206-207 Hervey Bay (20/10 - 21/10)

OK... there's no denying it... this will be a stop-gap post. A photo update of such... Our time in Hervey Bay was, brief, largely uneventful other than a birthday, and like Agnes Waters, bloody wet.

But we, (read I) need to get through this post to get back to the cool adventuring!!

I'm sure, like Agnes Water and 1770, this place would be a piece of paradise in better weather. But I'll look back on it as a great birthday, a great burger and the departure of the Dampervan...

Our little cosy site... It took a bit of Austin Powers manoeuvring to get it in here. And no... I've no idea what B is doing here.

An evening walk showed us a nice waterfront, still showing the effects of the recent downpour.

The birthday boy!! Hitting big double figures...

There was so many captions here I couldn't decide on one. Nain is smirking, Bob is hiding and Evie and James are... ??

Like Evie's birthday in Broome, it was great to actually be able to share a birthday on the road, and again with out of towners!! And these guys were from WAY out of town.

A new Welsh bit of paraphernalia... Time to get some Wallabies stuff in order Pop!

This one was something Sam was pretty chuffed with. Picked this piece of Amethyst up from the Crystal Cave in Atherton. The boy has a fascination for the purple gem... Doesn't remind me of anyone...

Benefits of having Nain and Tadcu around was the ability to start a new tradition... Birthday Breakfasts! We took Sam out for a very very nice breakfast, so much so I couldn't even finish mine! You'll be pleased to know that the tradition has lived on with all kids being treated since.

Another one of these pretty spectacular, and free, water parks. The Hervey Bay splash park was pretty impressive. Big kids and small kids area! And whilst the weather wasn't scorching, it didn't stop our little ones getting the togs on for a play.

And instantly just like that, some people were just "too old" to do a quick public change and needed to enlist Mum's help for a privacy towel!! 

Ahh... this cake. OK, so not one of B's Masterpieces we've come to enjoy, geez it made us laugh and had a great story. Simple Green's packet mix, but with no utensils it was off to the camp kitchen to make and bake. The icing was actually just melted marshmellows with green food dye!

We certainly gave eating the cake a nudge, but the group playing 500 behind us were happy to help out also. Afterall, they'd been putting up with the baking and "caking" noise all afternoon!

Again... another one of those photos which you just wonder... what the?

A momentus occasion... After such an ordeal, Nain and Tadcu's Dampervan was finally replaced with something more robust. The replacement was trucked up from Brisbane!

What was Evie so excited about?!? What's she pointing at??

ALDI... of all places. Our first one in many a mile.

The rain had well and truly set in by now. Once again pouring it down... Sam had chosen a nearby burger joint for birthday dinner, and for some really unknown reason he and B decided to walk. I think they possibly could have swam. The rest of us drove the 3 blocks and still got drenched getting in and out of the the car!

Sigh.....

The burger place was kitted out with board games which went down a treat. We all laughed pretty hard when we found his doppelganger "Kevin" in the Guess Who box.

James and I decided that Jenga was too boring and we'd try and see what different kind of towers we could build. I particularly liked his basement reinforcement.

And would you believe it... no this isn't an optical illusion... Evie and Sam played games together. By themselves. Without hardly an issue (a few minor interventions were required)

Not usually one for photos of food, this burger was sensational...Typical American style fried chicken, melted cheese and sauce... oh yeah...

Tadcu having a crack at the biggest burger of his life apparently. Sam thinking it rather humerous...

And that was that. With Nain and Tadcu's impending departure beginning to loom large, we continued our journey southward, in search of some off grid free camping to treat the Welshies to some final snippets of Australian landscape... and wow... we won't forget our time in the next location any time soon.

I'll just try and update the blog sooner rather than later!!

202-205 - Agnes Water (16/10 - 19/10)

OK, so I wanted a bit of adventure according to the last blog... and didn't we get that at our next destination...

We had been to a lot of places in Australia, but there was none more aptly named. There was so much water in Agnes Water it kept us flooded in the town with flood waters closing the roads for 4 days.

For the most part the journey to Agnes was uneventful as we trundled down the highway. But we knew there was rain coming, as we tracked it via the radar. And we knew it was coming with a bang.

As we turned off the highway at Miriam Vale, the rain started. We debated perhaps "letting it pass" but decide that it wasn't too bad and we'd push on.

Hmm... maybe that wasn't such a good idea...

This is the windscreen with the wipers flat out. They could hardly keep up.

It was like driving through a never ending waterfall. With a 3t caravan on the back. Thankfull it wasn't that windy but there was so much water on the roads you couldn't see the pools from the flowing water from the road surface.

B's folks, travelling behind us said at quite a few times the simply couldn't see us in front from the spray and water we were throwing up.

We got to the Fingerboard Roadhouse where the one road into Agnes Waters and 1770 begins. On approach B and I were discussing pulling over to "let it pass". Common sense said pull over, it was really quite dangerous. But the stubborn person in me said we should just push through the last 30km to Agnes Water. I didn't really want to park up, wait and then get going again. So we radioed back to the Campervan and said keep going. And history will tell us that that was a particularly fortuitous decision.

They closed the road 30min after we passed through (which would explain some of the massive puddles we went through!). Had we stopped at the roadhouse, we would have been parked there for 4 days... Now that would have been a challenge!

