Holiday at Home

Well my two week holiday at home has almost come to an end and it won't be long until we head back up north to where the car and van - Myrtle - are being stored. I have had such a joyous time at home, catching up with friends and indulging myself in my granddaughters environment. At 4 Clare is turning into quite a little miss, starting to now assert her personality. Mikayla at 2 has got a bit taller and she has now started stringing words together that by the look of her beaming smile she is quite proud of herself.

Clare

Mikayla

Last weekend we had a lovely family gathering while my son was down from Batemans Bay for the Melbourne Marathon. It was his first marathon and I couldn't be more proud of him in his preparation and commitment to such a huge challenge. He did the 42.195km run in 3hrs 20mins and finished 644th out of 6053 finishers. 

Hanging out in Hervey Bay, Queensland

Our drive from 1770 to Hervey Bay was a fairly uneventful 300 kms but we did encounter a couple of interesting bridges to be towing Myrtle (our van) over. 

This first one crossed over the train line, it was arched and the wood looked as though it could give way under us at any time. But luckily we got over it (twice) with no mishaps. 

Then the next was over a river, it was very skinny and really no sides to speak of. I think we both held our breath crossing over this one. 

So you could say our day have a couple of bridge challenges that added to our Aussie Adventure. 

I know Hervey Bay has loads of activities to do such as Whale Watching day tours, Frazer Island tours and loads of water activities but my reason for coming here is simply to have a couple of days just relaxing, sitting looking at the ocean infront of Myrlte, maybe checking out some shops, eating nice food and walking along the beach. And that's exactly what I have been doing. I haven't even been taking any photos except for the couple on my beach walk today.

1770, Queensland

In my Aussie Adventure research I had read and heard a must is the town of 1770, or as its official name is written Seventeen Seventy because it is so beautiful and one of the rare west facing beaches in Queensland. It has a permanent population of just under 80, that swells dramatically during holiday time and is situated on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

According to Wikipedia this is how the town gets its name.

Seventeen Seventy, also written as 1770, is a village in Queensland, Australia, built on the site of the second landing by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770 (Cook's first landing in what is now the state of Queensland). Originally known as Round Hill – after the creek it sits on – the name was changed in 1970 to commemorate the bicentennial of Cook's visit. The community of Seventeen Seventy hold the re-enactment of this historic landing in May each year as part of the 1770 Festival held in May.

I definitely agree it does look very nice and last night there was a pretty amazing sunset, but next time my visit won't be at the end of school holidays, on a Queensland long weekend and the night of the Rugby Grand Final when the both teams are from Queensland. The noise levels and excitement of the occasion didn't bother me at all because I was interested in the outcome of the game. But, there are just so many people here, I think most of Central Queensland have headed to this part of the world for the week/weekend!!!!! When we booked in we got the very last site available and it's a pretty big park. (We very rarely pre book where we want to stay, because we keep changing our mind where we are heading). Plus there are two families camped next to us, that seem very nice but OMG one of them can snore. I walked down to the toilet block and I could hear him three camps away. So that's why I'm sitting outside Myrtle at 6.30am listening to the birds, the garbage truck empty all the bins from this towns busy weekend and watching as the camper rise, have breakie and start packing up for their trip home. I have a feeling around 9.30/10ish there may be abut of a mass evacuation while everyone heads home. 

It's really funny what people are like around our country. Not to generalise but I find that people that are travelling in groups or are just away for a week or weekend don't tend to greet you easily, or sometimes even want to make eye contact as people who are on the road for months plus at a time. Long term travellers make eye contact metres away from you and not only is a good morning exchanged but more often than not a small (or sometimes long) conversation takes place. I find after I have been out on the road travelling for a while and I get back to the city I find out of habit I am saying hello to complete strangers on the street. Sometimes I get a hello back but sometimes I get a look of "who is that crazy lady talking too". Wouldn't it be nice if we could all greet at least one stranger everyday with a hello!!!! You never know it could be the only hello and smile they get for the day. 

Rockhampton

We decided to base ourselves in Rockhampton for a few days and drive around and see a few things in the area. Back February 19, 2015 this area was hit by category 5 severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia. Many hundreds of houses were damaged and Marcia caused in excess of A$750 million in damages. Driving around there is still a lot of evidence of this natural disaster. Yesterday we went for a tourist drive to Yeppoon then onto Emu Park and back to Rocky. Driving to Yeppoon there were so many trees down. Yeppoon is a real seaside village, renowned for its beaches and its tropical climate, so we decided to have brunch there.

Next it was onto Emu Bay, which as Yeppoon it also has a real tropical, friendly feel. One attraction I had read about in Emu Park was the "Singing Ship Monument". I had no idea what it was but wanted to check it out. The Singing Ship commemorates Captain Cook's Bicentenery in 1970 and marks his discovery of the bay in May 1770. The memorial represents the billowing sail, mast and rigging of his ship Endeavour. Concealed organ pipes use the sea breeze to create eerie music. As it was quite a windy day we were treated to some amazing singing. 

This morning we headed out of town to Mt Hay to do some more fossicking, this time for "Thunder Eggs". I hear you ask "What is a Thunder Egg?"  

According to Wikipedia - 

A thunderegg (or thunder egg) is a nodule-like rock, similar to a filled geode, that is formed within rhyolitic volcanic ash layers. Thundereggs are rough spheres, most about the size of a baseball—though they can range from less than an inch to over a metre across.



Once again we had heaps of fun and came away with some pretty impressive pieces of 12 million year old pieces of rock. 






Who would have that inside this- 

Was this-