Hervey Bay

Our apartment for the week is in Urangan, just near the pier and about a 15 minute journey to the golf club.  The apartment is large and has fabulous views, so a really cool place to be for a longish stay.

The reason we are here is for me to compete in the Queensland Seniours Golf Championships, being played at Hervey Bay Golf Club.  It is quite hard to get onto the course and then very slow when you do - so practice rounds for impatient people (like me) are not great.  We played the front 9 on the day we arrived, then ran out of light and it was too slow.  Then on the Friday played the back 9 and got bored of waiting so didnt continue on the front 9.

Hervey Bay is the gateway to Fraser Island, now named K'Gari (the K is silent so pronounced Gari.  We would like to go to K'Gari, but the tours going from Hervey Bay are all sold out for Saturday which is the only day we can go.  I then find one going from Rainbow Beach, which I saw a sign about 10 mins out of Hervey Bay to the Fraser Island Barge (so I assumed it was that one).  Never ASSUME!  Turns out the $250 non refundable tickets (x2) I bought leave from Rainbow Beach and not River Heads.  River Heads is 10 mins from hervey Bay and Rainbow Beach is 1hr and 45 mins from Hervey Bay.  The tour starts at 7:45am.  No charging in Rainbow Heads or our apartment or the golf club.  There is a destination charger, which is a slow charger, at the Stockland shopping centre.  We either have to charge up at Stockland or cancel the trip and forfeit the $500!  We really want to go the K'Gari, so we spend 3 hours at the shopping Centre, having lunch and doing laps.   Whilst looking around KMart, wasting my time - I found a whole lot of doggy clothes, literally an entire section dedicated to them.

Car fully charged, well almost!  Up early and off we go to Rainbow Beach (1hr 45m) - not River Heads (10 m)! Keith is our guide and he was cheerful and friendly not like the grumpy one that arrived first and I asked him if he was our bus driver and he told me in a very assertive grumpy way that he was not!  Okay then, then lovely Keith arrived. K'Gari is the largest sand island on the planet, which is about 123 km (76 mi) long and 22 km (14 mi) wide.  With year-round winds from the southeast, the sand dunes on the island move at the rate of 1 to 2 metres a year and grow to a height of 244 metres.

The earliest known name of the island is K'gari in the Butchulla (Badjala) language (pronounced "gurri" or "GUR-rie"),  which comes from a creation story. According to the Butchulla Dreaming story, the creator Beiral sent his messenger Yendingie to create land and sea for the people. His helper, a "beautiful white spirit called Princess K’gari", worked hard to create the shores and the land, but afterward persuaded Yedingie to let her stay on their beautiful creation. In order to stay, she had to be changed into an island, so Yedingie created lakes, vegetation, animals and people to keep her company.  She remains today, happy "in paradise". 

The Island is accessed via a barge ferry which seemed to go as soon as we arrived, probably owned by the same company.  It lands you on the beach, of then you are off four-wheel driving.  All we could think was how my Dad and Neil would have loved this.  The short ride from the meeting spot to the ferry was enough for me to feel car sick, so I rode shotgun with Keith for the rest of the trip.  Keith often said, he could feel me driving the truck.

The first stop was the resort for a pit stop, from the barge, we went along "75-Mile Beach" (120 km) which runs along most of the east coast of K'gari. It is officially designated as a main road and is used as a landing strip for planes. Highway rules state that vehicles must give way to aircraft if they are oncoming.  Everyone seems to indicate early to inform oncoming vehicles which way they will move out of the way.  The sand nearest the ocean is the hardest, so everyone tries to drive there.  About 20 mins later we get to the resort, have a wee and we are off again to the Rain Forest. The only sub-tropical rainforest that grows completely out of sand in the world.  As there is no way for the rain to run off the island, as sand absorbs water, it filters the water and has a sub aquafer the size of Sydney Harbour.  This is fresh and pure water.  We visited a creek, called Eli Creek and a phenomenal 80 million litres per day flows out into the ocean.  The Island gets about 2m of rainfall a year.  As we are driving through the Rainforest, the Kauri Pines tower above us, the vegetation changes and Keith keeps reminding us that this all grows out of sand.  You read earlier that some of the dunes can be as high as 244 metres, what is amazing is the elevation changes on the island.

