We said our goodbye to the A's – Angela, Andrew, Austin and April and hit the road. Our destination today is Hervey Bay which is 300k North of Brisbane. We did not have any sights marked on our route today so we were just to see what we could see on the way. We are staying with Lesley's Sister and her Husband this evening who I understand are unique and interesting people.

Our first stop was the Etamagah Pub. This is a wacky building designed after a building that is the setting for a long running cartoon in the Australian Newspaper. This was a most excellent stop. The signs were funny, the cartoons on the wall were funny and the people in the pub were funny. It was only 10am so we didn’t stay for beer but we did purchase some gifts in the shop.

Eric happened to notice on the map that there was a Big Pineapple a few exits up the road. Naturally we had to stop and snap a photo of it.

Our next stop was the Ginger Factory. We ate lunch and walked around the gardens and purchased some delicious ginger nibblies. Next we went across the street to the Macadamia Nut factory. Eric loves Macadamias. They had 22 differently spiced nuts on the counter to taste and I think Eric tried them all. In the end we bought white chocolate covered macadamias. We were getting ready to leave and the nice lady behind the counter came running out and gave us a free cup of smoked macadamia nuts. They were our favorite but they only sold that one in very large bags so we did not buy them. She did not want us to go away empty handed so gave us a smaller quantity for free.

Maryborough is the exit we took off the highway to drive into Hervey Bay. This is the birthplace to P. L. Travers the author of Mary Poppins. It is also home to another great photo opportunity, the Big Ned Kelly Bush Ranger. You know we couldn’t pass that by without stopping.

We rolled into Daphne and Trevor’s around 4:30pm and Daphne immediately announced it was drink-thirty. They have a still and make their own liquor so we sampled watermelon and blackberry liquor. In the end Eric and I had gin and tonics with limes and mint from the garden. It was delicious. Trevor is a rock-hounder and has been collecting and polishing rocks and gems forever. He shared his collection with us which we enjoyed very much. Our favorites were the zebra rocks and the opals, although his malachite collection was quite impressive. Daphne makes jewelry from some the gold and silver and gems and has some unique and beautiful pieces. We enjoyed ourselves very much with this fascinating couple but we did go to bed thinking there is someone for everyone and Daphne and Trevor are proof of that.