Sunday 1^st July – 1770

We continued to drive south to start the social 2 or 3 weeks of the trip home. 1770 is off the highway and a coastal visited by Captain Cook in, yes, you guessed it, 1770.

It is a quiet little town where the river enters the sea, where the sun shone brightly and breeze was gentle and we walked along the sands around the headland and back again. We didn’t want to go back to the park too early, so we found a little spot near the inlet and set up our chairs and had a read and a cuppa for an hour or so. A very pretty place well set up for day trippers. As always the best caravan park is the council one on the beach. Our park was a bit further out and completely surrounded by trees. You could walk thru the bush to the beach. There was a cycle track across from the park and I did a bike ride back towards Agnes Waters. The area looks to be doing okay but there was a building that had been stopped before completion.

Tomorrow we have a reasonably short drive to Bargara, 15km south of Bundaberg, where our friends from the Canadian trip of 2006 live. The Heads, Lynn and Brian have visited us in Canberra a few years ago and this was our chance to reciprocate.

Monday 2^nd July

We got away reasonable early, but we took our time and had some lunch before we arrived in Bagara. It was great to see our friends again. No rest for us, as they whisked us away and we did some sight seeing around town. They had an evening engagement with Rotary, so they left about 5.15, and we had an early tea of soup which Lynn had already made for us. It was a bit of a treat to sleep in a bed and we looked forward to it.

Tuesday 3^rd July

It was an all day sightseeing trip with visits to the marina area, sugar factory, the Bundy factory, the Ginger Beer area, then on to the Bert Hinkler Museum (a Bundy hero and early aviation pioneer), botanic gardens and a beautiful late 1880s house redone as a museum to the area.

It was a long day and we had a very nice meal with them at home and we played Ricketty Kate until about 10pm. It was a very relaxing night and great fun.

Wednesday 4^th July

After a fantastic visit with Brian and Lyn we headed off to the Sunshine coast. True to its name the weather was [and is] beautiful. Once again we are right behind the beach at Mooloolaba. We went for a walk along beach. Wooden walkway one way and path the other. Lovely spot. The boardwalk was covered all the way so would a lovely cool walk in summer.

It was origin night so we watched the game in the camp kitchen. A lot of fun with surprisingly lots of blues supporters. We won’t mention the result!

Thursday 5^th July

Headed off to a place called Kilcoy about 1 hour north of Brisbane, to stay with friends Steve and Denise. Way back when, Adrian lived and trained with Steve in Melbourne. They have a lovely home with a 360 deg around to lovely hills just north of the Wivenhoe Dam. They overwhelmed us with their welcome and we had a great night as well. Tomorrow they are having friends in for a barbecue so we also get tp meet some of the locals