Sweet, Sweet Bundaberg

We drove from Inskip Point to Hervey Bay to visit Dan’s Uncle David and Auntie Heather. We booked into a caravan park within walking distance to their house and once we were settled in we walked to their house for lunch.

We spent a great afternoon outside, having a delicious BBQ, cooked by David, sitting next to their pool and watching Will splash around.

Sam impressed Heather with his tech skills when he fixed a problem she had with her camera, and David was huge hit with the boys when he gave them some of his old fishing rods to keep.

We walked home in the dark with very full bellies after a really enjoyable afternoon.

We woke early the next day and went for a quick drive around Hervey Bay. It is a lovely place and one which we will come back to another day. But for now we are heading on to Bundaberg.

We camped at a free camp called Sharon Gorge Nature Reserve. It was a nice spot, with toilets, electric BBQs, and a pretty walk to a lookout over the Gorge. Unfortunately when we walked down there it started to pour with rain and we all got very wet!

Zaccy showing me his 'angry face'!

The boys found another great tree to climb

We got VERY wet on our walk!!!

We took a drive into Bundaberg and were very surprised at how spread out the town is. It made sense once we thought about it. Bundaberg is mostly made up of Sugar Cain Fields and in between each field is a small group of houses. We assume the residents of each group of houses is responsible / or was responsible for the surrounding fields.

We decided not to go in to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery but went past the building and got a few good photos.

We also drove past the Bundaberg Ginger Beer Factory and the Bundaberg Sugar Refinery.

We once again met up with our friends Mark and Amanda at the campground and had a BBQ dinner with them that night. After their trip into town, where Amanda stayed in the caravan and did some schoolwork with the kids, and Mark went on a tour of the Rum Distillery and sampled a few too many of the goods, Amanda had to drive the car and van back to the campsite. While driving they blew a tire on their van so spent the next morning getting it repaired.

While they were fixing their blow out, we went into the Botanical Gardens and went to the Bert Hinkler Museum.

 Bert Hinkler was an Australian aviator and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia, and the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean

In the Hinkler Museum

Having a go on the flight simulator

Learning the quickstep.

We had lunch in the Botanical Gardens then headed off towards the town of 1770 where we will camp for the next week.

Bert Hinkler's house, relocated here from England

The Coloured Sands

After packing up and saying goodbye to our new friends, we headed off for the three hour drive to Inskip Point. On the way we went through towns in and around Gympie and we were surprised at how run down they were. They looked like almost-deserted old farming towns that have definitely seen better days.

We arrived at the Information Centre in Rainbow Beach and went inside to book a campsite on the Point. We didn’t realise that it had been a long weekend in Queensland and the woman at the service counter was fairly sure we wouldn’t get a van our size in any of the campgrounds. We decided to go up there anyway and try our luck.



Our campsite



After filling the van with water, and posting the kids schoolwork in Rainbow Beach we headed out to the Point. We were lucky enough to squeeze into to the end campsite. We were hoping to get onto the inland side where there is a beautiful quiet bay which would be perfect for the kids to

swim in, but it was way too sandy and very soft. We were worried that even if we got in, we wouldn’t be able to get back out. So we settled for a lovely little spot on the surf side in the bush. We made sure we left enough room in case Mark and Amanda wanted to join us.



The boy's new treehouse



As you do when you are travelling, we very quickly got talking to our neighbours. They have been travelling for a long time and had so much knowledge to share with us. Peter was an ex-fisherman and had a lot to teach me later on in the week. They had a beautiful little pet bird who travelled with them. A gorgeous Rainbow Lorikeet called Lucky, who snuggled up inside Denise’s jumper around the campfire at night.



That first night we went down to the surf beach to check it out. Inskip Point is where the barge leaves to go over to Fraser Island. From the beach we had great views of the Island and we watched a magnificent sunset over the ocean.

A beautiful full moon

The following day I received a very excited phone call from my Mum. My brother and his wife had just had their fourth baby boy. I suddenly got very homesick and wanted to be able to give my new nephew a big cuddle. When I spoke to my brother later that day, he and his wife were already at home with their new baby. No mucking around, waiting at the hospital for those two!

That afternoon we drove right to the point where the barge leaves from and waited on the beach for our friends, Mark and Amanda to arrive. The kids thought it was really cool that we could see them lining up on the opposite beach waiting to get on the boat. While we waited we had fun playing in the sand.

The Woods are in the first car

The boat arrived and we had a few celebratory drinks on the beach while the kids jumped around very excitedly.

While in town one day, Dan surprised me with an early anniversary present. A new 12 foot surf fishing rod! I had been keen to get a fishing rod and was so excited. I couldn’t wait to get home and ask Peter a tonne of questions about fishing.

The following day Mark and I went into town so I could buy and fill a tackle box. We headed straight to the beach and had a great time trying out my new rod. I got heaps of bites but I was just about to give up and go back to camp when I caught a decent sized flathead. I was like a little girl on Christmas morning. Everyone on the beach knew I had caught my first fish as I was jumping up and down and yelling for joy! After I composed myself I decided to throw the fish back. It was a legal size but not big enough for all of us to enjoy. I didn’t mind at all, I was just so happy to have caught it.

What d'ya got there Mummy?

Dan's first EVER fish!!

We spent the next few day fishing, sitting around the campfire, playing on the beach and simply relaxing. We were in a beautiful place with great friends and we were having a wonderful time.

The kids wanted to ‘camp out’ for the night and begged us to let them sleep in the tent together. I decided to keep Zaccy in with us but Sam, Will, Charlotte and Jake slept out in the tent for the night.

As you can imagine they went to bed very late after giggling and chatting and telling ghost stories, and then they all woke up very early the next morning.

As we were already all awake, we thought we might as well make the most of it. We headed to Tin Can Bay where we had heard that you can feed the dolphins if you get there early enough. It was one of the most wonderful experiences that I have had. Will got so close to them that he could touch them, and Charlotte was so excited when she got to feed one a fish.

It was a bit cold in the water early in the morning!

This dolphin took a real liking to Will and kept coming back.

Charlotte feeding a fish to the dolphin

The dolphins at Tin Can Bay are wild dolphins that have been coming into the bay for generations and are well-known by the locals.

Tin Can Bay

What a life! Chatting and fishing..

The kids spent hours in the sand!

One afternoon Amanda and I went to the beach to do some more fishing (Mark had followed Dan’s lead and bought Amanda a rod the same as mine). We caught a few little ones then I landed a big Taylor. After some culinary advice from Peter and Denise, we cooked it up that night and all had a taste. It was beautiful!

Amanda and her new rod..

..and me with mine

Another beautiful sunset

Dan having a go.

My first 'real' catch. What a beauty!!

After a visit into town and a picnic lunch, we said goodbye to Mark and Amanda again. We are all heading in the same direction, so will catch up with them again next week.

A picnic at Rainbow beach

After the Woods left we went for a drive on the beach at Rainbow Beach. Rainbow Beach gets its name from the many different coloured sands in the cliffs along the surf beach. We spent a magical afternoon, driving along the sand and collecting different coloured sands in a bottle. We all took it in turns to put a different colour in and we came out with a beautiful masterpiece! As we drove back to our camp the sand got packed down into the bottle, so there was a gap at the top. Sam and I decided it would be a really good idea to fill to top of the neck up with sand from our campsite. It is a beautiful souvenir from a fantastic part of our trip.