Noosa and Hervey Bay Queensland

Ettamogah pub on the way to Noosa

Aussie Zoo north of Brisbane. Youngmi hopes to fill Steve Irwin's shoes

Thurday morning and beautiful sun in Noosa. Parked near the beach at Hastings Street. This is the trendy street and good atmosphere of cafes and accommodation. Walked along the beach and then through the national park to the headland. Gorgeous and to us very exotic. All manner of sub tropical trees and beautiful blue sea below with lots of surfers.

Walking back into town saw a bench with a wet paint sign and another bench which appeared to have been painted but had someone sitting on it.

Drove on about lunchtime through the hills to the Bruce Highway then through Gympie, Maryborough and sugar cane fields to Hervey Bay. What a big place now. 70,000 people but stretched out so pretty spacious and relaxed. Really great place to stay Fraser tourist Park, a Top Tourist park in Torquay 5 minutes walk from the beach and Irish pub. ( we joined top Tourist parks at Forbes and so far they have been good and we get 10% off).

Youngmi watches the World Cup Australia vs Chile

Typical grey nomads

Rented a unit for 3 nights. Camp kitchen has a pizza oven so first stop is the frozen pizza shop. Woolworths select was the best. Chatted to some retired people from Brisbane cooking their pizza. Not impressed that treasurer Joe Hockey has said they are a burden after they helped to build the country for him.

Friday morning and sun and blue skies. Walked along the beach which is nice sand with a few bits of coral. Sea really calm as sheltered by Fraser Island. Track down Vic and Betty Evans. Vic is the brother of Ken our mate from St Michaels church in Melbourne. Our first clue is they live near the bowls club in Pialba. Find them in the phone book and drive to the address. Turns out to be a retirement village which looks great. Separate houses, lots of space, well kept. The reception finds them and we are introduced. Luckily they had a letter from Ken the day before to say we might appear. Vic and Betty are 89 and 86 and look very well. They moved to this area for Vics health 30 years before. We are given Bok Choi and passion fruit from their lovely garden. They bought the house on the village for a reasonable price and now pay $100 per week for everything except gas, electric and phone. Good deal.

On the way home pass Dan Murphys and enjoy the Friday night tasting. Another pizza at the campground.

Saturday walk along the beach looking for the Sat market. Have a great walk but can't find the market.Walk is so long that on the way back Dave's sugar level starts to go low. He then finds he has picked up Youngmi's bag by mistake and has no jelly beans. Youngmi dashes in a shop buys a snickers bar and shoves it into Dave's mouth in time to stop the sugar going too low. Youngmi would be a great nurse. Further evidence of this was Youngmi could listen to a guy on the radio talking about his dialysis and kidney transplant with no problem while Dave felt really sick and had to pull over before he fainted. Woos.

Pelican

Dugong goes back under water

Sea eagle on the Pier at Hervey Bay

A catch of herrings on the pier

Hope the pelican prefers herrings

Paddle boarder before the storm

Saturday afternoon we drove the short distance to the Torquay market and spent 5 minutes looking at the 8 stalls. Then to the pier. 800m long and full of people fishing. Many were catching herrings to use for bait later. They put a jig in the sea and in a minute pulled it in with one or two herrings attached. Briefly saw a dugong as it came up for air a couple of times. Also known as the sea cow as it eats grass from the sea floor.

Pelican watching for fish as the storm came in.

Back to the room as it starts to rain. Dave visited the discovery centre with a great display on Fraser Island and a real lung fish. (unchanged for 300m years and because it has a lung so can breathe in or out of water is thought to be our ancestor which made the move from the ocean.

Local theatre in the evening "hoovering on the edge". Well performed play about 6 english ladies going to Spain for a writing course