After a great time in Noosa we headed North to Hervey Bay which is the gateway to Fraser Island!!!

On the way to Hervey Bay we drove through a town called Gympie which was a mining town on the way. It was supposed to be picturesque but the signposted tourist drive we took was crap so glad we didn't stop there. Next up was Maryborough which is famous because the author of Mary Poppin's was born there. When we arrived we wanted to the find the Mary Poppin's statue for a photo so we popped in to the visitor info centre to ask where it was. A simple question you think, but we left 30 minutes later after the extremely proud old fella running the centre insisted on giving us a full history of the area, leaflets for every attraction within 50km and a book on getting fruit picking work!!! We didn't have the heart to stop him, bless, but at least he pointed us in the right direction and we got a photo of Mary Poppin's. The rest of the town......oh my god! Its so sleepy there, totally silent and every cafe was full of people no younger than 90 and before long we were both starting to fall asleep so had to leave quickly!!

Hervey Bay was a short 30 minute drive north and we stayed at the Big4 Fraser Lodge Holiday Park, by far the best caravan park we have stayed at! Spotless facilities, friendly people and lots of ducks and birds who are so used to people they eat out your hand, as well as loads of noisy cockatoos which was awesome! We got chatting most nights to people over the BBQ and its really lifted our spirits being around friendly people at last.

The area itself, we stayed in Torquay, was really nice. There wasn't actually much there to do as such but it just had that nice vibe which you can't put your finger on. We also happened to find a cafe called Bayaroma on the Esplanade. It was always packed so was a good sign to start with and OMG the food was amazing, and gluten free again, so we went back several times for lunch. We also went ocean kayaking out in the bay one day because the water here is ultra calm because its sheltered by Fraser Island so no surf. Good fun and we didn't tip up, that is until we happened to hit a small breaking wave as we came in and dumped it on it's side on the beach in front of a cafe full of people. OOPS!! :) Another thing we did was down the road at Urangan where they have a pier which is 1km long. Fun to walk that far out and see all the fish swimming around and generally just nice to do.

Apart from Fraser Island (see the other blog entry) and the great weather the main reason we stayed in Hervey Bay so long, was something we didn't know about till we arrived. Hervey Bay is known as the whale watching capital of the world because every year between July and October about 1300 Humpback Whales come into the bay to rest and play while on there way south to Antarctica. Because the bay is crystal clear and really shallow this makes it perfect for watching the whales so we had to book ourselves on a tour!

We chose the ship, Tasman Venture, as they looked good and also offered a free return trip if they didn't spot the whales which was useful because we were right at the start of the season so not that many around yet. On our first trip out we didn't see any whales but did see loads of dolphins playing around the boat which was good, but as no whales we got a return ticket for free so came back a few day later.

This time though the whales were here!!!!! We found them really quick just of the coast of Fraser Island. They were about 30 meters away but we followed them for over 2 hours and watched them coming up for air, splashing there fins, rolling around playing. Really amazing to see, but the best part was when the captain said we are going to turn round home, because just then the whales came right up next to the boat!!!!! The water was only 10m deep and crystal clear so you could see them so well only about 2 meters from the side of the boat. AMAZING!! We were so glad we happened to be in Hervey Bay for this as its something we will both never ever forget!! Also on the way back we happened to see some turtles and stringrays as well as having a group of dolphins swimming the breaking wave in front of the boat! Dam this country is amazing!

Thats it. Hervey Bay scores a 10 / 10 for the wicked whale watch factor and its somewhere that if we lived in Oz we would definitely come back to visit, but time it for the end of August to catch a bay full of whales.

Next up we have a lot of miles to cover as we head up north towards the Whitsunday's aiming to cover 1000km over the next few days.