Monday 19 August 2013 – Settled in at Hervey Bay

We were literally up with the birds this morning.  I don’t know what time it was, or what sort of bird it was, but it was definitely loud!!  And it was definitely early.  So it was fitful dozing until about ten past 7 when we were up ready for the day.  After breakfast, the first chore was to do the washing as I hadn’t done any since we left home, except for rinsing out undies a couple of times when having a shower.  Today has been pretty overcast, with only a couple of hours when the sun peeked out, but it wasn’t cold, so managed to get the washing dry enough to hang on the clothes horse to finish off.

So after chores, morning tea and a bit of a read we went off and had a drive around Hervey Bay.  We drove the Esplanade, and as Hervey Bay stretches out a long way – probably about 10 km, and though the Esplanade follows the beach - you can’t really see the water from most of the drive, though there is a cycling/walking track pretty well all the way.  Around the furthest end (Point Vernon) it is very rocky – not high rocks, but like a very rough, sharp looking rock shelf.

After lunch we decided to go for a walk along the beach, and we are only two blocks from the esplanade – and not big blocks, so we got down to the beach at the bottom of our street, turned left and walked in the shallow water of the incoming tide to the Scarness Pier, got out onto the pier as Grant wanted to see if there was any evidence of fish having been caught (there wasn’t), then made our way back to the park.  Just before we went on our walk we saw two people doing parachute jumps.  From our van we thought they were heading to land in the sea, but they did sharp coastward turns near the landing, so we think they landed safely. We were away a bit over an hour, so we’ll try to build onto that each day, or maybe manage to go a bit faster.

Our neighbours Sue and Mark, whose vehicle got towed in last night, got a hire car today, so now at least they have a bit of independence and don’t have to sit around looking at one another.

Back at the van, and refreshed by a cuppa or two, we sat outside and I started on my first solo sock doll.  As I am writing this, just before tea, she is almost done, but has arms which could have been a bit longer and made her look a bit normal – but she has character!

Grant has cooked our meat the last two nights in the camp kitchen, and he reckons there are low flying fruit bats whipping around everywhere just on dusk.  I have yet to see one – probably because I’ve been in the van getting the rest of tea ready.

On the way back from our walk today, Grant stood on the footpath and watched through the fence at the bowlers going about their bowling (the Bowling club is our next door neighbour), and today he has also been sussing out suitable fishing spots.  There’s a big ocean out there, so I reckon there will be fish everywhere.  I’ll report when we have our first home caught fish meal.