Whale watching in Hervey Bay

Once again we filled the car to the roof with stuff and headed up north to Hervey Bay. We left Friday afternoon and it took 4hours for us to get there, bit like travelling from Kent to Glossop just alot nicer hehehe. We arrived in Hervey Bay and were staying in Scarness so we pitched the tent. Got up bright and early had a bit of look around Hervey bay, as usual we ended up fishing. We found this pier the water was so clear you could see the fish, so fairly easy to decide where to fish. We fished for a few hours and then decided to go for lunch at the harbour, which was lovely. When we finished lunch we headed back down the pier to catch more fish, I caught a few fish and so did Garry. When we were on the end of the pier I though I had caught the bottom as my rod was bending in half and really heavy so I tried for a while to free it up and then it started moving? I was a little puzzled so I started to wind it in, it was really heavy. It turned out that I had caught a massive sand crab. It had attracted a sharks attention and it was following it up to the surface, so that was cool.

On sunday we went whale watching, it was awesome. We went on a small sailboat with only 20 people on it and really good viewing from all sides of the boat. The skipper had spent 14 years working at seaworld and had a lot of knowledge of whale. He was very enthusiatic about it. We made our way out into the bay and found whales. The first pod circled the boat checking us it they are very interested in the boats which I was surprised at. We came across a pod of two whales who were very interested in showing off for the boat. As can be seen in the pictures, my camara wouldnt take pictures quick enough so missed alot of cool shot but we did take loads of video of our experience. The two whales were poking their heads out, tail slapping sticking fins out and all sorts. After a while another pod of whales came along and took one of the whales away. The one that was left was putting on a real show for us, we then had lunch, which the one whale was very frustrated about. So out the back of the boat splashing and popping up he got board and swam away. It then started breaching so we went over to it unfortunatly didnt get photos but it was amazing to see. It was a brilliant day but we where shattered when we got home.

Numinbah Valley (lots of photos)

We packed the car up and headed south to the hinterland inland from the goldcoast to Numinbah valley, which is part of the Springbrook National Park. It is one of the most beautiful parts of Queensland I think we have been so far. This was our first real bushcamping experience, we were staying on the property of the place that I had booked my self on for a trial ride. The property was made up of about 3000acres of land with a river running through it. We were able to camp down by the river which was beautiful. We drove down on Saturday morning and went to see Natural Arch which has been formed by erosion from the water and is lovely. The cave houses glow worms which can be seen at the right times. When we were walking back from the cave we came across a carpet python just hanging around by the side of the track - Garry was made up with the little sighting it was cool. When we were leaving the best of all look out the sun was starting to set and we saw loads of Pademelons (small kangaroos). We went in search for somewhere to eat which when you are in the middle of nowhere is really hard, so after driving for quite a while we found a lovely place called the woodchopper. After we finished dinner we headed back to the campsite on route we saw a frogmouthed owl sitting at the side of the road which was awesome.

Natural Arch

Natural Arch

Natrual Arch

Carpet Python

Garry next to his snake

Lookout

Best of all lookout

We pitched the tent in out little secluded spot and then headed out to check out the sceanry in the area. We visited a look out, that views Purlington falls - for the first time there was actually a water fall. We then checked out some of the other lookout until we found the one aptly named Best of All look out - which was definatly the best of all. Sunday I went for a three hour trial ride through numinbah valley we had tea and damper by the river which was lovely then had a nice canter through the beautiful countryside. After the ride we went on a walk to the Purlington falls which we had seen the day before. It was cool we walked down to the waterfall and around the back. After all the exercise we headed back to Brisbane for another week of work.

Purlington Falls

From behind Purlington falls


Purlington falls




Campsite river

River at campsite

View horseriding

Fun times

As usual we have been busy bees so not much time to keep the blog updated. We have done a variety of things recently, so where to start. Well the big event of the month has to be Ned and Janae from neighbours visiting the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane. As you can imagine Garry was very impressed being dragged to see them - although all I can say is he complained the whole of the cue but when we got to them he jumped up there for his picture (what more can I say). Personnaly I thought it was really cool meeting some of the neighbours crew as I am a massive fan.

Ned and Janae

After all the excitement of meeting some of the neighbours cast we decided to spend a day riding rollercoasters are favourite past time. After spending two weeks in Florida in Nov you would have thought that we had enough but nope. We went to Movie world on the Goldcoast which is a smallish park with not very many rides but a good day anyway. The best ride was the superman one which shot you around really fast it was cool. As you can see from the photos the weather was shocking!

