Day Twenty Three - July 29th, 2013
Noosa to Hervey Bay
It was with heavy hearts that we packed up our tent and said goodbye to our friends in Noosa, but it was time to move on, and we hit the road to the Fraser Coast and Hervey Bay.
We took the Bruce Highway, which at times made me feel a little uncomfortable as it was only one lane, and we had large lorries coming up behind us, but Elly remained calm and we drove through the rain and the low pressure (giving us both headaches), making it to Hervey Bay in around three hours.
Our friends Ben and Megan arrived here yesterday, and recommended their camp ground - Scarness Beach Holiday Park. Right on the beach and only $26 a night! Plus the owners are super helpful, and gave us loads of advice about Fraser Island. We have yet to decide if we should do a tour (expensive but educational) or go on our own (cheaper but will become expensive if we break down, however it will be much more of an adventure!). We'll make a decision over the next few days. We were given the site behind Ben and Megan, and looked to see if they were in their 70s van, Barney, as Ben had left a camera in our car when he and Elly went surfing, but after a few texts we discovered they were on a day tour to Fraser. We'll pick their brains about trips later.
We set up the tent (expertly packed by Elliot this morning in the dry, for once!) and after a brief cry - Elly accidentally shut my hand in the car door - we headed off for to discover our new surroundings and towards the Urangan Pier. Feeling a bit peckish, we stopped at a bakery and were happy to see a large selection of pies (an Aussie favourite) on offer. I opted for the spinach, feta and sundried tomato, Elly for the steak an onion. It turned out, they were both steak. However, mine did have some tomatoes in it. It all seemed too good to be true, finding anything veggie here. Luckily we had bought a Danish pastry too, so I munched on that whilst trying to forgive the employee who had denied me a pie. The poor guy looked like he was still in high school, so I cut him some slack.
Along the road we saw a couple of odd landmarks in the sleepy winter town, one of which is a bright yellow house, painted deliberately to be an eyesore, and labelled 'Asbestos Mansion'. Apparently the owner is in a row with the council, and is making life difficult for them. The second strange building was a 'museum' of sharks, claiming to be the best in the world, covered with models of sharks with their teeth bared. We later discovered it is run by a man who claims hundreds of shark related deaths go undocumented by the government in Australia each year, and to avenge them and take out the killers, he hunts them. All very strange.
We made it the 5.5km to the pier, which is 868 meters in length - absolutely massive! Walking to the end, there were great views of Fraser Island and a lot of pelicans eyeing up the fishermen who were dotted along the pier. They seem to favour spots on top of lamp posts (we used to see them do that around Sydney) and now and again the fishermen would through them a fish to keep them happy and out of their way. Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch?
We walked back to the campsite, and after watching hundreds of fruit bats fly above us, drove the short way to Woolys after the local supermarket disappointed us with high prices. Sick of rice/pasta, we decided to experiment with pizzas. There are no ovens at campsites, so opted for a super thin crust that we did on the hot plates! Surprisingly it worked well, and we enjoyed them. Loads of veggies (and some ham for Elly), and we felt satisfied. We chatted for hours with Ben, Megan and Andrew - a 55 year old Northern Queenslander who is a yachty, and who works for the largest sailing company in the Whitsunday's. He has been out of Australia 66 times in his life, sometimes for 3 years, on other occasions for 2 days, and was a fountain of knowledge. We covered all topics from Sharks and Crocs to Byron Bay and Japanese tourists. We could have talked all night but the camp kitchen lights shut off at 10.40 and we headed to bed. Hopefully a little lie in tomorrow! As I write this there are some extremely odd noises coming from outside of the tent - hopefully a possum and not a rogue croc!

I added some photos that my mum sent me - one of me around 20 years ago feeding roos (with a comparative one from yesterday) and another of myself, my sister, my mum and my auntie holding a koala. Such happy memories from my trips to Australia throughout my childhood.