In
the morning we saw a huge tree frog in the ladies toilet. I
helped it out and gave it a rinse. It climbed up my arm. I set
him free in the grass. We continued our way south and stopped
in Townsville for groceries and I took the wheel and drove to
Airlie Beach. We got a room at the same place I stayed in '93.
We had a nice barramundi dinner and beer at Beaches Backpackers.
We walked around town and saw a wet T-shirt contest back at
the backpackers. It was was rather dull though. Beaches Backpackers is a backpacker hostel located in the heart of Airlie Beach, just across from the waterfront and Airlie Beach’s Lagoon swimming pool. Beaches’ unique central position and popular Bar & Restaurant provides nightly entertainment and offers the best of Airlie Beach’s famous nightlife.
We had a look at the markets in Airlie
Beach before we left town. We get stuck in traffic on the highway
where there was a bad accident. We ended up driving around it
through a cane field.
We made it to Eungella park and had a look at the platypus again at 5:30pm. We also saw a kangaroo that chase me around. There were a lot of noisy cockatoos that evening. This time I only saw four platypus. That evening we stopped and visited Ray and John McClain in Walkerston. Ray is the sister of Alan Bretzke.
I had a good sleep at a rest area halfway between Mackay and Rockhampton. Donna and I had stopped at that rest area on the drive up and had a free coffee and kitkat (a service to help keep drivers awake on the highways). While I was waiting for everyone to get up I walked down to a river and saw some cows and a Kookaburra. We all got packed into the car and I drove to Rockhampton. We stopped and took a look at the caves but didn't enter. There was a nice specimen of a bottle tree outside though.
There was a big festival going on in Rockhampton called "Beef 97". We went to check it out and I sampled some different beef foods. We saw a parade of cows, listened to Aussie singers, and watched some belly dancers. We drove on to Hervey Bay and made some soup at a rest area on the way. The car began to run rough. By the time we got to Hervey Bay it was running really bad. We ended up camping on the beach.
That
morning I walked down Torquay beach and watched some people
doing Thai Chi. Hervey Bay is renowned for its natural features and environment including calm waters, beaches, the annual whale migration, world heritage listed Fraser Island and the Southern Great Barrier Reef.
Our car didn't start and Rebecca called RACQ. They told us that it needed a tune up. So I went to the parts store and got some spark plugs, a rotor, and a cap. After I put the new parts on it ran better for a short while. We made it to a wrecking yard called "Parky" to get a distributor, and a mechanic there suggested adjusting the point gap. I increased the gap and we were on our way. As we were traveling south, we fueled up at a petrol station with a giant statue of Ned Kelly.
When we arrived to Noosa Heads, we had a look around and put our tent up at Sunshine Beach. I slept outside under the stars listening to the waves crash. I had a strange dream that night about something in the shape of a ship in the sky and a robotic voice talking.
We
all got up and went to the surf club park. The girls then went
to sunbathe on the beach and I went for a hike in Noosa National
Park. I did a large 10 kilometer circuit to the headquarters
then along the coast to Tea Tree Beach and Alexandria Bay were
there was a nude beach. It was a beautiful walk through the
rain forest and coast. When I got back to the car, Donna and
I went and ate lunch. We took a walk around Noosa Heads and
shopped on Hastings. We drove along the coast, took some photos,
and stopped at Ettamoga pub before getting to Alan's place in
Brisbane.
