Agnes Waters/1770

June 27 – Agnes Waters/1770

We woke up fairly early this morning but the sky was against us again. We made some breakfast wraps but they weren't quite the same without cheese and bbq sauce, both of which we are out of. We drove up the road to the Town of 1770 which is even tinier than Agnes Waters. There was supposed to be a great lookout. We walked out to the lookout and while I can see it being awesome on a nice day it just didn't quite have the same effect in dreary weather. We then headed back to the library so I could update my blog. The internet was painfully slow though and took forever to upload a whole four photos. This morning we had seen some pamphlets at the hostel regarding some Whitsunday's Cruises so we decided to have a look at a few online. After the library closed for lunch we headed back to the hostel to make some lunch of our own. We then walked into “town” or rather to the few shops that make up the main hub. We picked up a few groceries and also finally bought stamps for our New Zealand postcards. We had forgotten about them and since we rediscovered them we thought we should send them out. We also popped into a travel agency and got a little more info on other Whitsunday's Cruises. Back at the hostel we discussed what we should do about that part of our trip since we knew it was something we really wanted to do but we were nervous about the weather. It's supposed to get nice tomorrow and remain that way for the foreseeable future but we want to go in a little over a week and weather predictions just aren't too accurate. We hummed and hawed and then debated which boat we should take. We opted for a nicer one that actually goes out to the GBR, Whitsunday Islands aren't actually a part of it, and also is 3 day 3 night. We talked to the guy that ran the hostel and we just had to put down a $50 cash deposit each to secure our spots on the boat for next Friday. We figure if the weather is brutal $50 each isn't much of a loss to not go. I read and Beau played guitar for a bit before we made some dinner. The kitchen and dinning area was pretty crowded but we shared a table with two Aussie dudes. We chatted with them for a bit and they might be visiting a buddy in NY State early next year to do some boarding. Beau gave them our contact info in case they decided to come up to Canada at all, assuming we'll be in Montreal too. We finished off the evening with my nose in a book and Beau on his i-Pod. It was pretty brisk out but the sky had cleared.

June 28 – Agnes Waters

We finally woke up to blue sky and sunshine! Although by the time we had breakfasted and showered it had clouded over quite a bit. We headed back to the library as Beau wanted to check his e-mail and I needed to fix some typos in my last blog entry. While there I had a peak at flights from Kelowna to Ottawa. We found an almost direct, it stops in Toronto, flight from Kelowna to Ottawa with AirCanada for $209. We figured it probably won't be much cheaper than that and not with that good of connections. It's only 6hrs of travel which is nice because we'll have a little monster with us. So we booked another flight. We've really broken the bank over the last few days. But our flights to get us back to Ontario are way better than they would have been if we had done a flight from Sydney to Toronto. So we are getting Sydney-Honolulu-Kelowna-Ottawa for about $1300pp I think I'm okay with that. I called AC to book Monty on the flight but since we are in Australia I dialled the Australian toll free number. I think the guy was a bit flabbergasted at my request. He didn't really know what to do but got all the information and said he'd get back to me... okay. After being a couple big spendas we went for a walk along the “Discovery Trail.” The map showed it to be a short walk but there seemed to be numerous paths we could take and not many signs. We made it to the lookout and then found our way down to Workman's Beach. We then made our way back to the van in a convoluted manner. We drove down to the main beach and soaked up some sun for a wee bit. We then made some lunch in the park before heading out of town. We drove towards Gladstone and pulled into a rest stop about 20min out of town. There were quite a few caravans and campervans at the rest stop but were back in a grassy area. We decided to it would be better back there further from the road. On pulling into that area we noticed a sign saying no camping or caravans, we sort of shrugged and figured it was fine since there were a bunch of people there. We had just gotten settled and were at a picnic table when a lady came by to and mentioned another lady had said there was a ranger around taking licence plates and if we were still here in the morning he would be handing out fines. What?! Another woman came around say she was passing on a message from the powers that be (I can't remember what she actually said) that we weren't allowed to stay in that area. We had to be on the other side of the posts and could only stay for a max of 20hrs. She was going to every site telling people this. We decided not to risk it and moved into what I guess is the designated rest area. Not sure why they haven't fenced off the other part or anything. I think they've been having issues with people staying for extended periods of times in the rest areas. They are all to a max of 20hrs but people have been abusing it. One guy said he'd been for a week and another lady for 3 months! On a separate note dude from AirCanada got back to me and “put in a request” for the the cat but is waiting for confirmation. He said there were no other animals booked on the flight so it should be fine. He also said I would pay for the cat at check-in. I've never done it that way but I think because I called the Australian people they don't exactly deal with it, hopefully I get e-mailed confirmation shortly and it'll all be taken care of.

