Whale of a time in Hervey Bay Qld August 18-24 2016

Whale of a time in Hervey Bay Qld August 18-24 2016

There really is only two reasons for going to Hervey Bay: whale watching and Fraser Island

Having been to Fraser half a dozen times or more and knowing that for the day tripper the options of places to go and see are limited basically to Kingfisher Bay, Lake McKenzie and Central Station, we chose to not go there this year.

We did however take a handful of whale watching brochures from the info store on the jetty and study them diligently over a coffee and rather nice muffin. Our conclusion was that the Whalesong 1/2 day tour including morning tea and lunch was the best value-for-money and so we subsequently made the booking.

Hervey Bay's most prominent feature is the Esplanade culminating in the 868m long wharf, which is mandatory to walk at least once a day. We found ourselves there on sunset and as the tide was just about fully out leaving exposed sand banks,  it presented a photo opportunity not to be missed.

Pier, Hervey Bay Qld

Pier, Hervey Bay Qld

The Happy Wanderer CP en-suite sites are a bit weird, in that the en-suite is a pentagonal shaped building. leaving you 5 van spots that run at weird angles to each other and to the parallel roads, one on each side. Apart from the odd feeling one gets when your environments alignment is askew, the bathrooms themselves are old, tired and bordering on being decrepit. To top it off, the pools are frigid, but at least it was a more structured place where you could lay in the sun and do a crossword for an hour or two. What with the dodgy van parking, the freezing pools and the inclement weather, we tended to spend most of every day somewhere else, like:

Whale watching

Between us we took another swag of mostly useless snaps of whale splashes and near misses. You have to be patient and wait for them to come to the boat and if you're lucky, they might put on a bit of a show. Here's a few I kept

Judy keeping a sharp eye out for whales about Whalesong, Hervey Bay Qld

And there she blows, as they say

Whales, Hervey Bay Qld

Whales, Hervey Bay Qld

Night carnival

These small places seem to like having street parades promoting something important like Reef Week, Save the Whale or Beautify the Bay. Who knows? It's odd in as much as there is never any real publicity given to the beneficiary event, so to an outsider they may as well have been supporting the 'Keep the mood blue' campaign. In this case it was even odder, there was not 1 sign about the carnival, nothing. Judy heard about it 3rd hand from some obscure source. We went up anyway and sat and ate fish and chips as the floats floated by with lots of fish type decorations and heaps of kids all dressed up and the like. They even had a lone pipe band. Entertaining enough for the 25 minutes or so it took to go past. We elected not to go and get involved in the carnival itself, which is purely the sideshow mob come to town. We've seen enough of them on the highway, thank you.


Caravan and Leisure show

We thought we'd amuse ourselves by doing the country type thing and driving the 60km to Maryborough so that we could go to the show - well, the Caravan, Home and Leisure Show at least. It was heaps bigger than we expected and we took a good old stroll around the whole lot, poking our snouts into every van, even though they are all the same. We came across a thing called a Jergens, which is South African and now available in Australia, I'm not sure if they are made here or not. They were the only ones that were to our liking inside and if you could get over the butt-ugly front of the thing you might even get serious about looking properly.

What also surprised us was that the Jayco was also almost ok inside, and they certainly are cheaper than all the others.

All aboard the Express. Caravan Show, Maryborough Qld

Random street of show vans. Caravan Show, Maryborough Qld

Look, just like the ones dad made back in 1955! Caravan Show, Maryborough Qld

Botanic Gardens

Almost every town we've been in has a Botanic Garden hidden away somewhere and Hervey Bay was no exception. It was literally two blocks away from us and is a little gem inside, featuring a large lake with fountains, bridges, duck-weed and a flight of ducks.

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

These ducks were paddling furiously across the surface in all directions with their beaks / bills just under the surface of the water and duck-weed. They appeared to be eating something else, perhaps wigglers or something, not the actual weed.

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

The garden also sports a Orchid House, which one has to pay a small fee to enter, and which contains a nice, compact collection of orchids.

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

Botanic Gardens. Hervey Bay Qld

That was about it for us and Hervey Bay, so until we need to see whales again, it's good bye