HAWKES HIDEAWAY: September 2014

Today we set off on our next adventure. We have to be in Brisbane on 20 September for Stuarts son in laws 40th so we have a while to get there.

We have travelled the coast road to Brisbane so many times and driven past so many places that we wanted to go in and see but were in a hurry to get from point A to point B. This time we are going into the little places we have bypassed.

Tonight we stayed at Carmilla beach. We obviously aren't the only ones wanting to see the little places as camping spots were hard to find between the Jaycos, many other brands and another New Age.

There were lots of these turkeys wandering the sand dunes

There was a lot of tree stumps half buried in the sand a snag for the small boaties.

The camp spots were in between sand dunes and patches of green shrubs which afforded each camper a little bit of privacy but the sand was very loose and for the unsuspecting camper, a trap ready to bog you down to the axles.

We found a spot where we wouldn't end up bogged and had a pretty good view of the ocean and while Stuart set up our chairs I had a lovely tarragon lamb with mustard and lemon juice (thanks Kath for the recipe) ready to go in the barbecue.

The tide was out nearly 750 metres and will be out in the morning but the view was no less spectacular for that.

Next morning we decided to wait for a while for the tide to come in a bit and make up a supply of whiskey from the raw alcohol we are carrying, as our supply is sadly depleted.

Our next stop for the night will be St Lawrence where I have a cousin living so hope to catch up with him, and also go into the only pub in the town to get a photo of the bar which has a long history with my mothers family.

I'd say if dear old Ma came back today she wouldn't recognise this bar which once graced a hotel in Rockhampton with the same name which her parents had when she was only about 10.

We got to Rocky at about 1.30 pm and after lunch with Tracy and her Nana tried to buy a tv cable and got so held up we stayed at a new free camp at Kershaw Gardens right in the centre of Rocky.

From Rocky we drove to the Caliope River where we stayed with friends Maree and Peter on the property owned by their daughter and son in law. We had 4 very relaxing days catching up as we hadn't seen them since we left Tasmania. Well 3 days actually as on day 3 Peter and his son in law decided to burn a small pile of rubbish from an old chook house when a whirly wind came through and picked it up and next thing we had a full fledged bush fire on our hands with 4 of us old codgers and the owner of the 120 acre block to put it out. We managed to keep the fire reasonably contained although by the time the Rural Fire Brigade arrived about 1/2 an hour later, it was within about 50 metres from the house and only about 3 metres from long grass which we would never have stopped.

Before the fire deer were coming down to the dam to drink

Not a lot of unburnt grass between the edge of the fire and the house

Three tired fire fighters

Poor tractor just survived

Poor John (the owner) was trying to smother it with a blade on his tractor until it caught fire but being diesel wasn't going to explode and all that burnt was a fuel line before he got to it with our caravan fire extinguisher. All up he lost about 8 acres So much for our first farm stay at "Chateau on Ferguson"

We reluctantly said goodbye to Peter and Maree Cottrell and continued our journey up the coast to Agnes Waters and the town of 1770, where we couldn't get any free camps and ended up at a caravan park at 1770.

Sunset through the trees at 1770

1770 across the bay

Butterflies by the thousands all around the point of Bustard Bay

Beautiful sunset, wonderful company and a glass of wine. what more could I ask for.

This little beach side town was so named as it was the first landfall made by Captain Cook in Queensland.
Our next stop was Lowmead, a little town just out of Bundaberg with a population of about 300. The only significance this town has to us is the fact that my grandparents lived there for some years where my grandmother was nurse, midwife and at times doctor and sadly mortician to the townspeople and local aboriginal tribe and in her spare time played the piano at the local dance and raised 6 children through their formative years. My grandfather worked in the town and I dare say frequented the local pub a few doors down the road.

One of these homes was owned by my grandparents. I will need confirmation as to which one it was.

Lowmead School where my mother and her sisters attended school and where 60 years later my aunt went back to visit and found her initials in the bench where she sat and ate her lunch.

The dance hall where my grandmother played and where I am sure my mother got her love for ballroom dancing which she excelled at with my father as her partner in dance and later in life.

We got to Bundaberg and knew that we were about 1 tonne overweight in both van and vehicle so were looking out for a vehicle that would make us legal and not a danger to ourselves and others on the road. Stuart spotted a Toyota Land Cruiser in the second hand yard with a canopy on which we need.

On closer inspection we found that it had most of the things we needed in a tow vehicle and although we didn't want to outlay the money the price was right also.

Bundaberg is another one of those places just off the main highway that we never get to visit so as well as getting the vehicle we visited the Hinkler Hall of Aviation. For the young ones amongst us, Bert Hinkler was born in Bundaberg in 1892, well before Qantas and Jetstar but was one of the early pioneers in the aviation industry. At the age of 19 he was building and flying Gliders from watching the flights of the birds. The most renowned achievement was a pioneer solo flight from England to Australia in 1928, and the worlds first solo flight across the South Atlantic in 1931. Sadly he died crashing into the alps in Italy in 1933. His home in England was pulled apart brick by brick and rebuilt in Bundaberg in 1983.

We also went to visit a place where there are mystery craters just out of Bundaberg. Scientist still can't work out just how these craters were formed except that they are over 25 million years old. They were discovered in 1971 by a local farmer and some of the theories are: part of a large meteorite, the roof of a Subterranean Lake, sinkholes from volcanic action, but no one has a clue.

They appear to be made by a giant human as some look like a mans left foot (size 48)