Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Hervey Bay Qld August 12th 2024 Rained lightly all night, eased off while we packed our proverbial tent and left Rockhampton for Hervey Bay. Drizzled all the way down to Miriam Vale, where we pulled in for a break. Back on the road, and I have to say that its not been too bad, we hit heavy patches of rain and just kept ploughing on through to Hervey Bay. Van park is one we stayed in years again, and doesn’t look like anythings changed in that time, except that the now more numerous potholes are deeper. Or site was built for small rig, we only just managed to get it in and even so we are hanging over the back of their slab by a metre, just so the drawbar isn’t sticking out onto the road. These old van parks are all in trouble now that all the clever people are now driving Chevrolet Silverados or Rams and towing 20metre long palaces on wheels. Went out for some lunch. Settled for a bacon and egg roll and some chips from a choke ’n puke. Found the supermarket, grabbed some thing...

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, ...

Nullarbor Roadhouse SA May 7, 2015 Last but one to leave the van park this morning and made the 380km trip over to the Nullarbor Roadhouse in fairly easy style, stopping only at Border Town for a rest and a coffee. We filled up at Nullarbor and had some lunch before deciding to stay rather than go any further, besides, we could then take our time going the 25 odd km side tripe to have another look at the Head of the Bight. Sadly we are still too early for the whales, just as well that Judy ‘captured’ one on the wall of the cafe before we went out. Certainly had the lady on the desk at the visitor centre going for a while! Whale. Nullarbor Roadhouse SA Kimba SA May 8 2015 From Nullarbor we kept travelling East toward Ceduna. At Ceduna we stopped at the west-east quarantine station, but we had eaten our fruit and cooked all or veggies this time, so we had nothing to offer. Leaving Ceduna we started looking for lunch, which we found by turning off the Eyre Highway, over the ...

We were due to leave here today, but as the weather is still not great anywhere from here to Port Douglas, we decided to extend ourselves for another week. Actually, it's a reflection of this place, its just so relaxed and easy to be in, neither of us could see any point in leaving to go somewhere else. We took some exercise by walking up to the shops: its a bit of a climb up 10,000 steps (That's how many Judy counted, and would she fib to me?) The steps go through some bushland and we enjoyed looking at the various wildflowers, and some not so wild - positively tame actually, and listening to the million or so Bell Birds and a few thousand whip birds. You can only listen to them, i'll be damned if i can see them. Actually we might have looked straight at one, but it was way up in a tree and no camera... This afternoon, we walked over to the beach to see what it was like at high tide. You see, it's not like an ordinary beach, well not at the moment at least, because...

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...