This morning at Sapphire CP, my outside sensor showed plus 7.7° at 7:05am.

I finally woke Marg about 7:30am, we finished packing up and said our goodbyes to Jenny - next door neighbour, Dave and Judy - neighbours at the back, and Keith. We emptied the 'shitter' at the Sapphire Dump Point in downtown Sapphire. We stopped about 4 times between Sapphire and Rockhampton, finally, arriving at Southside Holiday Village at 1:10pm, spent the afternoon just relaxing in the van. We received Analogue and Digital, so there is no need to setup the Satellite Dish.

At 6:30pm, I rushed outside and put Marg's chair undercover, it was raining, all of 5 minutes, then stopped.

Tomorrow, we are off to Glenlodge CP, Bundy for restocking our Bundy Liqueurs.

This morning at Southside CP, my outside sensor showed plus 12.9° at 6:45am.

I finally woke Marg about 7:15am, I unhitched and drove into Rocky to get diesel. We finished packing up and left Rocky about 8:45am. The drive was easy and uneventful along the Bruce Hwy until Miriam Vale then we took the direct route to Bundaberg. We arrived at Glenlodge CP at 12:32pm, after a quick setup, Marg and I drove to the Bundy distillery and bought a 3 bottle Bundy liqueur pack for $115, on the way back to camp, we called into Across the Waves Club, to check out when dinner starts. During the afternoon, I was talking to Jay, our eldest son, who also showed an interest in the Bundy Liqueur, so I drove back and bought another 3 bottle pack.

Finally, back at camp from the Bundy run, we got ourselves organised and left about 4:30pm for the Club, Marg played the pokies and I had a couple of chilled refreshers. Dinner was a chicken parma and Marg had roast pork, both meals were very yumma.

Tomorrow, we are off to Fraser Lodge CP, Hervey Bay for 6 nights.

This morning at Glenlodge CP, my outside sensor showed plus 8.3° at 6:50am.

I woke Marg about 7:00am, we finished packing up and left Bundy about 8:45am, we weren't in any hurry as we only had 121kms to go and I didn't want to get there to early, just in case they wouldn't let us in.
The drive was easy and except for one 'prick' who was driving along the Isis hwy at 75kph, then put on his left indicator and pulled over, then without warning pulls back onto the road, by this stage we had just past him, so I tooted him, and he did the same, I don't think that he realised what he did. Dickhead.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, driving into Hervey Bay from the North, reminded me of the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, heaps of Shopping plazas and big Retail shops. We arrived at Forest Lodge Holiday Park at 10:54am, I did a full setup, awning, water and sullage hoses and the Satellite Dish plus clothes line.
Early afternoon, we went for a drive around Hervey Bay, down to the wharf, where the whale watching boats dock. Hervey Bay is a lovely place, there is heaps more to check out. Our park is 200m from the beach with a great assortment of shops also within walking distance. We are so impressed with our Caravan park that I am not going to check out any others. We did drive past about 6 other parks, without going out of our way to look for them.

Tomorrow, we are off Whale watching, so that should be good fun, the forecast is for 20kph wind, so it will be rough, I hope that Marg isn't seasick.

No photos for today.

This morning at Fraser Lodge HP, my outside sensor showed plus 9.5° at 6:30am.

I woke Marg at 6:30am, as the bus is picking us up from reception at 7:55am and taking us to the Whalesong boat at the marina. The boat left the wharf approx 8:15am and was scheduled to arrive back at approx 2pm. There were approx 30 people on board of which 19 came from our caravan park. We were the fourth tour boat to leave this morning, as the other 3 boats do 2 tours per day and are on a very tight schedule. We had a fair bit of luck with us, we saw the first whales a pod of two about 30 minutes into the trip, this was mainly due to the other boats finding them first and radioing their position. After that, we saw a pod of three and then it was time for morning tea and muffins. We stayed on the front deck and as everyone went inside to get morning tea, Marg and I were left alone at the front, when suddenly one of the whales surfaced about 5 meters from where we were, I took a photo but as I photographed the whale his blow (water from his blowhole) wet both of us including the camera, that's why a couple of the photos have spray on the lens but I kept shooting, because I didn't want to miss the opportunity. Within a few seconds, the front deck was covered with people, but we were in the best position. We then continued further east, along the North West coast of Fraser Island, where we came across some dolphins. These dolphins came to play and surfed our bow wave it was brilliant. The sea was getting a bit choppy with a 20knot Southerly, so we headed back and found another pod of three whales, then went in closer to Fraser island where it was calmer and we had lunch, which consisted of Quinche, chicken and salad. Very Yumma.

After lunch we continued back towards port, but our skipper wanted to show us a different breed of dolphin, which usually are about 2 kms from port, on our way there, we came across another 2 whales in relatively shallow water (4.2m deep), we turned off the engines and drifted with the whales, they were inquisitive, I took a video of them. Finally, we arrived back at dock about 2:30pm. It was a top day and we are both suffering from wind burn. Marg didn't get seasick, no one did.

Tomorrow, we are off Fraser Island for an eco tour, so that should be good fun.

Video of Whale watching here - goes for 1 minute 23 secs.

This morning at Fraser Lodge HP, my outside sensor showed plus 9.1° at 6:40am.

