We left Clairview heading south intending to go to Yeppoon which we would have had to turn off the highway and gone one way for about 40kms. The sky looked threatening so we decided to check the forecast. As it did not look wonderful for the next few days we did not think it was worth the trip so carried on. We had never been to Gladstone before so turned off the main drag to see what was there and found it was a huge industrial Port for the export of coal with trains coming and going all over the place. We grabbed a couple of groceries and headed on out finding a nice freedom camp about 15 k/m's further south to stay for the night. The next stop was to be Hervey Bay which is the gateway to Fraser Island and another new place for us to visit. Apparently this popular town is one of the fastest growing in Australia and we were blown away by the size of the place and the amount of people and traffic everywhere so once again it was left turn and out of there. The beach side town was fantastic to drive around but the steady stream of traffic that's always following and all around you is not for us. I guess seeing it's school holidays it's only going to get worse for a while so we may have to just hit the motorway and avoid these busy tourist towns. The quiet small town of Maryborough was our next stopover and a quick phone call had the local RSA send their courtesy van to pick us up for a enjoyable couple of drinks and a meal. A glass of a good NZ wine and a schooner of Canadian Club ( on tap ) never seen that before cost only $11.00. As we knew Bribie Island would be very popular we rang and managed to book a spot in a water front camp because a few people we had meet said it was really worth a visit. After a long days travel in reasonably heavy traffic it was great to park up and just chill out in this great location which is reached by a bridge from the mainland and even though the weather was very humid that lovely sea breeze made it feel great. It rained quite heavily in the night but it was blue skies again after a late breakfast so we booked in for another night on this island which we had last visited about 28 years ago. It was really nice walking around the seashore for a few hours and then we had a drive to the other side of the Island viewing all those lovely houses that lined the many canal waterways. The traffic and population was not as bad as had been expected and we both agreed that it would be easy to spend a few months living here.