Bundaberg

Friday the 1^st of July we left 1770 and headed for Bundaberg. After checking out the options of where to stay we had booked in to the Riverdale Caravan Park on the Burnett River close to town. Only $25 a night with power and water and it was great being on the river. I was pretty happy to be on nice grass again and in sunshine at the campsite (see the 1770 post) and we stayed three nights. Here are some photos from our camp.

This is looking to our camp from the other side of the river.

Our van is the one in the centre to the right of the dark vehicle.

At night the reflection of lights of town lit up the water beautifully.

I saw a fellow in the van park and straight away realized I had seen him on the road. I recalled that I saw him back in late May 2015 on our WA trip. We were camped at Timber Creek which is on the way from Kathrine to Kununurra. Went for a drive from there to check out an early explorers campsite and boab tree they had carved their names on and other things. We stopped to check out the Victoria River at a spot where you could get off the road and where there was a bridge going over to a restricted army establishment. This particular fellow towed his van in to the spot there with his wife. We got chatting and they were looking for somewhere to spend the night. They were nice people who were full time on the road. They were heading to Darwin to watch the V8 supercars. The next morning we waved to them as we went by at the same spot where they wound up camping. I never forget a face so said gooday to him there in the park at Bundaberg and had a good chat. Again, another amazing coincidence with people on the road. I love it.

On arrival we set up and rather than go out we got some washing done and went for a walk and hung around camp. On our walk I found some more rail tracks but couldn't get Linda to lay down on them.

Saturday, first thing, we went to the Bundaberg Distillery for the guided tour. It was pretty good. You go through the plant and the processes are explained and you get to sample the product. You get two nips of whatever you want including the nice award winning liquors. They only sell the liquors on site. I wasn’t interested but Linda picked up some product. We will be dropping back in on our way out of town and picking up some for my mate Dave. Once he heard we were here he was very keen for us to grab a couple of bottles as you can only get them here.

After lunch we went and visited the Bert Hinkler Hall of Fame and his reconstructed house that was brought over from England, piece by piece. Bert was born in Bundaberg and it was good to see all the sites, where he lived, flew under the town bridge, and flew his glider as well, as well as the hall of fame. We had a lot of fun flying some planes on three simulators. Bert flew under this bridge where it goes across the water which actually gave him a bit more room to get through.

Saturday night was spent like the rest of you in Australia, watching the Federal election results. What an anti-climax with the no result as yet eh!

Sunday morning we went to the Bundaberg markets which was well attended and picked up some fresh vegetables. Then we headed off to do the loop drive to the coast. Firstly we went to Elliott Heads.

Then onto Coral Cove and Innes Park. It might be amazing under water there but the beaches are just all rock. Next spot going north was Bargara which was a bigger place and had some nice sandy spots. We had a nice lunch there at the Golf Club which has the best views in town. Luckily there was a girl singing there and she had a sweet voice so, what a bonus.

North of Bargara is Mon Repos which is where Burt Hinkler used to use the sand dunes to jump off with his glider and fly. Turtles come on shore here from October to April and lay their eggs.