I woke Marg at 6:15am, as the bus is picking us up from reception at 7:45am and taking us to the barge at River Heads. We were the 2nd pickup of the day and the only people from our caravan park. There were 28 people on our tour, about 6 Aussies and then New Zealanders, English, France and other Europeans. The barge "Fraser Venture" was waiting for us, it had approx 10 4WDs and probably 100 people on board. It took approx 45minutes to get against the Great Sandy Straits to Wanggoolba Creek. Our 4WD coach was on the island waiting for us, so we all got on and then off we went to our first stop which is called Central Station, except there were no trains. It is in a rainforest and the trees were absolutely brilliant, tall as and straight as. Fritz our guide took us on a walking tour of the rainforest and the streams on Fraser Is are crystal clear and all fresh water. Back on the bus and off to Eurong, which is on the east side of the Island, the roads are sandy tracks through the forests and are as rough as guts, we had to wear seatbelts in the coach as you are thrown about in your seats. we eventually got to Eurong and it was an experience, so bloody rough, but good fun. Now we drove through 'town' and onto the beach where we headed for the 'coloured sands' about 40kms north along the beach. The speed limit on the beach is 80kph with some sections at 30kph. On our way to Coloured Sands, we stopped at the Happy Valley Resort for lunch. Lunch was all you could eat cold meat and salads, very nice. The streets of the Happy Valley Resort are sandy and all driving is in 4WD low, on the beach it is 4WD high. After lunch back onto the beach and continued heading North to the Coloured Sands. On the way, we spotted a dingo just going about its business, it ignored us. We got to the Coloured Sands, it was pretty spectacular. Next stop on the way back, was the Japanese shipwreck Maheno, then we stopped at Eli Creek, which was crystal clear like all the waterways. Continued along the beach back to Eorong and then back to the very rough sandy tracks to Lake Birrabeen, which would be better appreciated if it was summer, because it was too cool to swim. We got back to the barge terminal about 4:50pm for a 5pm departure.
Marg and I were tired after all day bouncing about in a 4WD coach, so the smoothness of the barge was greatly appreciated. A last added bonus was sailing into a setting sun, the views were stunning. Back at River Heads, we got back into our coach and arrived back at our caravan park at approx 6:30pm. A very long day for us, but a ripper of a day.

Tomorrow, we are relaxing and with a bit of luck, I may go for my first ride of this trip.

This morning at Fraser Lodge HP, my outside sensor showed plus 11.5°.

I woke about 7:30 and Marg woke a lot later, as we were both knackered after our 2 full days of whale watching and 4 Wheel Driving.
After getting myself organised, I headed off to Bunnings for a 5m chain and padlocks to secure my mountain bike to the van. Mid morning, I decided to go for a ride down to the marina and back along the bikepath that hugs the foreshore. It was a beautiful 13.7km ride, riding is a great way to see the area because you can ride into places that you normally can't visit. eg marinas. I visited the Urangan Pier it is 868 meters long. While I was riding, Marg was relaxing at camp. The only other thing that we did was, during the afternoon, we walked down to our local shops about 200m from camp and it just happen to have a souvenir shop amongst the shops, so we bought a few things, such as, Humphrey the Hump Back Whale to keep Paddy company. That's right you haven't seen or heard about Paddy. Marg bought Paddy in Inverell in Celtic country, Paddy is a leprechaun. We also bought a set of Georges (Pelicans), but they are securely wrapped in bubble wrap.
Late today, it rained, we were not happy.

Tomorrow, we have food shopping to do.

This morning at Fraser Lodge HP, my outside sensor showed plus 12.5°.

I woke about 7:00 and listened to Macca on the ABC radio. Marg woke later, we had breakky and then drove into downtown Pailba to Coles for some food supplies. After lunch I dropped Marg at the RSL to play the pokies and I stayed back at camp and worked on the website, as I was getting behind. I picked up Marg after she rang me, and we drove down to the Hervey Bay Boat Club, where we will have dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Marg wants to go to the markets somewhere between here and Maryborough and I want to ride, weather permitting.

This morning at Fraser Lodge HP, my outside sensor showed plus 13.0°.

I woke about 7:00 and switched on Ch 7's Sunrise, so we laid in bed and watched it until 7:30am.

Today we plan to drive to a craft shop for Marg and hopefully, I will go for a ride in the afternoon, I will start packing up camp. About 4pm, we leave for the Hervey Bay Boat Club for pokies, beer and dinner.
This morning I rode to John from Touring Oz forum and met his wife Bev and chatted with them for 30 minutes, then I left them and continued on my way to Point Vernon via the bikepath, being Monday, there were hardly any people on the bikepath to annoy me, except for 3 ladies walking their dogs, they decided that right in the middle of bikepath would be a great spot to stop and chat, they couldn't move 1 meter either way and be standing on beautiful grass. No, they had to stand in the middle of the bikepath. Typical.
About 11:30, Marg and I headed for the Australiana Cottage Craft and Herb Farm, this is a lovely place run by a young couple, they had some amazing things. I bought a beautiful painting of a whale on a tile, Marg bought an outside dunny. On the way back to camp, we called into Big W for a browse and bought nothing. H'Amazing.

I am about to start packing up in readiness for tomorrow's departure to Dicky Beach. We are leaving here at 3:45pm for the Hervey Bay Boat Club for pokies, beer and dinner tonight. Back from the Boat Club, what a brilliant place, Marg loved the pokies, I sat out on the balcony and had a couple of chilled refreshers overlooking the marina and the meal was excellent. Marg had crumbed prawns and I had veal schnitzel(sp). We are even thinking, if we come back to Hervey Bay, we will stay at the Harbour View CP. It is over the road from the HB Boat Club.

Tomorrow, We leave Hervey Bay and are booked in at Dicky Beach for 1 week.

Our current itinerary:

1. Hervey Bay - 1 nights
2. Dicky Beach - 7 nightsv
3. Southport - 49 nights.
4. Somewhere between Southport and Home - 21 nights.