June 29 – A Tropical Disappointment

We awoke early and full of excitement for our tropical excursion. We quickly packed up the van and headed into Gladstone. We stopped at an ATM and then got brekky and wifi at Hungry Jacks. We made our way down to the marina, parked the van, secured all our valuables and triple checked everything. As we headed to the Heron Island desk we overheard one of the girls apologizing to another guest and our hearts started to sink. We found out that the desalination plant on the island had broken down about 12 hrs earlier and they weren't going to be able to get a part out to fix it until later the following day. Because of this they weren't taking any guests out to the island and probably bring the people currently out there back early. They suggested we reschedule our trip to Wednesday.... that didn't really jive with our plans so we got a full refund and crushed hopes. When we asked about what there was to do in town the tourist information lady told us not much. Not only were our paradise island dreams shattered but we were stuck in a beachless industrial town on one of the first hot, blue sky, sunny days we'd had in a week! We drove up to a look out but it pretty much just gave us a good view of the coal plant. We bought some groceries and gas and high tailed it out of town. We drove to Rockhampton and crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in the process. The tourist info girls weren't too much help and the beach was about 40mins out of our way. We had some lunch in a busy park then carried on to a free campsite. We ended up driving about 300km today since we couldn't find anything better to do!

Dolphin Feeding, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg

June 23 – Dolphin Feeding

We were awoken this morning by my alarm going off at 7am. We wanted to get down to the boat ramp by 7:30 which is when we had been told the dolphin feeding was. We had a granola bar and unloaded the bikes. There was a little bit of rain this morning so we had to wipe down the seats, it was also very overcast and grey so we made sure to wear our raincoats. We arrived at the boat ramp and there were some people milling around waiting for the dolphin feeding. Around 8am one of the volunteers got on the microphone and told us a bit about the dolphins we would be meeting. They are Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins and the alpha male, Mystic, is a third generation feeder and comes almost every day, sometimes with members of his pod to get some free fish. He is 21 years old. While we were waiting it started to rain, most of us took cover under the neighbouring cafe's awning. 8:30 rolled around and still no dolphins. Many people grew impatient and sick of the rain so they left. Probably about 9 o'clock Mystic showed up with one of his pod, Patch. She's the oldest in the pod at 25 and was recovering from a shark bite she received from a bull shark about 2 weeks ago. Those of us left came down to the waters edge to get the dolphins used to us before the feeding started. The volunteers had a look over the dolphins to check for new scars or injuries. Once that formality was completed we got our little buckets with two wee fish in them. Beau fed his two fish to Mystic while I took pictures then I pulled a butterfingers trying to juggle the camera and my fish bucket and dropped the bucket. A cheeky pelican scooted in and stole one of my fishes but I didn't let him get my other one. I fed my little fishy to Mystic and the lady told me to go get another fish. So I got another bucket of two fish and fed them to Mystic too. It was super cool. You just held the fish in the middle and the dolphin gently took the fish from your hand. When I went to return our fish buckets the one lady asked me how I liked and I said it was amazing. She said have another bucket so I got two more fish. This time I fed them to Patch. Afterwards the fish were all gone and the rain had let up once again so we biked back to our park. We made breakfast now and enjoyed it with some coffee before set out again. We were driving up to Hervey Bay and stopped in Maryborough along the way. This town is home to the writer of Mary Poppins and when we went into the visitors there was a lady dressed up like Mary Poppins. They also have an annual Mary Poppins festival. Crazy. We went to the grocery store, then got some lunch at subway before driving onwards to Hervey Bay. We took a little drive through town before going to our holiday park. They had free wifi as well as a hot tub. We took advantage of the hot tub and went for a little soak in the rain. Unfortunately 35 deg was not quite as hot as it initially sounded so we didn't get the hot soak we were looking for. We had a shower before relaxing in the van before dinner. This place also boasted a pizza oven, while we didn't have a pizza base we decided to make flat bread (or tortilla) pizzas which worked out deliciously. We spent some time in the rec room on the internet before getting kicked out at 9:30. Back in the van we spent some time writing up before bed.

