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We chose to return to Yamba again this year because last year we were at a park outside of Yamba on Palmer Island and we thought it might be a better stay right in the town centre of town at Calypso Yamba Holiday Park and I think this might have been a good decision. We drove through Coffs Harbour on our way and once again I was delighted to pass the 'Big Banana' an Australian Icon, maybe some time we should stop off here and take a look around. So onto Yamba where we were wanting to stay for four nights but we could only get a site for three nights so we took this site and have asked the office to let us know if they have a cancellation so that we can extend our stay. Our site is at the back of the park on the fence line and there is a gate beside our site out to the street which looks like it leads down to water, so after lunch we decided to take a walk and have a look around. As we walked down to the water's edge we noticed a ferry there on the jetty with people alighting, there was an information board at the top of the walkway down to the ferry with information on ferry trips and tours so we had a quick read here to see whether we might be able to take a tour. There were people on the jetty waiting to board which they did once the boat had emptied and then Robb went down and enquired if we could take a round trip on the ferry and we were told we could, so we boarded and found seats where I could have a clear view for photos and then the ferry took off. The round trip was one and a half hours long and most enjoyable, it had been a warm day and it was lovely sitting on the top deck with the breeze coming through. It is a very pretty area with the man-made harbours, mangroves, sandy beaches and many yachts anchored. We saw a lot of people and groups taking advantage of the water in the good weather including a dragon boat, kayaks, people fishing off jetties and fishing boats. We were even lucky enough to have dolphins playing alongside the ferry, unfortunately I couldn't get any decent photos of them. On our return trip the sun was dropping down and I did take a couple of nice photos of the sunset on the water. We were both pretty chuffed with this experience, one of the many opportunities you can have while travelling.
Yamba is a very pretty seaside holiday destination and we have been glad we returned because we wanted a better look around and staying in the town rather than out at Palmer Island has worked well for us. Having said all this there isn't a lot to do here so we found ourselves repeating last years touring with a visit to the Historic Port town of Ulmarra and the Scottish town of Maclean. Both of these towns are worth seeing and it was surprising how much we remembered from last year. Previously our visit to Ulmarra was a bit hasty, this year we took the time to walk around the town appreciating the beautiful historic buildings. At Maclean we went to all the spots we had been to last year, a couple of spots we hadn't remembered we had been there until we arrived. Maclean has a great Asian Grocer so of course we had to go there and pick up a few items we can only get at these stores.
We started with a coffee at home and a quick read before jumping in the car to drive to Iluka which is just over the water from Yamba but a 37 minute drive. Iluka is another small seaside town, smaller than Yamba and it doesn't look very prosperous. We drove to the jetty and tried to visit the beach but the road was closed off because of the amount of water over the road so we turned around and headed towards the rainforest. We took a bit of a walk around here and I took a few photos and then we returned to the car to drive back to Yamba. Our destination was the Pacific Hotel where we called in for a quick drink. I wanted to visit here because of the views over the beach but the hotel was so busy and everyone naturally chooses to sit at the windows overlooking the views so we had to grab a table in the centre of the room and when I wanted to take a few photos I approached a couple in the corner who were happy to let me squeeze in to take a few shots. Unfortunately the weather had turned and was raining so it was difficult to take the photos I wanted. We returned to the van from here, we are moving on tomorrow morning and decided to hitch up this afternoon but when we returned it was still raining so we thought we would wait for awhile to see what happens. We had lunch first but the weather hadn't changed, we were worried it would be like this tomorrow morning so decided we were better off just plowing on with packing up while we had time to do it rather than leaving it to the morning when we were under time limitations to get it done. It didn't take long and we were happy when we had finished the job.
Today we moved onto Landsborough to a park we stayed at last year. I have been trying to find different stops for us this year but we were having difficulty finding a vacancy for the ANZAC Day weekend and this was the first park we came across with a vacancy. It is a spectacular area close to the Glasshouse Mountains, Australian Zoo, Caloundra and the Sunshine Coast. It was a longer drive than we normally do and we had to drive through Brisbane and there were heaps of road works happening, so all up about four and a half hours drive. Thankfully it passed fairly quickly and finally we drove into the park and checked into the office. We had time to set up before the rain started which we appreciated, we didn't set up the awning because the wind was too strong and the van next door has had it's awning wrecked by the wind. I still need to see where we are going tomorrow but for now I am just happy to settle in for awhile.
