Woodgate 2 - 27th January to 2nd February

Our week long stay at Woodgate comes to a close tomorrow morning. We have enjoyed our time here, except that Sunday and Monday were very wet. The wet was caused by the remnants of cyclone Olga that had travelled south from the Gulf. Monday rained all day, I read the whole of Sidney Sheldon's novel 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?' in 12 hours, finishing at midnight. These tropical depressions always seem to arrive when there is a full moon and very high tides. Fortunately, this time, there was minimal damage to the coastal areas here.  All our camp gear and clothes have dried out today, hopefully there will be no rain tonight to dampen these items again. Tomorrow morning we pack up and leave here, re-victual at Childers then head to Paradise Dam. Our aim is to stay at Paradise Dam at least a week, but may stay on longer, if the wine and food last out.

Peak tide was Sunday, but this is high tide Tuesday, still very high.

The mouth of Theodolite Creek at Woodgate.

One of the boat ramps at Theodolite Creek.

Judy and Lizzie checking out the other boat ramp.

The 'Boardwalk' in Burrum Coastal NP. This NP surrounds the town of Woodgate.

I did hope to have photographs of the full moon rising over the beach but I was denied by the clouds brought down by tropical depression Olga. Maybe next time!

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.