June 24 – Hervey Bay

It was still raining when we awoke, much to our disappointment. We made a yummy breakfast of sausage and egg taco's with potatoes on the side. I finished updating my blog while we were cooking/eating then we got packed and out of there. We headed down to the jetty to have a look at the bay and Fraser Island. It wasn't really raining at that time so we went for a walk along the 800m historic jetty. There were a bunch of people fishing off the end of the pier. We could see Fraser Island easily from here but we were both glad we hadn't booked a tour since the weather is supposed to suck till Wednesday. Back at the van we looked at the map and decided we would head towards Bundaberg. It looked like there might be a rest stop along to way to stay at tonight. Since we had nothing better to do and since the library was closed today we set off on our way. We stopped into a gas station and Beau adjusted the air in the tires. We found our rest stop about 20km outside of Bundaberg and pulled in. It was only about 2pm at this point but we didn't really know what else to do with ourselves so I read while played guitar. We had some guacamole with chips for lunch and a side of knock off peanut M&M. Then we read some more till we made dinner. It was still raining but it's very fine although there's quite a bit of it. We sat around for the rest of the evening too and in general had a very boring day.

Historic Jetty

Fraser Island

 June 25 - Bundaberg

We were pretty slow moving this morning but it was still raining so we didn't have much motivation to move quickly. We made oatmeal for breakfast and Beau played some more guitar. We finally made tracks around 11:30 and headed into Bundaberg. We went into the info center and found out about a rum distillery in town as well as the location of the library. We went to the library first but the internet was painfully slow and Beau couldn't update his site. We left the library and headed to the distillery. The Bundaberg Distilling Co has been around since 1888 and was opened in order to use up excess molasses created from the nearby sugar mill. We got a tour of the distillery and a couple of taste tests. I tried a “Dark and Stormy” with the original rum and local ginger beer. My other taste test was the Royal Liqueur on the rocks that had a coffee, chocolate, rum flavour. It was very nice. After our tour and tastings we popped into McD's for a snack. We then headed out of town to another free rest stop for the night. Over the course of the evening we discussed our plans for the next two months including when we might go home.

June 26 – Agnes Waters

We attempted to make pancakes for breakfast but the bbq was a little too hot and made it very difficult. They turned out a little more crepe like which was fine and this time we had syrup to go with, yum. Beau made friends with a french couple who had a guitar and ukelele. They jammed for a little bit and Beau showed them some new songs. We hit the road and continued to Agnes Waters. It was pretty gloomy out today and rained some on our drive. We headed to the information center when we arrived and it was raining pretty good by that time. The library was right next door but was about to close for lunch. In the info center we got the low down on the area and heard about some nice walks and views which unfortunately we wouldn't really get to enjoy. We asked about any reef trips since we are at the southern most tip of the Great Barrier Reef. They told about the day trip to Lady Musgrave Island and also about overnight trips to Heron Island. The more we heard about Heron Island the better it sounded. We decided on a 3 day 2 night trip for $318pp (ouch) but it is a 5 star hotel, with all food included. We can go diving off the island for about $60/dive and all the snorkeling we can handle. Normally the boat trip out is $300 but it was included since there was a deal going on via the info centers. We bit the bullet and splurged. We were pretty excited about our trip coming this weekend. After booking the library had reopened so we headed over and Beau updated his site. Then we started looking at flights. The best deal was still JetStar to Honolulu and then WestJet to Kelowna. The prices had gone up from a couple of weeks ago so we decided it was time to giver. We bit another bullet and got flight direct from Sydney to Honolulu on August 13^th for about $700pp and then a flight from Honolulu to Kelowna via Vancouver on Aug 20th for about $300pp. So we'll be getting to K-town for just over $1000 each which is pretty good considering the cheapest I saw previously was Sydney to Vancouver via Seoul for $1200. This way we get to stay in Honolulu and go directly to Kelowna. After we finished maxing out our credit cards for the day (jk) we head up the road to the Cool Banana which is a hostel that lets you stay in your van and have full use of their facilities for $10pp; we were in desperate need of a shower. Since we had kind of skipped lunch we opted an early dinner and had a loaded curry. Afterwards we had nice hot showers and then lounged around in the lounge. Sadly it still rained on and off for most of the evening.

(I picked up some Aussie pronunciation at the library today apparently crocheting is pronounced crochering....wtf)