for reasonably-sized vessels which included a number of large catamarans. The main channel looked to be quite deep, but the entrance to the inlet seemed to be quite a distance away with the tide out and a massive expanse of sand exposed – at least a kilometre of sand flats to negotiate via the deep channel, before the low water mark.
We sauntered along a paved walkway around the foreshore that stretched some kilometres before petering out. We climbed down a flight of stairs onto the enormous stretch of sand flats and continued to follow the coast line for roughly an hour before returning to the start of our walk for a well earned lunch. Sacred ibis decided to join us for lunch as soon as they spotted a potential snack in amongst our rolls, snacks and fresh fruit. They seemed very used to people and our efforts to deter them were met with contempt. It was only the arrival of other picnickers that had them leave us to our lunch.
We returned to Hervey Bay after lunch and decided to head south to to the end of the road where car ferries operate between the mainland and Kingfisher Camp on Fraser Island. This is the end of the road because it is where the Mary River winds it’s way though significant wetlands and mangroves, before emptying into the southern end of Hervey Bay. The thing the tourist glossies, billboards, radio and TV advertisements neglect to mention are the presence of estuarine crocodiles on the west coast of Fraser Island, Great Sandy Conservation Park opposite the Fraser Island ferry service, and the Mary River; as well as Hervey Bay itself and all the beaches and waterways to the north!
