ON THE WAY HOME

Since leaving Hervey Bay we have been slowly wending our way home.

Our first stop was Caloundra were we spent five days lounging around the caravan park and having the car serviced.

While we were waiting for the car to be ready we went to the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre at Maroochydore. This is a very big shopping centre which straddles Cornmeal Creek and has around 220 shops



The caravan park was at Dicky Beach a suburb of Caloundra and is right on the water. Dicky Beach is the only recreational beach in the world to be named after a shipwreck.










And as you can see there is not much left of it.











 Fishing off the rocks on the point at Dicky Beach.
                                        
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Ballina was our next stop were we spent a couple of days resting before continuing our journey.





Ballina is situated where the Richmond River reaches the sea.

Sunset over Shaw's Bay where our caravan park was.





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 Next stop is a little place called Repton, about 20km's south of Coffs Harbour where we have been camping beside the Bellinger River. This is quite a peaceful place except when the trains cross the river, which thankfully is only a couple of times a day.






We went for a drive to a little town called Bellingen further inland on the Bellinger River. It is a very hippish type of town with lots of art and craft type shops. It also has a lot of it's original buildings.

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Our next stop was Teralba, situated on the northern most tip of Lake Macquarie which is an outer suburb of Newcastle. Lake Macquarie is one of largest coastal salt water lakes in Australia and is four times the size of Sydney Harbour.

There are many little bays like this all around the lake.



We went into Newcastle for the day and I would have to say that we were not very impressed with the CBD area. It is very old and not at all busy. It was also very hilly!

To be fair I think they are in a huge rebuilding phase since BHP left town. The foreshore area has been re-developed and looking quite good. The picture opposite is of the old Customs House.

Of course Newcastle is still the busiest port in Australia with shipping of coal to China and other countries it's main export.














Some visitors whilst we were having lunch at the foreshore.






This picture is of Nobby's Beach and the Lighthouse at the entrance to the Hunter River.

We took a tour of Newcastle in this tourist Tram to see some of the historic sites around the town.




 We had a day trip to Caves Beach as you can tell by the name has lots of caves which are only accessible at low tide.

This was taken from inside the largest cave on the beach.
                                         
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After having navigated through Sydney without any hassles our next stop was Kiama. This is a lovely seaside town with it's main claim to fame a Blowhole discovered by George Bass on his coastal explorations in 1797.

The day we visited, it was blowing but not at it's best. None the less still quite impressive.

 

The caravan park we were staying in afforded some great views over the surf beach and towards Blowhole Point.

 It was also fairly full as there was a Hot Rod Show on in town and there were quite a number of fabulous looking cars in our park as you can see by the following photos. The little caravan was being towed by a black hot rod car and what about the matching green car and caravan.

 

There was a vintage hearse and it's owner had a great sense of humour. The number plate as 'Ghooly' and he travelled with a coffin in the back!

 

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 Our next to last stop was Narooma. We have always driven through this little seaside town but this time we decided to stay a couple of days to see what it has to offer. It is situated on Wagonga Inlet and has quite a maritime history. Just of the coast is Montague Island which is home to seal and penguin colonies as well as many varieties of fish.




We stayed at a caravan park which overlooked the surf beach, and next to the Narooma Golf Course which looks like it would be a real challenge to play.
Below is the view half way down the seventh hole!

There is also a hole in a rock near the entrance to the inlet that resembles a map of Australia. The locals call it 'Australia Rock'.

Our next stop was Merimbula where we stayed for a couple of days before finally heading for home. We are now spending the night in Bairnsdale and will complete our holiday tomorrow when we arrive home.

We have had a great holiday, travelled around 7,000 km's and have been to many interesting places and seen many beautiful sights.

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HERVEY BAY

After leaving Cania Gorge we headed east back towards the coast and Hervey Bay. On the way we stayed overnight at a free camp at Apple Tree Creek which was just 7 km's outside of Childers. It was quite fortuitous that the Apple Tree Creek Hotel was only 200 metres from the camp so off  we went for a lovely meal.

Childers is a small country town and is probably remembered most for the back packer fire that occurred in 2000. It is situated on a ridge overlooking fruit and vegetable fields. It has many beautiful historic buildings.






As it was a relatively short drive to Hervey Bay the next day we decided to go via the historic town of Maryborough which is situated on the Mary River. Maryborough has a number of heritage listed buildings and is also the birthplace of P.L. Travers the author of the Mary Poppins stories.












Then after wandering around Maryborough for a couple of hours and soaking up the atmosphere we headed off to Hervey Bay

 

To our amazement Hervey Bay was a much larger town than we thought. We had pictured a small beachside town on the water but this was far from what we thought. Although it retains the beachside town feel along the Esplanade the rest of the place is just like any other town. We were told by one of the locals that the population in Hervey Bay now is larger than Bundaberg!

Our caravan park was on the water in a suburb of Hervey Bay called Torquay.

Sunset at Torquay Pier.

August in Hervey Bay is Whale Festival time celebrating the annual return of the magnificent Humpback Whales that come back every year.



We decided to take a tour out to see if we could see these large creatures. We had a great day as did see some of the whales close up. It was very hard trying to capture these creatures on camera.

We went out on a boat similar to this one.



























There are lots of statues around the town celebrating whales.
 





















Dusk over the Marina at Hervey Bay.

CANIA GORGE

Our next destination was Cania Gorge and what a contrast to Carnarvon Gorge. Whereas Carnarvon Gorge's vegetation was more Cabbage palms and gum trees, Cania Gorge has a Eucalypt woodland and then closer to the sandstone rocks a 'dry' rainforest. Both completely different but equally beautiful.

There are bush walks here also, most of them shorter but no less easier than the ones at Carnarvon.

On our first day John and I managed one of the shorter walks. This was to Big Foot, which has a dark impression on a rock that looks like a big foot!


I also managed a walk to the Two Story Cave but must say I was a little bit disappointed when I arrived there as I couldn't see the second story! All was not lost though as on the way there was some interesting rock formations and a king orchid in the King Orchid Crevice.

King Orchid

Each night we had a campfire and we cooked our dinner over lovely glowing coals.
 

Bettong

After dark these little creatures called Bettongs (rat-kangaroos) came out to see what was going on! They were cut little critters and quite friendly.


The next day I went for a walk to the Fern Tree Pool.

Our next walk was to Dripping Rock and the Overhang. Along the walk there was this vine that made a great swing.

Dripping Rock



The Overhand

Four-thirty at the caravan park was bird feeding time.

Shirley with birds all over her.












Me not so sure!



King Parrot

Our friendly Kookaburra

Within the Gorge there is also a lake which offers fishing and water sports. In January the area had around 50 inches of rain and water came over the dam wall. You could see along the creek - Three Moon Creek - the devastation this caused. The water found it's way all the way to Bundaberg! We could see further evidence of this devastation on our way to Hervey Bay.