In all though, the van and Rock Truck were great together, and didn't really put a foot wrong. It was a little loose at times, and visibility was very very poor, but we travelled conservatively and I think the 30km in took us around 45min, so you can imagine the speed we were going.

It was truly the craziest rain I've ever driven in, and to have the van on the back made it all the more "interesting".

So it continued...

Apparently around 400mm in 3 days... Even for Welshies, that's a lot of rain.

This was the rain as we got to Agnes Water Campground. We had intended to free camp there initially so went for a look. We toured in there and parked up for 30min in our efforts to "let it pass". There were torrents of water running through the campground and we looked forlornly at the campers in tents there. Thankfully we had the radios so we could keep in touch between the two vehicles however B did desert us to go have a cup of tea over in the camper. In the end we decided that this wasn't a tennable situation and gave the local caravan park a call. We got very lucky and managed to get one of the last powered sites available.

We had seen a few leaks in the Campervan prior to Agnes but this rain... this rain wreaked havoc. Water was literally coming in everywhere. It was here we coined the phrase "The Dampervan" and it was a name that stuck. It wasn't safe to stay in this thing (can you imagine turning on a power point?!?) so we managed to get one of those tent-apartment-room things that places up this way have. Half building, half super strong canvas tent. Through quite a few phone calls from Dave Thomas and B, the bill was paid for by the hire company as it should have been. I don't think I would have been so tolerable...

So after the first days rain, it eventually broke for a little while and we went out to survey the caravan park.

It was a great location and I'm sure it would be lovely in other weather conditions... 

...but not right now. There was a lot of water around!!

This was the small creek at the back of the park where it enters the ocean. 

The stormwater had battered the little creek and severely altered the shape of the beach. Nothing uncommon I'm sure, but it was impressive to see the damage the water could do in such a short period of time.

Then the rain came again and we retreated back to shelter. One of the cool features of the Gecko is the ability to fold the bed and create quite a large flat space to play games and do some lego.

And as we found, having the Dampervan actually had it's benefits as by not being in it, the Tent provided us with a bigger dry area to all congregate. And, much to the kids delight, turn a TV on in...

It was a pretty cool set up, and certainly more comfortable than running between RVs.

I'm not even sure which day this was. But it became apparent that we were in for the long haul. The rain would come, and then stop, and then start again. A huge storm system had decided to call Agnes Water home for a few days.

We did venture out frequently as, despite the rain, it was quite warm. So once you accepted that your shorts and shoes (or thongs pretty much) were going to get damp, your rain coat and umbrella did the rest. Which is why we were glad we didn't get stuck at the road house. At least there was supermarket (that ran out of milk) restaurants and a couple of places to get a coffee or beer. The bakery in particular got a caning, and comes highly recommended.

But when it decided to pour, oh did it pour...

This guy was staying at the caravan park. I found him down at the beach one day just kicking some laps in his electric wheelchair in the surf with his dog and friends... I mean... seriously... what the???

The lego was shifted between abodes...

Every day, despite the rain and weather, the life guards turned up. Most of the time quite simply to watch the surf roll in. But every now and then some hardy locals took advantage of the decent swell. I thought Brody from Point Break might have turned up. 

Nain and I on one of our walks. Despite the rain, B and I remained committed to getting our 10,000 steps each day.

Agnes Water actually has a museum which isn't really surprising given maritime history in the area. The museum was kinda quirky and definitely had a "small town" feel to it. But it had some cool items and historical artefacts.

 Like these early model iPods and computers...

Tadcu was in his element with his grandson's, imparting knowledge and fielding questions.

Whilst Evie decided that this was a school day, Sam just had decided he couldn't be bothered taking is rain jacket on and off and just left it on.

One for the teachers among us. You might need to click on it to blow it up.

Across from the museum conveniently located was the library, full of, well, books unsurprisingly. But also board games and a few PC's to use if you wanted. That was very very handy indeed.

And still it rained. Impressive cameo from the umbrella too.

Nain and B (and I) out for another walk. This one caught us out a bit, but Nain doesn't seem phased. Her and Tadcu just kept chuckling "but it's so warm when it rains!" I suppose the same rain in Wales doesn't come with 25 degree temperatures.

Monopoly got a run as well...

And then, finally, the storm decided to move on. Thanks to the amount of rain that had fallen though, it would take a day or two for the flood waters to subside. But I did go outside and notice this...

I mean, what the hell of this???

And yet, with the sunshine "Can we go to the Library?" rang out...

James and I found this game, which he duly trounced me at and was very proud.

So Mum joined in, James still won, and then I was relegated to 3rd!

For all the rain, we only found one issue with the Big Green Lizard, and that was a small leak around one of the windows. I suppose if it wasn't for a bit of outback red dust, we might not have seen it! Either way, that was addressed at the next service down the road...

And with the sun, came a few businesses that had been closed due to people not being able to get through, opened. This included the cafe in the caravan park! Smoothies all round whilst we watched Mum who, somehow, from somewhere, had managed to organise a surfing lesson!

Blue sky!

And the day before we left, we got to catch a glimpse of  just how beautiful this part of the world could be. And as you can see, that little stream has returned...