Well, we're finally back online again after a fair bit of distraction ( sometimes called holidays! ) and have fallen behind with our Blogs, so without further ado here's our latest update.
Now, how can we forget the crazy caravaners we have seen along the way, one that really sticks in our mind was a couple of grey nomads trying to reverse there caravan into a driveway along the Bruce Hwy, on a blind corner with a speed limit was 100kmh, during their attempt they managed to cross both lanes, miss half the driveway and drop into the culvert on the side of the road..... can you imagine the chaos !
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| See photo - Our first Injury for 'RETRO'. |
As we left Airlie Beach heading south for Mackay, we noticed a change in the landscape from tropical forest to open plains as the Bruce Hwy took us thru Townsville, inland and back to the coast to arrive at Blacks Beach a northern suburb on the coast. We booked into our caravan park and then headed for the supermarket for supplies ( hunting n gathering ), we got all we needed and when pulling out of the car park we noticed another car reversing, we stopped and before we could stand on the horn the old bloke reversed out of his bay behind us and....... well, welcome to Mackay! there was only a little bit of damage and the poor old bloke couldn't apologise enough, so we got his details, patted him on the back and told him not to worry....... it was only a bumper.
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See photo - Riley, Chris, Bell, Aiden,
Baby Aksel, Helle, Craig, Nathaniel. |
Next morning we caught up with Craig Smith "Smithy" whom we had known in Saudi and his little boy Nathaniel, we decided to meet for lunch at the Eimeo Pacific Hotel. On the way we headed to one of the local beaches for a look around and for the boys to get a "Playground Fix", here we found an entire army of little blue soldier crabs, all of whom split in different directions once you got near, the boys had a blast collecting these little guys and watching them bury themselves in the sand at any opportunity. On the way back up the beach Riley went to pick up a "pretty rock" only to find out it was a crab! so after some more photos it was off to lunch. We arrived at the Eimeo Hotel and what a view looking across the bay, here we met Helle and their newest arrival Aksel, we had a few drinks some lunch and headed back to the Smith residence which Craig had built himself over the course of 6 months....... it was amazing, looking across a natural reserve and out over the bay, nice job Team Smith!
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| See photo - The boys favourite question! |
So the next morning we decided that if we were to make the wedding and Fraser Island it was time to pull the finger out and hit the frog n toad!, off to Rockhampton we headed. With more road kill and lots of sugar cane our road to Rockhampton was a bumpy ride (well that's being polite, it was crap). We later saw on the news the federal government is trying to increase funding as the roads are in poor condition and in some areas considered dangerous. We kept amused with the endless array of road side signs, our favourite being 'Are we there yet?' After passing several road works, we finally arrived in Rockhampton, where we visited the free Botanical gardens and Zoo which unfortunately were a bit of a disappointment. The gardens where lovely, but most of the animal enclosures where closed, the only amazing site was the huge chimp sitting in the corner of his enclosure.
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| See photo - Criterion Hotel located along the river |
Most of the caravan parks in Rocky where either near a main road or train line. We thought staying on the edge of town would be a better option, but we were wrong. Staying at the Southside holiday village we found ourselves between a train line hauling coal, and the Bruce Hwy. The only consolation was a heated pool, trains for the boys to view and ducks that just loved to hang around and be fed by hand. We took a drive through Rockhampton to the historical area along the river and it was so sad to see they have not made much of an attempt to embrace these beautiful buildings. The .walk along the river was lovely, but the street was dead having no cafes and just one lonely pub. Next to some of the beautiful buildings we found a crappy looking square red stationary shop it was sad indeed.
To continue our dash to Ipswich we moved on after just one very long night, another extremely rough drive, we felt like we were in a popcorn machine! We passed through Miram Vale and Gin Gin where we stopped to picked up some cheap pineapples ( when in Rome! ), saw a very aggressive snake (if you know what it is let us know) then made our way to Bundaberg, ready for the Bundi Rum Tour........... which was brilliant!!!
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See photo - Our Bundy Rum Photo
(we couldn't take any on the tour). |
Here are some statistics you may not have known:
1) 96% of Bundy Rum is consumed in OZ, 3% in NZ bro, and 1% International export!
2) At any one point in time there is $900,000,000 worth of Bundy rum maturing at the distillery!
3) Following the introduction of the latest Bond Store, this will increase to $1.2 Billion!
After our tour and tasting session ..................... we grabbed a couple souvenirs we headed for Hervey Bay!
So here is our latest
youtube video!
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