Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Today we went out on a half-day whale watching tour aboard Whalesong . This is a big luxury twin hulled, purpose built whale watching boat. Just a shame for them that there were only 11 paying guests instead of sixty, but good for us! They downstairs saloon has deep plush pile seating and a big bar, where they served us a better than average (for boat tours) luncheon while we made our way out from Hervey Bay marina to Fraser Island. The weather is still overcast and howling winds, whipping the ocean up into a reasonable swell and very choppy. This boat just went at it full speed ahead, crashing through the waves and spraying huge plumes of water right down the windward side. Some went outside to be in the wind and ocean spray, I thought it decidedly more pleasant to watch through the windows from the comfort of my lounge. After about 40 minutes, we entered the lee of Fraser Island which meant smoother sailing and it wasn’t long before we had our first pod in our sights. As...

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Happy to leave the noise and cramped space of the van park at Rockhampton and make our way south. That’s about as far as he plan had proceeded; Head south and look for something somewhere before Hervey Bay. Travelled pretty smoothly, thank heavens all the road-workers were observing their day of rest, so no road-blocks, just a few (hundred) 80 and 60kph signs, which isn’t the same as having to actually stop and wait at a lollipop-person. We stopped at Miriam Vale for a cuppa and decided that the best thing to do was hand a left at Gin Gin and go across to Bundaberg, which is what we did. Went down to the Bundaberg Rum place, but didn’t take the tour or go into the new visitor centre as it was closed. Had a wander around town and then cut across to the coast to have a look at the beach at Bargara Beach. Nice enough but not really much of a beach as such. Just north is a place called Mon Repos which is where the turtles come in once a year to lay their eggs, but not at this time...

Long day in the saddle, 470km from Airlie beach to Rockhampton, mostly because there’s not much in between. After wending our way down and past the outskirts of Mackay, avoiding the 3 car pile up, we stopped on the side of the road in Koumala for a cup of tea. Much later, we strayed into Marlborough looking for the van park, found the pub instead and had a counter lunch. Found the van park on the way out chose to keep driving, only 102km more to Rocky. Van park in Rocky is just down the road from my Alma Mater, now called Central Queensland University, as opposed to University of Central Queensland (they must have nought to do, probably the result of a University Study leading to a PhD in Signology, I'd love to read the thesis, although its probably not called that) or the original title of Capricornia Institute of Technology. Now I think by now that I can claim to have been in a few van parks, but this one takes the cake. The driveway up between the cabins and vans must be ...

Apart from doing some exploring in the area between Airlie Beach and Proserpine, finding out some of the locals hidden secrets, we have been on two more ‘cruises’. The first was a sunset cruise on board Illusions. Any illusions we might have had about a nice comfortable relaxing cruise watching the sun set slowly in the west dissipated from the moment we were picked up. The little bus was hot and stuffy in the back and had the oddest smell – like paint or turps, and you couldn’t open any window and the air-con didn’t work. Once on board, even though it was crowded we found a comfortable enough possie and drank the complimentary plastic of champagne and munched away on the crackers and things. No mention was made of the sunset, which plopped down of its own accord behind us as we steamed out toward the headland. For whatever reason, they just kept going, for more than an hour in the same direction, only turning back after dark to retrace or steps. Now I don’t mind a boat ride, but ...

Ah gee golly gosh.  Who would have thought that this...  ...would turn into this...    In just 13 short years!!!!! Happy Birthday Andrew Love from Nanny & Poppy Airlie Beach, Qld

Derwent Hunter Cruise Today we went out at the crack of dawn on the 22m gaff rigged schooner, Derwent Hunter. Our luck was in, the wind, which had stayed away for the Hamilton Island race week, was up and blowing strongly. Up went the Fore, up went the Main, the Head and the Stay sails. For an old girl, this old tub cuts a pretty fine swath through the briny main! We anchored at Black Island and went snorkling; sadly the water at 20C was too cold for my liking even with a 2mm wet suit on. Talking of wetsuits, and snorkling in general, these people need to do themselves and their clients a favour and dump the whole rotten, worn out, perished lot and get some new gear. Anyhow the snorkling was good, not great, well not up to the outer reef, and in my opinion, not as good as the Low Isles. A second site, Caves Cay, was better, with more colourful coral on its small bommies and some good looking friendly fish. The crew were great, the boat is a good old timber craft, the...