Letho's Blog

August 10, 2011

Our original plan was to leave Hervey Bay to get to Fraser Island today. It turned out a bit different, though. We started with a relaxing bath in our host’s hot tub, a private mini pool at 36°C on his balcony:

Now that did wake us up! Afterwards we took a few last looks at Hervey Bay, searching for an sculpture depicting a sea monster based on Aboriginal tellings along the Esplanade. When we found it, we noticed we had already been there the day before. Clever, eh?

We also found the Skark Museum and went to the Urangan Pier:

Shopping in Australia at the East Coast suddenly made us feel very much like home – we hadn’t been to an Aldi for about 8 months!

Then we made our way to Maryborough, known for its numerous historical buildings and pictoresque atmosphere. However, I made the mistake thinking that the Heritage Trail along a few important local buildings and sites could easily be done on foot. How wrong I was .. after a few kilometers I had to quit walking and got back to the car, leaving me rather frustrated. Another fine example of Australian misinformation by some crappy brochures and information centers! Apart from that a few of the items are not really worth going to at all like the first settlement of Maryborough, the Village of Wide Bay – there is absolutely nothing there!

By now it was so late that we would not get to the ferry to Fraser Island on time, or being able to drive along the beach due to the incoming high tide. And by coincidence we met our CS host in Maryborough – after he offered us to stay another night we happily agreed! We then flocked around a few selected spots in Maryborough to make the best out of the rest of the day.

We came across the Mary Poppins statue which is located directly in front of the novel author’s birth house:

Some shots in Queens Park before we left Maryborough and returned to Hervey Bay:

Fraser Island, we’re coming another day.