Enjoying Tin Can Bay Qld: Mon 18 June 2012 to Wed 20 June.

Locals tell us we've bought the perfect weather with us; sunshine and no winds. It's apparently been raining lots here till we arrived at this gorgeous little tidal bay place where time stands still. Where we are is a bird sanctuary, as migrating birds from Siberia come here as a resting place in their travels. Dave said that it feels like the Earth is breathing here at Tin Can Bay, as you can see the tides coming in and then retreating in a gentle way.

On Monday we went riding to Rainbow Bay, which is 38km away from Tin Can Bay, and it is one of the places ferries leave to go to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and it is a paradise with rainforests growing on the sand, and with natural freshwater lakes. It is also the place where pure bred dingos live; their genetic line being clean of domestic dog matings.

The roads to Rainbow Bay are a motorcyclist's dream, lots of nice hilly scenery and twisties. We rode out to the part where the barge ferries leave, and we were allowed to hop on the barge for a free 10 minute trip across to Fraser Island. As Fraser Island is all sand roads, only 4WD vehicles can go there, so we would normally have to pay $300 per couple for a 1 day 4WD tour to the tourist parts of the Island. But we were el-cheapos, and only walked along a nice long beach and then up a couple of forested sandy roads, as the tourist lakes and other attractions were 35km away. Never mind, we got to Fraser Island for free!

While we were walking along the beach we suddenly saw dog tracks….I stopped and froze….no dogs on Fraser Island allowed, only wild dingos, and there were signs warning about them: e.g.; stand tall and freeze your movements, look em in the eye, don't run and wave your arms, and, if attacked, "Defend yourself aggressively"! Oh crumbs! Dave started laughing at the expression on my face at seeing dingo tracks, as my Henny Penny The Sky is Going to Fall! brain started thinking.

Well, we didn't see any dingos till just as we were about to leave; a magnificent red coloured one appeared over a sand dune, it was staring at us. It then appeared on a forested bush track near the beach, spying on us. Then later it was skulking around a 4WD that was waiting for a ferry to arrive. The signs warn people not to be alone and to make sure children are safe.

We got back on our free ferry again, with all our limbs intact. Dave still laughing at his not so intrepid wife.

Tuesday 19 June 2012: Off to Hervey Bay and Maryborough

Another gorgeous perfect sunny 21 degree day, though the nights are around 1 degrees here…glad we have the little electric fan heater for these times. And we find it so hard to get out of our warm feather sleeping bags in the mornings.

We've been hearing rave reports about how good Hervey Bay is, so we went to check this out for ourselves on our bikes. A disappointment, and glad we didn't stay there, as it's just another big shopping centre type town which we find is ugly, we are not shopaholics, and the long beaches there are flat and rather boring. Caravan parks front on to these beaches and there are shops along the shoreline street, which would be convenient for food, but there are much prettier and more interesting strips of seafront along the Fraser coastline than Hervey Bay. I think the main attraction is that from July for a couple of months humpback whales come into Hervey Bay to stay awhile and birth their young. That would've been good to see.

We came across a funny pastry shop called "The Pie and Pastry Paradise" and going by the sizes of the people eating there and lining up to buy food, this is where the land whales congregate. Lots of fat old people here!

Our stop for lunch was back into Maryborough, and what a good choice of place this was. Maryborough is an old historic port town and we were captivated by the Mary River area where there are lots of heritage listed gorgeous old buildings. We explored one old museum and ran out of time to see more museums. Overlooking the Mary River area we came across "Mandarine Man" who was a lovely retired fellow sitting eating his home grown mandarines while resting from his pushbike ride. He gave us some to eat and we chatted away, learning some history of old Maryborough Port and how over 22,000 immigrants came here in the late 1800s, leaving many descendants. As usual, the poor local Aboriginals did not fare too well with the coming of the white people…what's new there?

We rode back home to our Tin Can Bay tent along more great winding roads, negotiating some more road works being done, and it was after sunset when we finally got back. Another wonderful day completed.

Wednesday 20 June: Last day at Tin Can Bay.

Another sunny winter day in Queensland. We went for a hiking walk along the Tin Can Bay estuary that we hadn't seen before, captivated by birds and pretty coastal scenery. So tranquil here. Nice little houses along the Bay and a secret that we hope big tourist developers don't get a chance to ruin.

Then onto our motorbikes to go back to the Rainbow Beach area, which we think is on the way to becoming very commercialised, but is still at the small and pretty stage. We went for a good walk up the Rainbow Beach to see the rainbow coloured sands…well, it's not really rainbow colours but the eroded cliffs show different shades of sands ranging from white, to pale beige, to dark orange, to ochre, and black sands. Very interesting. I got really annoyed to see lots of 4WDs driving along this long beach…it felt to me like I was on a highway at times, as these petrol guzzling consumers rushed by, too damn lazy to get out and walk along to see the scenery. Dave thought I was being unfair, but it felt like an insult to country to me! No wonder a lot of Australians have health problems because of being too overweight….they are too lazy to do things the civilised way and think flaunting their wealth will get them places as they roar by on a pristine beach area. Grrr! I did not enjoy smelling their stupid petrol fumes or worrying about them coming along, being drowned out by the surf noises. What is wrong with some people today? I think they are bad for tourism as they look like dumb boguns with too much money to waste.

Anyway, I digress. When in Rainbow Bay we picked up a phone message from Gaelene our motorcyclist friend from Armadale Ulysses, saying she had seen our bikes go past her in Tin Can Bay. What are the odds of us crossing paths like that? We got back in touch and later today had a great time yarning away in Gae and Jeff's caravan in Tin Can Bay. This is the second time on our trip that they have seen us go by; the first time was in heavy traffic in Bendigo. The mathematical odds of us seeing each other are enormous, but we have fluked it by riding by at the right times twice now. A few seconds later and those six degrees of separation would not have worked.

We've done our "homework" and tomorrow we are heading off to a little place called Bargara, which is near Bundaberg. We have loved Tin Can Bay. Yes, Tin Can!