2 December 2014
Well today started off normally, breakfast, coffee and a walk amongst the woodland forest. A nest took our eye and appeared to be built entirely from mud. We could here squawking of babies inside.
The walk up the hill took into some beautiful forest.The trees had an incredible red / orange brown colour and some even provided a hollow for animals to live in.
On arriving back at camp we decided to take a drive further up the hill. Before we could do this, we need to clear the track of a fallen tree. Little did we know that once we cleared this track, four forestry workers and their machine would appear at our campsite, ready to demolish the area with some “selective tree harvesting” as they put it. So that is the start of the end for Wongi State Forest. All Steve and I could do was state our favourite saying – “See the country before its gone”.
Little did I know, that the photos I took when walking would probably be the last photos that would be taken of them before their demise. Very sad.
After a bit more 4WDriving around the forest we headed for Toogoom for coffee (a small community up the coast from Harvey Bay). Wow what a spot.
Here the coffee shop (Goody’s on the Beach) sits on the edge of an inlet where Beelbi Creek flows into the ocean. Beautiful! So this was all the excuse we needed to stop for coffee. Mmm the coffee was good.
It’s just a short drive from Toogoom down the coast to Hervey Bay. A great spot just to sit by the beach and eat lunch. It seemed the tide goes out about a 1km here – some of the widest beaches we have ever seem.
From here our drive took us to Urunga and Maryborough. Whilst we were in Maryborough, Steve wanted to visit a development called RV Homebase at Maryborough. This is a housing community for the over 50s where you can live with your caravan or motorhome (but in a house). The house comes with a garage which is about 16m x 6m – HUGE!
After a tour of the village we headed for Poona – I have no idea how you pronounce that – but I would be careful if you say it out loud – evil grin – I am sure it means many sandflies. As the day was almost over we decided to head for State Forest for another night. As we where 4wdriving through the pine plantations a call came in from Chrissy – always wonderful to catch-up and have a chat. Once we found a campsite, Steve cooked on the BBQ a wonderful steak for me and rissoles for himself. We also had internet so we were able to look at maps for tomorrow.