Great Sandy Straits Kingfisher Bay to Urangan, Hervey Bay.
04 August 2011
Photo: Maheno wreck, 75 mile beach, Fraser Island
Kingfisher Bay is home to Kingfisher Bay Resort which is boatie friendly. They made us very welcome, stating we could use all the facilities including bars, restaurants, showers, swimming pools, small shopping complex, dispose of rubbish, as well as partake in any of the resort activities. We walked several of the trails through the native bush and along unspoilt beaches. We met up with other yachting friends, Peter and Lorraine, and enjoyed drinks on their boat. We decided to book ourselves on the all day “island beauty spots tour” for Monday; we don’t often get to see inland places. As we were leaving the beach, having secured the dinghy for the day, we met Lee, an Australian we had met 4 years earlier when he had his boat in Bayswater Marina, Auckland, next to Dol - small world!!!!. The day was great, we drove along 75mile beach on the east coast, stopped to look at the coloured sands, Eli Creek and a shipwreck (Maheno). Morning tea was on the beach and then we headed inland to another resort for lunch before going to Central Station, an old “railway station” for the now defunct logging business. From here we went for a walk through the rain forest before heading to Lake Mackenzie for a swim and afternoon tea. Lake Mackenzie is a fresh water lake that is crystal clear and so pure that no life can be sustained, no danger of getting bitten by anything. Our ranger guide for the day, Peter, has lived on Fraser Island for 15 years and told us aboriginal legends and historical information, he is also a famed Fraser Island photographer with a great affinity with the islands nature and wild life, all in all a great day.
The following day with a westerly forecast we motor sailed around to Scarness, Harvey Bay. We sat at anchor of Scarness going for walks on the beach and relaxing until Saturday 23rd July, when with a SE wind change due, we decided to go into Urangan, Gt Sandy Straits Marina a few days early rather than going back around to Kingfisher Bay. The time in the marina was well spent. Those of you who know Brian will appreciate his need for projects, so the galley lighting has been changed, venetian blinds were sent away for cleaning and new soft furnishing were purchased (cushions) for the saloon. Brian also donned his dive gear and dived in the marina to clean the bottom of the boat, the following day the guy off the yacht next door told us a large bull shark has been seen in the marina recently and he was none too friendly!!! Friday 29th July, Gordon and Maree arrived from Gladstone where they had left their yacht, following a social afternoon we went out for dinner and the following day drove to Brisbane for a flight to Sydney.
We met up with Len and Leigh from New Zealand in Sydney, all staying in the same hotel. Sunday was Boat Show day, which was spent looking at the “on the water” boats in the morning, mainly trawler style launches for our old age when we can no longer use the stairs in Dol, and the indoor exhibits in the afternoon. The Sydney Boat show probably has more on the water boats than Auckland but less exhibits. Monday we met up with Len from Newcastle, (Woodstock – we met him in Tasmania) and had a great day catching up. Tuesday we took the ferry to Watsons Bay, walked the lookout and had fish and chips from Doyles fish bar for lunch. We flew back to Brisbane and drove to Hervey Bay on Wednesday. Len, Leigh, Gordon and Maree stayed in Sydney for a family function at the weekend. It was good to spend some time with them as we hadn’t seen them since leaving New Zealand 16mths ago.
The Dol is now re-provisioned and we are leaving Hervey Bay for the Bundaberg River, then onto Pancake Creek where Gordon and Maree will meet us for the cruise north to Townsville. There was a near disaster during provisioning when the trolley was being unloaded from the pier onto Dol, it tipped over and a carton of coke (for the rum), a carton of beer and a carton of ginger beer ended up in the water. Luckily for us, as they floated, we were able to retrieve them, hose them down with fresh water and store them on board.