Rainbow Beach to Hervey Bay.

Today we were up at 6am feeling very excited as we were heading off to see these wild dolphins. Whilst Ed reminised about swimming with dolphins in Florida years ago, Milly anxiously asked if she could feed these ones. We arrived at the jetty at 7am and there they were in the shallow waters next to the beach. We took off our shoes and rolled up our shorts/jeans and paddled in the water with them – it was fantastic. One of the dolphins seemed to be very interested in Milly and kept swimming close to her and even nussled her hand. The other nibbled at Eds shorts. Incredible. Both kids fed them fish and loved every minute of being near them. Because we had got up early we had a good 45 minutes in the water with the dolphins before a ferry and lots of vehicles arrived at the Jetty. Having had fun, we left the growing crowds to it and went in search of breakfast…

All along the coast there are barbeque areas set up so having bought ourselves some bread from the bakers that opens at 4am and closes at 5pm – how long is that day? We had our first go at creating breakfast in the communal park. The system definitely works well and meant that we didn’t have to drag out all our cooking equipment. Fantastic.

We travelled to Hervey and arrived around 10.30am. We found ourselves a nice little state campsite with a pitch right next to the beach for only £10. The only thing between us and the beautiful beach was a line of trees to shade us from the wind! Ed and Milly immediately ran off to play – Ed had fun with his kite whilst Milly desperately tried to find somewhere to swim – not at all easy as the tide was going out and already there was some 300+ metres of sand. We waded with her for about another 100 metres and still the sea only came up to her knees!!!! Hervey bay is beautiful.

I quickly did some of Milly’s washing which turned out to be a disaster and had to throw most of her gear away as they came out of the machine with what looked like oil stains on them – oh well a bit more space in her bag for a while!!

We jumped on our bikes – so glad we have them with us and went off for a long bike ride along the coast. The Australians certainly know what they are doing when it comes to cycle paths and much more impressive than in the UK. Here at Hervey Bay they have a shared cycle/pedestrian path that goes on for kilometres….. We came across the Urangan Pier which was opened in 1917 for the export of coal, timber and sugar from Wilde Bay. Large ships would pull up at the end of the pier and a steam train transported goods along the 1124 metre pier – a big display board showed photos of this – incredible. Nowadays the pier is 868 metres long but the local council is spending 2.5 million dollars to refurbish it to the original length. In the 1960s sugar and coal stopped being moved along the pier and the commodity changed to petroleum. Nothing is transported now and sadly the steam trains have long gone but it was a nice ride on our bikes. Milly wondered if Carol had ever seen the steam trains when she was in this area???

Below the pier the water was really shallow and clear and you could see exactly where the fishermans’ lines finished and watch the fish being caught. Lots of Pelicans hung around too waiting for their tea….

Heading on to the marina, we went passed the Hervey Boat Club. Parked outside were three multicoloured mini buses so groovy and bright and made me think about exploring the possibilities of decorating our nursery minibuses – black just seems a bit boring compared to those attractive vans. Our camper is a bit dull too compared to Australian ones where there are lots of sea side designs, groovy cars and surf boats decorated up the sides – hey Tasha, perhaps we could have kids club children re-designing the bus ideas. (Email them through as we are missing the big kids – it seems incredible that they are moving up to the next year group in a couple of weeks).

Ian found an interesting man in the car park – he had travelled from New South Wales to Cains and was on the return journey with his Rolls Royce towing a battered old caravan. He had taken all the original wheel covers off the vehicle for fear of them being nicked but then said they were inside the caravan!!!! Wouldn’t take much to get them off him…. He told us that he stayed up til 4am in the morning to make sure that no one hit his presious car! Despite driving the Rolls Royce he was staying in the car park to save camp site fees – Ian was very jealous of his antics.

Whilst cooking our tea at the camp kitchen we chatted to a Dutch family who were also travelling for a year. They have 2 kids a bit younger than Milly and are camping their way around Australia for 10 months having been to Thailand then finishing in China. Ian was able to give them lots of top tips on how to ship out the car they had bought in Australia and information on how to purchase their Carnet de Douane. Again it was lovely to meet up with like minded people….

We packed the van up ready for an early start tomorrow on our adventure and the kids had an early night whilst Ian and I sat next to the beach and watched the stars and sea – saw a few shooting stars…..