Hervey Bay and the Seafood Feast!

After leaving Surfer's Paradise, we decided to head up to a beach area called Noosa Heads. Noosa is about 135 km's north of Brisbane and is known for beautiful beaches and tourism. We spent about 2 hours on the road due to construction and heavy traffic before arriving. We found our way to the main beach but it was so congested and filled with vehicles, Dan dropped me at the tourist information centre and circled around while I got information about accommodations. As you can imagine, I was starting to feel a bit tense because of the business of the area and being the navigator, I could sense what was to come. I got a map with 3 parks circled and headed back to car where Dan and the boys were waiting.
As I hopped in, Dan asked me for directions and it all went downhill from there. There were round - a - bouts with strangely angled exits, winding roads, creeks, bridges and traffic! Dan remained relatively calm but I could not navigate my way through this labyrinth! He kept asking me where to turn etc... and I couldn't match the roads we were driving on with the map I was holding. It was like they were 2 different places. I began to despise Noosa before I even set a toe on the beach. I just wanted to get out and never return - beautiful beach or not! After probably a good hour or more, we finally found a Big 4 Caravan Park - on the outskirts of Noosa. Before even setting up camp, Dan and I each had a good drink - he, a beer and me, well something stronger.
After that, Dan left in the camper to get some groceries for dinner and the boys and I went to the pool, the bouncy pillow (see pic of Jack above) and explored. It was getting dark and chilly but Dan had not yet returned. The poor wet boys were starting to shiver so we huddled around the laundry room until Dan got back - turns out he got lost in the Noosa Maze - expletive expletive! We really couldn't wait to leave Noosa the next morning!
The next morning we were up early and headed toward Hervey Bay. It is worth noting that as we travelled the stretch of road from the Queensland Border, we encountered many areas that had been affected by the floods earlier in the year. there was a lot of road work to repair damage done by the flooding and you could see places where debris was still left from the waters coming through. As we came through Maryborough, we noticed how high off the ground many of the homes were built (see photo). You could essentially see right through the bottom story of the homes as they are sitting on stilts. Some homes had their cars parked BELOW the home. It was eery to imagine that water could get high enough to nearly touch the front door!
Hervey Bay is a peaceful and picturesque seaside city - WAY quieter than Noosa was and easy to get into. It is best known as the Whale Watch Capital and the home of the World Heritage listed Fraser Island. Unfortunately for us, we were about 3 weeks too early for the whale watching season but we hope to catch up to them at some point before we leave! Because of Dan's imminent return date to Canada, we had to cut out road trip about 4 days short so Hervey Bay was our northern most stop. It was well worth it as it was calm, beautiful and quiet! We decided to spend 2 days here before starting out trip home.

The beach was lovely and we got to see a pod of dolphins fishing just off shore. They work as a team to swim circles around a school of fish and we would see them surface or leap as they tried to catch their prey. We also saw birds diving to take advantage of the dolphin's hard work. With the shelter of Fraser Island, the bay stayed calm the entire time we were there. Sam and Jake played "ping pong" on the water with a soccer ball and Jack actually went in on his own up to his waist! Dan and I ventured in but it was chilly - or maybe we are getting wimpy. Anyway, I did not submerge and Dan says he did but I didn't see it.

Jacob decided to try to dig his way to ... Canada? With the beach being so quiet, we were able to get a couple of family beach soccer games going. They were so much fun and great exercise after sitting in the car for so many hours!

We had a lovely site at Hervey Bay only about 30 steps from being in the ocean. This was
a fabulous perk. I must say that I was a bit surprised that there were not more kids around -It was school holidays after all. What we did find was a lot of elderly campers or "Grey Nomads" they are called here. They are Canada's equivalent to Snowbirds but they travel North in Winter to escape the cold rather than South. I began to feel like we were vacationing in a retirement village and everywhere I looked, the Nomads were sitting in their outdoor loungers, alongside their campers, watching us like we were reality TV. I expected to see them at the beach, or heading out to go golfing, fishing, biking, touring, but they like to sit and watch - or sleep - in their loungers. Dan said that if they were at home, they would probably be watching TV in their house so this way at least, they are getting fresh air. I don't know...

Future Grey Nomad????


The Seafood Feast

We kept talking about how great it would be to get some great local seafood for dinner one night on our trip but try as we might, we couldn't seem to find any. Just when we were giving up hope, we got to chatting with a local couple who were walking along the beach and they gave us the INSIDE scoop! We hurried off and after a couple of loops and wrong turns, found a little seafood shop right around the docks area of Hervey Bay. We were able to purchase a kilogram of huge Banana Prawns and a half kilogram of sea scallops for $27.00. We picked up some wine, Tasmanian butter, some garlic and lemon and hurried back for our feast. As you can see, it was divine!

Prawns in butter and garlic - mmmmm - sizzle sizzle!

Digging in!

The boys fighting off a shark attack before leaving Hervey Bay.

Sugar cane is a huge crop in Queensland. Bundaberg, north of Hervey Bay makes rum from the Sugar Cane. Next time we'll have to get there to try some!

As we were taking the long road back to Narrandera, we said goodbye to the coast and took in the interior landscape seeing giant cacti, trees I could not identify and more roadkill kangaroo than I have seen alive!

The trip home was bittersweet as we knew that Dan was leaving for Canada in a couple of days and that our family adventure would be changed.

Now that Dan is safely in Canada, we are looking forward to his return in a few months. In the meantime, we have my Mom and Dad's visit to look forward to in September. We can't wait for them to come and to experience some more Australian sights and culture with us!