To Hervey Bay

So here it is folks... The next long awaited blog! Airlie beach to Hervey bay

Having head south out of Airlie Beach we were mildly pensive, if not a bit worried about the flood damage that might lie ahead.

Needless to say our 800km journey from Airlie Beach to the Fraser Coast was an eye opener.

The sheer distances from town to town on this stretch were much larger than we had been used to. To say that we routinely tested the lower limits of our fuel tank would be an understatement.

Our beast of a motor has transformed from running on regular unleaded, to half a tank of unleaded and half a tank of sheer will power!

Half way between Mackay and Rockhampton, both Emma and I had resigned ourselves to the fact that this was it! We had pushed it too far and this was the time we would run out. The fuel indicator was reading negative! ...Instead, our front left tire decided to blow out. We changed our shredded one to a nice bald spare bicycle tire and with a stroke of much needed luck (will power) we made it to the nearest petrol station.

After a day sorting out a new tyre in Rockhampton, we headed for Bundaberg in the hope that we would be able to see the famous Bundaberg Rum Distillery.

Instead we saw a city struggling to cope with the damage from the recent ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. Gas lines has been severed into North Bundaberg and in a similar vein to Christchurch, NZ, much of the city was cordoned off. As our pictures will show, the flood water had reached an unimaginable level leaving thousands of people without food, shelter or energy. Emma and I were very lucky to find somewhere to stay and made haste the next morning towards Hervey Bay, on the Fraser Coast! Bring on the largest sand island in the world...

In other words... The next blog!!!