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.