Note to self: never try to visit Noosa or Mooloolaba on a long weekend after a pandemic. We drove to Noosa hoping to park and have a walk around the beach and the town, however, no such luck. All parking areas were full up with attendants turning people away, we moved on further down the beach to Noosa National park and sat there for 15 minutes waiting for the traffic to move without any luck. The best we could do is take a drive down Hastings Street and follow the other cars driving slowly around the beach. We decided to move onto Mooloolaba but unfortunately our luck wasn't any better there, we drove around the wharf area hoping we may find someone moving out of their park but parking spots were scarcer than hens teeth. Such a shame as we were keen to look around both of these coastal towns. Our next objective was Caloundra and thankfully we found a great spot here along the waterfront. We parked and head off along the walkway, we loved the atmosphere here and had fun watching the wind surfers who were out in huge numbers probably because the wind was so good today, we had to admire their abilities as you would have to be very fit to control the kites. It was also a very pretty sight having all these kites flying over the ocean and some of the surfers were doing impressive tricks for our benefit. From here we moved onto Maleny Cheese to pick up some of their flavoured cheeses that we loved last time we were here, we were hoping to visit here tomorrow but when we phoned to see if they would be open because it was ANZAC day they said they wouldn't be so we didn't want to miss out as we were moving on to Bundaberg on Tuesday.
So here we are in beautiful Queensland, sunny for 15 minutes and then pissing down for the rest of the time. We woke this morning to rain, as it had been nearly all night. I looked out the window and the grass around us was flooded and we are on a hill, the water on the road was running down the gutters to somewhere below us, not sure where. Our plans today were to find a post box to send off our grandson's birthday present and then find a supermarket for a bit of essential shopping, it is ANZAC day so we are just hoping the shops are open. We didn't hurry getting ready for the day we were hoping the rain may stop but it just continued on and it was still raining when we were ready to leave. It is pointless waiting around for the weather so we just got on with our day. We found a post box and I managed to physically push the parcel into it and the supermarket was just over the road so we soon completed our shopping. Our next stop was the Glasshouse Mountains Lookout, thankfully when we arrived the rain stopped for the five minutes I needed to take a few photos but there was rain all around us and it was difficult to take good photos but I decided to just work with what we had and I managed to come away with a couple of half decent photos. We then drove down to the Glasshouse Mountains Township stopping at the railway station for a look around. We wanted to revisit The Barrel Brewery for a drink and maybe lunch and on the way we thought we would visit the town of Maleny and particularly the Chocolate Factory. We parked in Maleny and the moment we hopped out of the car the heavens opened so we had to run to find the factory which wasn't easy as it was down a laneway off the main street and it was difficult to see where the entrance was, we found ourselves with another family running in the rain for cover to find the entrance. Eventually we found it and thankfully walked in the door, we had a look around and found Turkish Delish that I love and beside it was Rocky Road that we both love but it was priced at $15.95 per 150 grams ( which is approximately two pieces), we appreciate prices have risen over Covid and are usually happy to pay what we need to but this was just a bit ridiculous particularly when Robb can make a tray of Rocky Road for under $10.00. We moved on and had a walk around the street visiting the Maleny Food Co and then Sweets on Maple where we picked up a few pieces of fudge, one caramel and toffee and the other couple lemon meringue. I don't normally eat sweets but these fudges were something out of this world, we were very happy with our purchases. We drove directly to The Barrel from here, there weren't a lot of people here when we arrived but when we walked inside we noticed all the tables were reserved, we enquired anyway to see if we could get a table but we would have had to wait until 1.30pm, if it had of been a good day we could have sat outside but unfortunately the rain was still pouring down. We make a quick decision just to return to camp, there wasn't any sign the weather was going to clear and at the moment it was quite heavy. By the time we returned home we had to run inside to avoid the worst of the weather.
We were hoping that the further up north we moved the better the weather would be but I think now that the rain is attached to us and following us where ever we go. We were, however, lucky enough to have a brief respite when we were packing up the van and then once again when we arrived and had to set up. We drove into the Big4 park we had chosen for our stay in Bundaberg not knowing if they would have a site or not but luckily they did. We booked for three nights but we may extend depending on how much there is to see. We had a quick bite to eat before driving to the Visitor Centre to pick up information to plan our next few days. The Visitor Centre was behind the Bundaberg Rum complex so we drove around there to have a bit of a look, we had visited here last time so we didn't feel like we needed to spend much time here. Neither of us drink rum but Robb does love their ginger beer so we will visit their outlet for their soft drinks tomorrow and pick up what he wants. We drove home from here taking a bit of a look around the CBD which has many beautiful buildings that I managed to get a few photos of, it was getting late and I wanted to have time to plan for tomorrow so we drove directly home from here.
