DAY 117 - 121 (Heading to Brisbane)

DAY 121 - Mon 18 Oct

• We planned to leave Hervey Bay today but it was such a beautiful, perfect day we decided to stay another night... 

• In the afternoon, we just drove around and checked out the town. The ridiculously long wharf was a popular fishing spot...

• We found a little creek that wasn't so crowded so I attempted to catch dinner (but with no luck).

• Tonight, we are both nursing extreme sun burn after under-estimating the UV index today.
• On Wednesday we will drive to Brisbane and spent a few days cleaning the van before delivering it to the new owners on Friday afternoon. We have about a week after this until we can pick up our new home - the camper trailer from Ballina. 

DAY 120 - Sun 17 Oct

• We left Tannum Sands and headed to Hervey Bay... We often see some strange and interesting things on the road...

• We arrived at Hervey Bay mid afternoon... I put some much-needed washing on yet realised near the end of the cycle that it didn't sound real good. I was SO shattered when I realised that I had forgotten to remove my cherished souviner driftwood that I had found a the tip of Cape York from the machine. I would often store it in the machine when we travelled to keep it safe. So now all our undies were full of splinters!

• Not only that but on one of the rough roads we had travelled the machine had broken the brackets that held it in place and one of the feet was off... Mr fix-it to the rescue...

• Geoff then headed off to play a much needed game of golf, after spending long hours driving the last few days.

DAY 119 - Sat 16 Oct

• We left Nebo truck stop early and continued our journey south. Once again the road back to the main freeway was rough. At one point we stopped and checked inside the van and all the bathroom stuff was all over the floor, the microwave door was open and the glass round plate from it was on the floor (amazingly not broken tho). 
• We checked out a coastal town called Yeppon... pretty nice

• And also Gladstone which I think has to be the biggest industrial hole in Australia. (sorry if you are a fan...)

• We spent the night a Tannum Sands. Another nice little coastal town just south of Gladstone.

DAY 118 - Fri 15 Oct

• We left Ayr and headed south-west to a mine near Glenden. (My sister's husbands, uncle works there and had arranged to give us a tour). I have to be honest here and say that I really wasn't looking forward to the mine tour and might have grumbled a little along the way (as it was a slight detour). However, I actually quite enjoyed seeing the enormous size of a drag-line in progress... As Geoff said, it was like watching a ten-storey building swinging around dragging an enormous bucket. The bulldozer in front of it that you can just see is actually a D11 (the largest bulldozer in the world!). Looks pretty small when compared to the drag line... 

•  Newlands Xstrata coal mine soon plans to move this above dragline 36kms to another mine site and it takes one hour to travel 50m. 
• Below are photos of another open cut mine onsite... To get one tonne of coal they need to remove 20 tonnes of dirt. 

• The nearby town to the mine is called Glenden and is fully owned by the mine - it is a strange place. All the houses are pretty much the same and cost $30 a week in rent. We had dinner at the local club (also owned by the mine) with Matt (my sister's husbands, uncle) his wife Tuva and their kids. We planned to spend the night at a dam about 20kms away from Glenden but somehow with it being dark and raining we totally missed the turn. 
• So we just kept driving until we came to a random town called Nebo. Not wanting a repeat of our noisy night on the highway a few days ago, we decided to head into the town and park near a reserve. We did not realise though at the time how close we were to the local pub. At about 12 midnight we were woken up by a fight just outside the van between two men. One of the men then rallied a group of friends (have no idea where they all came from) and starting planning on bashing up the other fellow. Honestly at this point, I was petrified inside our little van. When they had walked a little away from the front of our van, we quietly got dressed in the dark and slipped into the car. I think we both breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the police had arrived. We drove back to the highway and parked at the truck stop. We prefer truck noise now to drunken fights outside the van! 

DAY 117 - Thurs 14 Oct

• Today we left Undara and began to make our way south-east to Brisbane to deliver the van. 
• Part of the condition of sale was to get any warranty work repaired on the van so we needed to head to Townsville to get that done. Unfortunately the road to Townville from Undara was a little more rough than we had anticipated - there was a large section of dirt roadworks and the majority of the road was only one lane tar with dirt either side. So to pass any oncoming traffic you had to veer off the side... The van has never been so dirty - what a shame! Check out the width of the road...

• Geoff also informed me along the way that when we were at Elim Beach (coloured sands) about a month ago, a lady came up to him (when I wasn't around) and said she just saw a snake near our tent! I'm SO GLAD he didn't tell me until now! 
• We travelled most of the day (except a brief stop in Townville Jayco) and spent the night in a small town called Ayr.