In the photos above, you can see the sand levels, as a result, the truck that we are in slip slides around the road and I have a front row seat to the treacherous cliffs that we will go down if Keith got it wrong.  The next stop is Lake McKenzie - K'gari has more than 100 freshwater lakes, the second highest concentration of lakes in Australia after Tasmania. The freshwater lakes on the island are some of the cleanest in the world.  It is a perched lake, sitting on top of compact sand and vegetable matter 100 m (330 ft) above sea level. Lake McKenzie has an area of 150 hectares and is just over 5 m (16 ft) deep. The beach sand of Lake McKenzie is nearly pure silica.  As a result, it is crystal clear against beautiful white sandy beaches and turquoise water.

Back through the rainforest to the resort for lunch, a quick bite to eat and then we are off down 75 mile beach, to get a plane ride.  John and I are in the 2nd ride, K'Gari is on the Humpback Highway, so you can see whales, sting rays, sharks and the like.  Also the Butterfly lake, which you will see from the picture below, how it got its name.  The plane ride was 15 mins, take off from the beach and land further down.  We saw a shipwreck, Eli Creek and the rainbow rocks.  We saw whales and John saw a sting ray from the plane.

Then its time to go home, but the incoming tide is arriving fast and the beach is getting really really sandy. The going is slower and the more slower we are, the less beach there is.  We eventually have to head over the dune.  We fail on the first attempt and then manage it on the second attempt - phew!  I thought that we were going to have to stay there overnight, but no issues, we made it in time and the ferry was waiting for us - we drove on and off we went, for the 10 minute crossing.

Now for the 1 hour 45 minutes trip home, into the setting sun.  Below is a short 4 min video of some of the K'Gari tour, the bits that photos cannot really capture. It was so bumpy that my watch recorded that I did 18000 steps and I can tell you that I did not!  So folks, if you want to get your steps up, just bounce up and down on the sofa.

But it gave us a good chance to test out George.  Clever George!  He dims the lights when there are oncoming cars or cars ahead.  John really has got a good handle of the self-drive and it was very very useful with the sun in our eyes as visibility was really tricky.  But because the car has special cameras everywhere (he/she) knows what to do.  Yes, we haven't decided if it is George short for Georgina or, just George.  Whenever the car does something wrong, John says "that wasn't me it was her", when it does something well it is "well done George"!  To bed early, it has been a long day and we are off at 7am tomorrow.

The golf course was set up very tough and I got spooked by it, everyone was playing conservatively (which is not my game) and I really didn't do very well.  The second day, I played so well - even with some ugly blowout holes I managed a good score to put me in with a cooey!  Today, which is the last day, we had a bit of a timing issue, I left the buggy remote that was charging at home and wanted to go back to get it, then on the way to the club we got the slowest drivers, then granny and grampa with their grandchildren herding them across the pedestrian crossing, the the lady from Victoria that didnt know where she was going, so decided to drive at 20kmph - all the time I am seeing that I should get to the club 10 mins before my tee off.

We had classical music playing in the background as pregame calming and John shouting "bloody hell, why did SHE bring us this way".  I am pleased to say that we made it in time, no warm-up - but I am feeling really good and going to have fun.  I was so encouraged by my game yesterday and the fact that I played a really hard course really well and my drop shots were very silly errors.  I am sorry to say that after a few silly, stupid holes - I ended up 4th.  I got a prize though, coz you can only win one prize - so they give prizes for the age groups - I won the Gross for my age group.

I really enjoyed getting to know and play with Nadine Gole, who is currently the Worlds No 1 Women's Senior golfer.  She was Pro and she is a good golfer.  I met other players and re-connected with old friends.  I really enjoyed it and I feel a little hope that the Shazzy of old may be still in there somewhere was we could have, should have done better.  Once again my AMAZING man is always by my side encouraging me, even when I have just hit the easiest shot in the world into the water!  

Tonight we have leftover Chilli (enough for one) or Packet noodles!  He did try to encourage me and promised that if I parred the last 2 holes, he would cook me a lovely dinner of Chilli con Noodles.  Clearly, that did the trick.

Tomorrow we are off to the Gold Coast for a week.  Til then, my beautiful supportive family and friends - we bid you farewell.

Things I forgot....

The toilet torture, on the Hervey Bay course there are 2 x toilet blocks, brick ones and flushing loos.  No issues right!  WRONG!

There are signs about keeping the lids closed for snakes, so I diligently check the toilet by lifting the lid.  On the Sunday, I had a bit of a dodgy guts and was desperate, ran in, dropped the kids off and when I flushed these 3 frogs came out from underneath the toilet bowl.  I nearly shat myself again.  Poor things were flailing around in my excrement.  That night I dreamt of frogs in strange places and I have not been able to go to the loo without worrying about frogs.

Apparently the snakes go after the frogs that like to live in the loos.  In hot climates they need moisture to keep alive.  There were lakes outside, if they had just looked.