The fifth State-entering Queensland

By May 22nd we were back on the coast. Oranges were for sale and the Mount Warning National Park was unfolding its scenery before our eyes. We were near the border into Queensland, our fifth state.We had looked at the fabulous beach at Coolangatta and taken pictures at the Captain Cook Memorial before heading up the Sunshine Coast to Rainbow Bay. We spent the evening in a bar where the National Rugby Competition, The State of Origin, ( You had to be born in the State to represent it,) was about to begin. It was Queensland versus Southern Australia. We suddenly realised that Lee was inadvertantly wearing the opposing teams colours!!!! We left after our awful meal, without establishing eye-contact! The next morning we parked up and strolled along the beach to view the famous cliffs before we headed out, but I could not see the rainbow colours because of the green vegetation. However, I did notice the oil on the sand that had been churned up by the 4x4's that are allowed to drive along the beach to the next bay. It was a shame.

We left and headed for Tin Can Bay via Snapper Creek. We were passed by a true Aussie with a tinnie on the roof of his 4x4, towing a caravan with some witty phrase on the back, "Been there, done that!" Another version of this is the Aussie in his Holden Ute with a devoted, rough looking dog riding in the back, tied on by a bit of thick rope. Little dogs travel on the passenger seat but jump out of the partially opened window to join their owners at the pub!
Tin Can Bay was a delightful, clean, small town with a harbour and open sea. The local IGA, 'Independant Grocers Association' was the hub of activity. Locals greeted each other and a little communal hall stood proudly on the other side of the road. We had to turn around as the road was a dead end but we were pleased to have seen this delightful little place. We headed for Maryborough, 58kms further up the coast.
This proved to be a delight in a different way. It was the town that the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, had been born in. There was a statue of Mary Poppins outside the bank where Traver's father had been the manager. There were buildings from around the 1900's too. It was their festival that weekend but we were moving on.

Thursday saw us in Hervey Bay. We had a pitch over-looking the beach but it had been too cold to sit out on Thursday, when we arrived. It got worse on Friday as the sky was grey and it was raining and the van would not start! Two German girls and the elderly man next door gave us a push. Nothing! The man towed Lee out on to the road and we were off again! The girls had abandoned their car and given away the contents at the hostel because their car repair had been too expensive!!!!I felt tense but began to relax as we moved along in our usual routine. We were now in sugar cane country with field after field of 10ft canes, a huge refinery and rail-tracks everywhere, ready for the crushing seasdon which would begin in June. We stopped for breakfast in the next town called Childers. It was basically a high-street. The local pub had a statue of two bronze dogs involved in a fight!!! Lee found a place that he was prepared to eat in, called, 'The Sugar Bush", but we were too late for breakfast as it was now 11 am and breakfasts stopped at 10!!! The lady agreed to do us a breakfast and we ate it with relish; the mountains of bacon, egg and toast, it was divine, before moving on to pick up groceries at Woolies.

Along the roadside there were signs advertising custard apples,mangoes and pineapples. We also noticed a wacky postbox at the end of a drive. It was a table with a chair. The microwave on the table was the postbox. Don't ask me!
Our next port-of-call was the wonderful Town of 1770 and Agnes, where we were going to go out on the reef.