Bundaberg to Calliope

First of all, we want to wish mum and dad a very happy 55th anniversary.  I rang them this afternoon especially to congratulate them, but they didn't believe me????!!  Just because we have no idea of what day it is when we're travelling doesn't mean that we'd forget their anniversary.  Hope you have a lovely dinner with Denise and Ray.

Anyway, back to our travels.  On our way to Bundaberg we thought it might be a good idea to book a couple of sites before we actually arrived - good thinking.  We tried about 10 cara parks between us before finally getting a 'yes' - apparently the whale season has started early this year.  It normally starts in August, but somebody forgot to tell the whales!  So, finding a spot all the way up the coast is getting difficult.  We booked into one in Bundaberg East which was very nice, had a good ensuite, but is right in the light manufacturing area.  It also backed onto a courier service which apparently had deliveries throught the night, so it was a little noisy.  
 
Did a bit of shopping to stock up, and bought a kilo of big fat juicy tiger prawns for only $20.  Bargain!  Pete had a telephone interview for a job that afternoon, so after he'd finished we invited Pete & Dee over for prawns and salad with Sylvia's Special Spicy Seafood Sauce (how's that for alliteration?) that evening - just delicious.

Next morning we booked in for a tour of the Bungaberg Rum Distillery (as you do, when in Bundaberg) which was quite interesting, especially as we got a seniors discount and saved $10 - gotta be happy with that!  And of course, we ended up buying a bottle or two - Bundy Royal Chocolate and Coffe Liqueur, and Bundy Reserve Premium Release (which can only be bought from the distillery.  Dee also bought a couple of bottles of the Liqueur.  (As a matter of fact, Trev and I are just having a Bundy & Coke right now - will keep me blogging a bit longer...)

We drove out to have a look at Bargara, a little coastal town about 15km from Bundaberg - we went there on one of our previous trips and really liked the area.  It's near the turtle conservation area at Mon Repos, where the turtles come to nest each year.  The beaches here have huge black basalt rocks and boulders around them and are really quite different.  We had fish and chips overlooking the beach and soaking up the scenery.  While we were lunching a heap of rally cars came into Bargara - they'd been on the Burleigh to Bargara Rally and had just arrived at their destination.  They were quite colourful, extremely dusty and dirty and quite vocal, and it looked like the participants had had a wonderful time.

Pete & Dee headed back into Bundaberg while Trev & I continued through the coastal towns - we'd brought our snorkelling gear as we'd been told that there were some good snorkelling rocks areas around Bargara and Coral Cove.  We had full intentions of doing a bit of snorkelling, but it was quite windy, cool, and the water temperature was way too low for poor old Trev so we decided to give it a miss.  But there are certainly some lovely beaches and rocks in this area - loved it.

Pete and Dee have decided to head back to Canberra, as it looks like Pete has to have a further interview on Tuesday following his phone interview last night.  So, as it's our last night together, we went to a little local club for dinner, The Easts Sports Club - the receptionist at our cara park had recommended it.  We all had a really good meal and were very impressed.  


We packed up this morning and said our farewells to Pete & Dee, as we are going towards Carnarvon Gorge while they head for home.  We dropped into Gladstone on the way through, just to see if there were any snorkelling tours running from there.  To my great disappointment, there were none, unless we wanted to d
o an overnighter to Heron Island for $659 per couple!  Afraid not, it's a little bit over our budget.  
 
So we continued on till we got to a little free-camping spot that is in the Camps Australia 5 book - Calliope.  It's a top spot on a really pretty river with heaps of camping areas either side of the banks.  The river is both fresh and saltwater and apparently is a great fishing spot.  There are flushing toilets here too - yayyy!  
 
The birdlife here is amazing - heaps of kingfishers, kites, tiny little finches, huge herons, parrots and ducks.  


Well, we're just about to have a lovely scotch fillet for dinner with Bundy & coke, so I'll sign off now.  Heading towards Carnarvon Gorge tomorrow, but then again, who knows where we'll end up.......