Movie world

Superman Ride

Brisbane has an agricultral show for a week every year called the EKKA, it is a really big thing they even get a public holiday which is known as peoples day. We didnt go on peoples day as thought it might be a bit busy. A friend of a friend was over from the UK so we showed him the sights of Brisbane - took him fishing and too EKKA. They have this weird thing that they all go to the EKKA for showbags, these are like promotional bags for different companies that you have to pay for!!!! (strange) but it is a massive thing to go to EKKA and get a showbag. They are usually around about $15-30!?! It is also a tradition to have a dagward dog - this is a deepfired (battered) hotdog on a stick that you are supposed to dip in ketchup. Unfortunatly I did not try one! There were lots of animals and a massive fair it was quite a good day out.

Sleepy goat at EKKA

Llama

Ed and Garry fishing

Sunset (always have to have one!)

Gold Coast

Well I have been a bit slack at posting on the blog but have been fairly busy so I will update on everything we have been upto. Where to start - well mine and Garrys birthdays have both been and gone, mine in June and Garrys in July. We had a lot of fun for my birthday we had a meal on a paddle steamer up the Brisbane river, which was lovely, for Garrys birthday we went to a restaurant called Tukka. It is an Australia Bushtucker restaurant, all the food is Australian so Aussie meats and berries it was just devine. We went out in Brisabane with some of the people I work with which involved at lot of alcohol and dancing but it was a really good evening.

As we had a few weekends of camping we spent some quiet ones in Brisbane having a relax. We went to the Southbank and checked out some of the museums which was cool. We also went to Mount Tambourine which is in the Hinterlands. It is part of the mountain range, we did some walking through bush and went to visit some of the winerys up there - well Cedar Creek Winery. We had lunch at the winery on the patio which was really lovely we also went to the Glow worm caves. It is man made caves that they house glow worms in it was quite cool bit weird! We did some wine tasting and ended up buying lots of good wine.

Mt Tambourine View

Bushwalking at Mt Tombourine

More walking

Bushwalking

Garry in a tree

Sarah in a tree

Cedar Creek Winery

Hinterland

Unfortunalty Garrys Grandad past away which was very sad and difficult for Garry, he decided not to go home for the funeral as we thought that his Grandad would rather we stayed here and did something nice for him. The funeral was when we had travelled down to the Gold coast so because his Grandad was in the navy we thought it would be nice to do something at the sea. We got some balloons and some flowers. We wrote messages to him and attached them to the balloons and let them go, putting the flowers on the water. It was very sad but felt really special for a special man. We will miss his Grandad lots

We had a nice weekend at the gold coast at Surfers Paradise. It is completely different to everywhere else we have been. It is very busy and commericial lots of high rise buildings and nightclubs. As usual when we go camping we went night fishing but it was impossible to get a spot on the beach to fish there were hundreds of people lining the shores it was amazing. Luckily we found a spot and Garry caught two tailor which we filleted and he cooked on the BBQ for tea. On the Sunday we went on a Kayak tour which was alot of fun. We kayak to an Island called Wave break where we had breakfast and snorkelled seeing lots of funky coloured fish. We then kayaked on to South Stradbroke Island which is a sand Island that has been cut off from North Stradbroke, it is the only place you will see Swamp wallabies. We had a walk around there and then kayaked back. hard work but lots of fun.

Surfers Paradise

Surfers Paradise

While we were on the Gold coast we decided that we wanted to go Whale watching so we booked it for the following weekend. Garry wanted to go on a fishing charter so we booked that too, so we treked off to the Gold coast again this weekend. We went out Whale watching on the sat and saw lots of Humpback whales that are migrating up the Australian coast. The were amazing, we saw a few different pods of whales. They were so massive one of them swam right past the front of the boat - all I can say is wow.

Whales

On Sunday Garry dragged me out of bed at 4.45am to go fishing (yeah was appreciating that!). We set out on the boat at 6am in time to see the most lovely sunrise and take 100s of photos of it. We travelled out of Gold coast for 2h on the boat and were fishing in water 90m deep, it was killing my arm to reel in just the weight I had on it let alone if I got a fish. I was a bit concerned that I was the only woman on the boat but in the end worked to my advantage as I just acted the weak, dim woman and got the men running around after me hehehehehe. Well as always I caught more fish than Garry heheheheh over here there is a size limit on fish you can keep. I caught 4 fish but only 3 of them were big enough to keep, Garry caught 2 fish and niether of them were big enough ooopppss. I managed to catch a Pearl Perch, Mauhi and Red Snapper. So last night we had the snapper for dinner and it was lovely.

Sarah's Fish - Snapper, Maui, Pearl Perch


My Snapper!

Well I think that is everything we have done over the last couple of weeks other than go and see Harry Potter which I was very excited about so we saw it the first day it was out here and I loved it. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will keep it updated.