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We moved on today further up the east coast to Miriam Vale where we are staying at the Star Roadhouse at $25 per night for power, water and there is even a pool. the reviews we read on this stop were all good and even mentioned that the roadhouse food was good so we will give this a try. We were interested in staying in this area because of it's proximity to Seventeen Seventy, somewhere I have wanted to visit since I first heard of it, the name intrigues me. I had phoned ahead earlier in the week and booked a site and when we arrived we were given the choice of two sites and we are very happy with the one we have chosen. We set up and had lunch I had prepared yesterday and we sat and read until early afternoon when we decided to take a dip in the pool which was very pleasant. We returned to our site and spent the afternoon researching our next few days activities and our next spot to stay. I also want to spend a bit of time setting up my new camera I have purchased, I can't wait to try it out because my poor old camera has served me loyally for 7+ years but it is on it's last legs and the photos quality has dropped significantly.
I am satisfying one of my wishes today in visiting 1770, I have been intrigued with visiting here for no better reason than the name fascinates me. Firstly we travelled through Agnes Waters and then onto it's partner town 1770. We continued on through 1770 up to the point and lookout where we parked and had a bit of a walk around admiring the views. There is an information board here telling the meaning of the name of the town which was all connected to Captain Cook going through and landing in this area in 1770, his first landing in Queensland. There is not much to 1770 and in fact the whole area including Agnes Waters reminds me very much of our home area of Tarwin Lower and Venus Bay. We drove back down to the main town area past a very large caravan park that once again reminded me of our home and the North Walkerville camping area. There are a couple of cafes in town, a general store and a couple of tour operators. There is a tour that leaves from the marina at 1770 called The Larq which is an amphibious vehicle that I wouldn't have minded taking a trip on but the next tour was in the afternoon and I didn't want to wait around. We drove from here to Agnes Waters where we stopped at the shopping centre to pick up a few items before returning to our van. It is a lovely area but there really wasn't a lot to see here so it was a fairly early day. We spent most of the afternoon on our devices, there was a little bit of rain in the afternoon but nothing to send us inside. We walked over to the Star Roadhouse for dinner where Robb had a steak and I had a chicken pizza. The meal wasn't bad but nothing to write home about, most of the pizza came back with us because it was so big.
We had a funny experience today in visiting Gladstone in Queensland. Gladstone has a population of 45,000 but the first thing we noticed driving down the main street was the lack of people and traffic in town. We called into the Information Centre and the lady we were talking to explained that it depends on the work happening in town and sometimes the town is bursting at the seams and other times, like now, it seems like there isn't anyone around. We drove around a bit and it seemed to us like there was the original town of Gladstone and then they had built this whole new area, probably for the extra workers, with no one to fill it out. Anyway the there is a lot of building going on all over town and some of the buildings including the shire offices are quite magnificent. The Information Centre suggested a few things we could look at so our first stop was Auckland Hill lookout which gave us great views over the water towards the islands sitting just out from Gladstone. From here we drove down to the East Shores Precinct which is a lovely park area on the water, there is a war ship there, the Gladstone, and a small lighthouse. We walked on further to Auckland House Brewery and sat and had a beer each sampling the beer that is made at the brewery, Robb had a pale ale and I had a lager and both were good. We drove from here up to Round Hill lookout that gives spectacular views over the city, there are story boards all around with heaps of information about the regions they are facing. Before driving back home we stopped off at Barney Point Beach and Park and sat and watched a gas tanker being led out to the channel. On our way home we stopped at a fresh produce stall we had noticed on the way out and picked up a few items and then we called into the small supermarket in Miriam Vale to pick up some fresh bread for lunch. Just after lunch we noticed a van coming in beside us and they weren't sure how to get around the spot so Robb went out and helped them and it turned out they were in another Olympic van and they are in the Olympic Group we belong to. Chatting to them we found out Janice is the sister of Joy who we know quite well so after they were set up they came over and sat and had a chat for a while. We are moving on to Yeppoon tomorrow but we have enjoyed ourselves here.
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