Brisbane is our destination

The journey from Fraser Island to River Head takes about 30-40 minutes and as we were late leaving the island we arrived on to the main land around 6 p.m.  Unloading the barge is quick and nearly all the vehicles pulled away quickly heading off towards Hervey Bay and beyond.  As we had deflated our tyres for the whole time we were on the island we needed to now inflate them so we were one of the few that spent time in the car park with the air pump.

We had decided that as we have stayed in Hervey Bay a couple of times already, and needed to be in Brisbane by mid-afternoon the next day we would drive a couple of days and stay overnight at Tin Can Bay which is another place we had previously heard of but never visited.  So we continued on through Maryborough, again looking at all the beautiful old Queenslander homes enroute, and from there deviated from the Bruce Highway through to Tin Can Bay.  This was a trip of just 115 kilometres but most of it was travelling through forested area which is always a challenge at night with the potential for kangaroo crossing the road.  Fortunately we travelled incident free and as I had gone on line while Peter was inflating the tyres, we had pre-booked at a motel.  We were a bit surprised to find that to check in at the motel we had to go through the bar at the hotel so we were dubious quite what we were coming too, and as it was 8 p.m. the possible noise ongoing from the bar. 

We were very pleasantly surprised – yes we did check in at the reception area adjacent to the bar but the units were around the corner.  We had a lovely unit which was really clean and nicely laid out, with kitchen facilities etc and we didn’t hear any noise from the bar.  Yes, we could have put up the tent (and we are not getting soft in our old age) but this was our last night on the road for a few weeks and it was late. 

A quick check of the tourist brochures and besides the normal camping, fishing, beach walking the main attraction in the area seemed to be the feeding of the dolphins.  Our motel was near the public boat ramp where the Barnacles Dolphin Centre is.  The recommendation was to be at the centre early, and I mean 6.30 a.m. or thereabouts, to ensure that you see the wild humpback dolphins when they come in for feeding.  We didn’t want to be out and about that early, but as they were known to hang around to around 9 am we thought we could make it by then.  Sure enough there were lots of people queuing to be able to hand feed the two dolphins that had come in but we did see them.  Was it the most amazing thing we have seen – no not really?  The two people feeding the dolphins were in the water and the feeder had to step forward and hold their hand flat for the dolphin to take the fish.  This was very similar to what we had seen at Monkey Mia in Western Australia but this time the feeder had to pay $5 for one fish where in Monkey Mia it was free.  Still at least we can say we have seen it.

After seeing the dolphins we headed back to the motel for breakfast and packing up and we were back on the road again this time heading for the Sunshine Coast where we stopped off for a picnic lunch and wander along the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and being Sunday afternoon, there were lots of people out and about.  We have visited this area a number of times previously so we were not concerned that our stay was short lived.

After wandering the beach for half an hour we were back on the road for the last stage of our journey from Townsville to Brisbane.  We will now house sit for a family in their home at The Gap which is North West of the city and care for their Golden Retriever, Toby.  We arrived around 4 p.m. and met the home owners who welcomed us warmly and we soon settled in to our new home for the next seven weeks.