Miles to Hervey Bay

Knowing we would be driving nearly 400 kms again we were up reasonably early for breakfast. Once we had packed up the caravan we made our way to the caravan park exit and turned right onto the road. However we were barely 100 metres down the road when a heavy vehicle escort car came towards us and the driver pointed us over to the side of the road. Fortunately there was a spacious parking lane to stop in. Within seconds this truck bearing a massive load was passing through the town. We wondered what the load was. One thought was it could be an arm from a wind turbine. Perhaps someone reading this post may be able to inform us. Here’s a couple of photos.

Just as we thought it was safe to drive off another support vehicle passed us.

Sure enough, another large truck carrying road making equipment passed by.

Eventually we were away. About half an hour later we came to the town of Chinchilla. It’s in the middle of a farming area and is famous for melons as this sign indicated.

After Chinchilla our satnav had us going off the main highway and cross country along much narrower roads.

A couple of hours into our drive we stopped to swap driver just near the Stuart River.

Half an hour later we came to Wondai, which has a rich timber industry history. There’s a museum and workshop and a couple of monuments to this history.

We stopped for a quick browse at the shops and some morning tea. Loved the entry guards at this shop.

No, we didn’t have tea from this pot but we did admire the quirkiness of their garden.

Next up, we passed through Murgon.

The road was still quite narrow in places so we drove carefully.

We crossed the Mary River at Munna Creek. Even this far upstream it still had a large volume of water in it after the floods earlier in the year.

When we saw sugar canefields we knew we were heading more north than east.

Eventually we came to the Bruce Highway and joined a steady stream of traffic driving north. Arriving in Maryborough not long after meant we were quite close now. We love the old Queenslander houses in Maryborough.

Late afternoon we pulled into the reception area at Hervey Bay Ingenia Holidays and checked in. Our site was a little tricky to back into as the road within the caravan park was quite narrow but after a couple of goes I managed to park it. We tied Mel up to the back fence while we set up, looking forward to the next few days.

Distance travelled – 398 Kms