Woodgate? - 27th January to 2nd February

Strange outcomes happen to us at times when we are travelling. We were telling everyone that after leaving Hervey Bay our destination was going to be Wongi State Park along side Lenthall's Reservoir. Well, as you can see by the header on this post, it didn't happen. We have been to the dam wall at Lenthall's previously but have never been to Wongi Park. I set the GPS to the latitude and longitude for the park and followed instructions. At Torbanlea I expected to turn south along the Bruce Highway but the GPS insisted that I turn north, so turn north I did. We duly arrived at the turnoff to Howard Heights and was instructed to turn left, which I did. There were no signs indicating that this was the direction to Wongi Park but we forged on anyway. After a couple of kilometres of bitumen we turned on to the roughest gravel road imaginable. Along the way we did encounter a road crew effecting road repairs that were way past due, we thought, at least the road out would be smoother to travel on when we decided to leave Wongi. At that point we thought we would still reach our destination. So here we are, out in the sticks on the roughest road imaginable and the GPS gives up on further instructions. Well, meaningful instructions anyway. The GPS was telling us to take a left turn into impenetrable scrub. At this point we decided to abort this mission and decide on an alternative camping spot. At least, on our way out the road although not fully restored, was in a far better condition. Soon after, we arrived at Woodgate. We have been here before and liked the very quiet atmosphere, a great place to settle jangled nerves.   Woodgate is a mecca for lawn bowlers and fisherman. We were fortunate with our timing as the van park was full of Vietnam Vets for the Australia Day weekend. Joe, our camp neighbour is keeping us supplied with fresh fish and Lizzie is loving the warm humid weather. I will be posting another blog from here when I take some more photographs, in the meantime here are three shots that I took today.

Some of the beach front facilities along The Esplanade.

A section of the multi kilometre long beach front, with incoming tide.

At the southern end of the Esplanade is Banksia Park.

Hervey Bay - 13th to 27th January

It's great to be back in the 'Bay' The balmy weather here is sublime. Jude and I were expecting to move into our townhouse in early Feb as this was when the lease expired. However, due to employment constraints, the tenants asked for an extension to 20th March. We agreed to this and have now decided to venture further north for a few weeks. We are going to stick to the coast and maybe, just maybe, we will reach Cairns.


We had to be back in Hervey Bay for the 16th January as our great friends Brian and Trish were celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary and we were invited to join them in the celebration. Brian and Trish did this in style by reaffirming their wedding vows on the beach and celebrating at a reception at Viva Italia.

The Celebrant and the boys waiting.

The girls arriving, Trish escorted by son Andrew.

The Celebrant performing her duties.

Brian and Trish re-affirming their vows.

Signing the register.

Delving into the basket of 'naughty gifts'.

We aren't the only visitors to Hervey Bay at this time, we are joined by about 100,000 fruit bats. As the street lights come on in the evening all these bats stir from their day's slumber and head for the sky in search of food.

Part of the colony of bats. It takes about 15 minutes for all of them to pass.

Fat Hen Creek Rest Area - 12th January

Today was our first morning waking up to Queensland time for many weeks and we arose at 5:30 am to the sound of many bird species, music to the ears. As we only had a short drive planned we did not depart from the Village CP until 9:15 am. Our leisurely drive took us through the towns of Cecil Plains (the RV Friendly Town), Dalby (here we got onto the Bunya Highway), Bell, Kumbia, Kingaroy, Wooroolin, Tingoora, Wondai Murgon, Goomeri (here we switched to the Wide Bay Highway) and Kilkivan. All the while we were presented with stunning views of the rich farm lands and spectacular highlands. At a point 6 km past Kilkivan is the Fat Hen Creek RA. Here 3 camps made their acquaintances and stayed on for the night.

The Fat Hen Creek Rest Area, the couple in the motor home are from Dalby and the couple in the camp at far back are from Townsville.

View across the Rest Area towards the creek.

Farm land beside us here.

After 3 days in the car Lizzie didn't travel well today and she was very happy to be able to roll in the freshly mowed lush green grass under a shady tree (dog heaven).


Only 125 km remaining to reach Hervey Bay and our booked site at Australiana CP.

Geelong to Millmerran - 9th to 11th January

Hi to all our readers, we hope you all had a wonderful festive season and we wish you all a happy, healthy and fruitful 2010. Jude and I had a fantastic 3 and a bit weeks in Geelong. We had a very busy time visiting family and friends.


We hauled the Avan out of Aaron's back yard and began our journey north at 9:45 am on Saturday the 9th. Thanks Aaron for having our van in your back yard and our car in your front yard. It will take a few weeks for your lawns to recover, especially following the hot weather you are now experiencing.


We took advantage of the Motorway Route, not one intersection or traffic light between Geelong and Albury. We turned off the Hume Motorway onto the Olympic Highway north of Albury and headed towards Wagga Wagga. We eventually pulled into the RA at Henty to stay the night. It was 40+ deg when we pulled up at 4:30 pm and was still 40+ at 7 pm and we shared all this with nasty little bush flies and bitey ants.

The Henty Man Rest Area seems quite restful in the photo but it is 40+ deg and strong winds buffeting the offside of the van.

While we sat beside the Avan and sipped lots of cool water we had this vista and the passing B-doubles to look at.

This is the reason behind the name of the Rest Area.

The story of The Henty Man.

After a salad dinner we skyped with Justin in Mt Isa, had a refreshing shower and managed a great nights sleep. Remarkably, it was a quite cool 18 deg in the morning. We made an early start travelling through the towns of Wagga Wagga, Junee, Cootamundra (the birth town of Donald Bradman), Young, Cowra, Canowindra, Cudal, Molong, Wellington, Gulgong (the birth town of Henry Lawson) and finally stopping at Birriwa, in the Recreation Reserve RA. The temperature was in the high 30's and up to 40 deg during the day so we elected to keep driving with the aircon until the temperature began to drop, pulling into Birriwa at about 6 pm. Shorthly after we had set up camp we were experiencing a summer storm with the 'works', wind, rain, lightning, thunder and the temperature rapidly dropped to 24 deg. There are no photos of the RA here at Birriwa, it is not that memorable, with un-mown grass 60 cm high but it did have clean toilets of the pit variety. I had planned to make a blog entry here but unfortunately there is no Next G connection. 


We weren't so sprightly the next morning, Noel couldn't wake up! We eventually rolled out of Birriwa after 8 am. Today we travelled through the towns of Coolah, Tambar Springs, Mullaley, Gunnedah, Carroll Gap, Manilla, Barraba, Bingara, Warialda, North Star and on to Goondiwindi. We have to thank Roger and Belinda for the trip notes for this route. It is a very interesting and scenic drive on mostly good roads, with enough larger towns to get reasonably priced fuel. We have taken note of several interesting towns that we will return to for a lengthy stop over in the future. Leaving Goondiwindi we headed towards Millmerran and planned to stay over at Wyaga RA, unfortunately previous travellers have left this RA in a disgusting state with rubbish strewn all over the place even though there is a large dumpy bin in place. We were also put off by ants nests, patches of Prickly Pear and the dust raised by incoming B-doubles. We then travelled the further 74 km to Millmerran and booked into The Village Caravan Park, complete with lush green grass, clean amenities and our neighbours are from Golden Shores in Hervey Bay.


A special message to our readers in Hervey Bay. Judy and Noel will be back in Hervey Bay on Wednesday 13th January. We are booked into the Australiana Caravan Park, you are welcome to call in for a coffee.