We were pretty much back to our normal this morning, as after waking at about 20 to 8, we were filling up with petrol at about 20 to 10, so a bit slow off the mark. And it didn’t help matters when, while Grant was getting the fuel, I was putting our destination into Zola when she spat the dummy and died. Well she didn’t quite die, but the button you press to turn her on (I use the stylus) got stuck in the down position, and nothing would work. Now for some reason unbeknown to myself, last night I had transcribed the directions from Nanango to today’s destination as shown on Google maps – maybe because we are up in the mountains and I remember being up in the Adelaide Hills early last year and getting totally lost!
So we confidently set forth ….. for about a kilometre until I started to second guess myself – the road name we were on didn’t match the one we needed to be on, but it did seem to be going in the right direction. So after a bit of exasperated eye-rolling from the driver (it wasn’t me), we did a u-turn back into the main street and I got out of the car to ask for help. In the local Mitre 10 shop, three men all contributed to the direction giving, which was confusing me even more, so I asked for a bit of paper and asked them for the names of the towns we needed to pass through, and just hoped the signposting would tally. We left Nanango for the second time, interestingly going down the road I had first directed Grant on to! By now the decision had been made that today we must buy a regional map for where we are going.
So with renewed confidence we followed Google maps directions, and the drive went without a hiccup. Again most of the drive was quite hilly, and the first observation was a lovely big dam covering quite a big area, wandering around the hills. It is the Bjelke Petersen Dam and holds over a million megalitres of water and covers an area of two and a half thousand hectares of land.
Constantly referring to the list of town names given to me by the fellows back in Nanango, I happily ticked them off – Goomeri, Kilkivan where we saw a dead snake on the road, Goombooran and Gympie. In the vicinity of Gympie, we passed what appeared to be a convoy of 4x4 vehicles all loaded up with fishing rods in holders attached to the front of the car and held down onto the packracks, almost obliterating the vision of anyone in the passenger seat, and obviously hampering the drivers vision, too. We thought they must be heading into the mountains to a fishing competition – but we were later to find out we were wrong.
Continuing on in the direction of Tin Can Bay and into Rainbow Beach where we are installed for the night, we passed through massive pine plantations, and passed heaps more vehicles decked out in fishing rods. It was only when we arrived here at the Rainbow Waters Holiday Park and spoke to Sue when we booked in, that we discovered that’s just how people arrive for a holiday here! It’s a fishing place and fishermen come in droves!
We were here and set up by 1pm so after lunch went on a drive to explore the area. Grant got in the car, picked Zola up from where she had been put in disgrace earlier in the day, turned her on, and she seems to be working, though the on button is still stuck in, so we’ll see how capable she is when she is set a task.
We went to Carlo Point where a number of boats were out, people were fishing and others were just playing around on the sand.
From there we drove the 12 or so km down the Inskip Peninsula to the barge loading point where you get ‘barged‘ to Fraser Island. We were amazed at the number of people camped there in the ti-tree and scrub. There would have been well over a hundred camps set up, and most of them up tracks of deep sand, only accessible by four wheel drive. As it was quite a warm day, the spots there were beautifully shaded and everyone seemed really relaxed.
The previous photo shows the vehicles on the beach – there were lots of them along the peninsula coastline.
Next we went into town and bought that all important map – no excuses now about not finding our way! There was a wedding about to happen on the grass by the beach while we were there, and we drove past it two or three times as we explored the town, but the bride still hadn’t arrived. We really like it here, it’s pretty, not too crowded and not too touristy.
Back at camp a bit after 4, and I’d just made a cuppa when we heard a woman call out knock knock! We said hello, and the lady (Kay) told us that she and her partner had just got to the park, and her partner had said: Did you see that – a car like ours! Of course she hadn’t noticed, but as they were interested in getting a camper of some sort, he was interested to see how it towed, etc. He reckoned she wouldn’t come and talk to us, so he was wrong. She was here for about fifteen minutes, then went off, coming back ten minutes later with Ross in tow.
They were here for the next hour – Kay sitting in the van and Ross standing at the door, and we chatted about everything – so that filled in the time till tea. We did discover from Ross (they live in Dalby – about 300kms away) that the way those fishing rods we saw being transported is illegal, but everyone does it! I wouldn’t be impressed if I was sitting in the passenger seat, I can tell you!
Tomorrow we reach our destination – a mere 130 km away. Hopefully we can negotiate the route without too much difficulty.
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