We started today with a visit to the nearby town of Childers, an historic town 50 kms back south from Bundaberg. When we drove through here on our way to Bundaberg we were impressed with the historic look of the town and thought it worth a longer look around and we weren’t sorry to return. There were a lot of people in town but we finally found a car park which was fortunately outside the Old Pharmacy so we made this our first place to visit and we had a lovely talk to the person on duty today who was very happy to give us lots of information, not only on the pharmacy but on the whole town. From here we walked up and down the streets photographing and inspecting the buildings on the way. At one time when we took a break one of the local people came past and was happy to stop and discuss the history of the buildings around us and reminded us about the fire at the Childers Backpackers, such a tragic disaster that we did remember. We asked about the heritage listing of the shops and were told that the facades of all the building were heritage listed so could not be altered and the funding of the other restoration of these building was funded by the Heritage Society with a few grants they managed to win from various organisations. They obviously have a dedicated group of people to achieve the number of renovations they have carried out; the Society holds an annual event that raises most of their funds. From here we headed back to Bundaberg stopping off at the Flying High Bird Park. We didn’t have high expectations of this park so we were very pleasantly surprised with this visit. There were so many beautiful birds here and most of the time we were walking amongst them and had them up close. The Park covers 3 acres and the main aviary is I think 8 metres high, we had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a lots of birds. The staff were extra friendly here and the entry prices were fair. We drove back to Bundaberg from here to visit Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, last time we were here Robb bought quite a few drinks from here and loved them so we have returned to get some more. Our last stop for the day was Ohana Cidery/Winery another place we visited last time but had such a nice time we though it would be good to revisit. They had a couple of new ciders on offer so we included these in our tasting paddle and came away with a Rose Cider and the Passionfruit Cider that we both loved.
Bundaberg has one hill named ‘The Hummock’ it is an old volcano that has been dormant now for 1 million years so we felt safe making this our first visit for the day. From The Hummock you can get a 360-degree view around Bundaberg and the surrounding countryside, we were told on a good day you could even see Fraser Island but obviously this was not a good day. It didn’t matter the views were pretty good and we appreciated having this crow’s eye view of the country around Bundaberg. From here we drove to the Bundaberg Port which is a long way out of town, there are some beautiful boats anchored here and there is also a dockyards where we saw a variety of boats and catamarans obviously in need of some TLC. There is a Marina Office, gift shop and cafe here but we didn't stop we just felt like doing a bit of boat envy while walking around, however, we did take a trip around following the fresh seafood sign and stopped here and purchased some very reasonably priced prawns and bugs. On the way to the port we had passed the tourist sign to Mon Repos and decided to stop in here on the way back. This is an impressive looking complex but unfortunately it is not turtle season which meant we only had the display to view, I paid for entry here and enjoyed the experience, I gather the money goes to preserving the turtle population so I was happy to contribute. Our last stop for the day was to be Macadamias Australia which is a very fancy new complex in Bundaberg. It was a good experience and we took a tasting and then chose a couple of favourites to take back, they were all good so choosing was a bit difficult. We came away with two large packs of macadamias, one for Robb and one for me.
We started with a drive around Bundaberg CBD, it is a very attractive city with many beautiful buildings. We drove over to the railway station to have a look around and we were both surprised by the number of people on the platforms waiting for a train. There is a regular service to Cairns and also one back to Brisbane, the majority of people had cases with them so I suppose they are using this as a tourist train to their holiday destination. Our next stop was Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, we entered this park at Fairymead Homestead the original manager's house for the sugar farms and mills. The house is quite extensive and beautifully preserved and underneath the house is the sugar mill museum, this was all very interesting and is set in beautiful gardens. We drove further around the gardens past the Historic Museum which we weren't interested in visiting, onto the Bert Hinkler Aviation Museum. We both knew Hinkler's name but not much more about him and found this interactive museum fun and informative, this exhibition is well worth a visit if you are up this way. Our last stop for the day was to be Kalki Moon Distillery where we had a tasting of the gins they make, we weren't interested in the vodka, we enjoyed a couple of their offerings and before leaving we purchased a bottle of their Classic Gin to bring home. This is becoming a bit of a joke with us because we keep buying these specialty gins and them just pack them away in the van where they sit forever without opening.
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