Thomas Family Road Trip: Hervey Bay (21/3/12

Friday, 23 March 2012

Hervey Bay (21/3/12 - 23/3/12)

Once again the forecast was for very heavy rain on 22/3/12, so we thought we should keep moving as we didn't want to be driving during bad weather. So we reluctantly left Rainbow Beach, headed for Tin Can Bay, 40kms away. Tin Can Bay turned on the rain for us, but despite this it was a nice small coastal fishing town. Unfortunately none of the caravan parks appealed to us, so we kept on driving another 110kms to Hervey Bay. On the way we passed through Maryborough and we discovered that Maryborough was the place of birth of the author of "Mary Poppins". Ben was very excited to spot Mary Poppins in the main street (her statue of course)!

Hervey Bay turned on the rain for us too - in fact it did not stop until the following morning. One positive was that the kids got lots of schoolwork done.

Hervey Bay is a town of 75,000 and is known for its whale watching and close proximity to Fraser Island. We stayed in a caravan park on the waterfront, which was perfect as the kids had great fun finding hermit crabs and building houses for them.

Our second day in Hervey Bay was warm, sunny and without the rain that was predicted. It bypassed Hervey Bay thank goodness. Unfortunately, Maroochydore and Mooloolaba, where we had been last week had torrential rain, resulting in 200 properties being flooded. Lucky for us but very sad for all the people affected.

We made the most of the sunshine and spent a couple of hours at Wet Side, a free waterpark next door to the caravan park. The kids had an absolute ball. Plus they had it to themselves most of the time.

We left Hervey Bay on Friday not knowing if we would get through to Bundaberg. We had more rain overnight and we were worried some roads may be closed. We discovered that trying to find out road conditions in Queensland is quite difficult. As it was we had only gone 35kms when we came across a closed section on the road!! A new experience for us... Before working out an alternative route, some locals and two truck drivers convinced us and some other travellers it was fine to pass. It was not fast flowing and was only 20cms deep, so after watching them safely cross, we pushed on and made it to the other side unscathed. The kids thought it was very "cool".

We stopped at Childers on the way and sampled and bought some of their local peanuts at the Peanut Van. Yumm! Childers was a beautiful town, with very much a small country town feel and lovely old buildings. Childers sadly was where a backpacker hostel was set on fire, killing a number of people, including two Lake Grace girls, ten years ago.

We arrived in Bundaberg early afternoon...the priority for Simon being to visit the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.