Hervey Bay & Alexandra Headlands August 10th – 27th 2007
Yep; you guessed it. Our trip to Hervey Bay was not all plain sailing owing to a short in the boot of the van at the battery terminals. It seems some wiring on the positive side rubbed through on the negative terminal on the dual battery system.
Fortunately this occurred just as we arrived and started setting up; any other time and it could have been a lot worse. At least I became very familiar on the workings of a small but very useful fire extinguisher.
Sunland organised an electrician for us and we were fully operational within a couple of hours; Sunland then followed this up by driving from Brisbane to Hervey Bay to replace the damaged battery and re-wire back to the junction box.
On to the good stuff and the time we had at Hervey Bay; we happened to be in town for the official start of the whale watching season which kicked of with a street parade and fireworks on the Saturday evening.
On Sunday there was a wine tasting with jazz bands followed by the “Blessing of the Fleet” this involves all of the whale watching vessels coming into the harbour one by one and being blessed for the whale watching season; quite an emotional event especially after several reds.
Hervey Bay is a very nice are with beautiful beaches; it has many eateries and pubs on the esplanade but if you are not into this there are plenty quiet areas and beaches to read and unwind; Linda and I are certainly looking forward to a longer stay when next we visit the area.
We did do a whale watching trip on Wednesday 15th; it was aboard a boat called “Whalesong” and I must admit it was a great trip; not only did we get to see the wales close up but a rare event happened where the wales actually stay with the boat. It is called “Mugging” and the skipper is not allowed to depart until the wales leave otherwise they may get injured. We did get away about 90 minutes late but the pictures and the sunset on the return trip was spectacular.
If you are in Hervey Bay during the season it is highly recommended and the boat we went on was first class in presentation and service. The Whalesong web site is HERE ; there is a choice of a morning trip (breakfast and morning tea supplied) or a lunchtime trip (lunch and afternoon tea supplied), the boat is also fully licensed.
Our trip back down the coast to Alex was uneventful (thankfully); we arrived on Friday afternoon (17th) and the storms and 100km per hour winds arrived on Monday afternoon. Not a good end to the 2 week break as we were van bound for almost 4 days. We had to drop the awning as we were concerned the winds may cause damage; glad we did do so before the storms arrived as a few people in the van park got caught short and had to make 2.00am dashes to get the awnings down. The van did suffer a leak in the boot but non internally; the van is due in for its 1000km service on Monday 27th so Sunland will be making some repairs and doing some minor fixes during that week.
All in all we survived this trip but not without what seems like a common saying with me “it’s a bloody nightmare”; an over exaggeration on my part and Linda keeps reminding me by saying “stop being such a drama queen”.
Well we have had the wind; fire and rain so lets hope we have a bit better run next time; we look to be doing a 2 nighter in October and then we have 3 weeks planned over Christmas (Maroochydore and Noosa – Tewantin) so will post up after the first of these. In the meantime more photos of Hervey Bay and the Alex trip can be found by clicking HERE
Look forward to posting again soon
David & Linda – The DavLin Rig
