May 25, Hervey Bay, Maryborough

This morning we drove through Hervey Bay. It began as a series of 5 fishing villages, but after years of attracting tourists, it is now a town of 30,000. It had a long beach with a trail for walking and biking. Where the original villages were there were concentrations of cafes and shops. It would be a very pleasant place to spend some time.

A little further south we stopped at Maryborough. It is one of the oldest cities in Queensland. At the visitors center and got a brochure for a town tour. We picked a few things to see and wandered around. We saw the Anglican and Catholic Churches, the old railway station, and Queens Park by the Mary River. On one corner was a statue of Mary Poppins. The author of the books, P.L. Travers was born in Maryborough.

We checked out the local bakery and bought a snack to carry us through the tour. I found that a Jamaica was a coconut tart with icing on it. Super sweet.

In Gympie we bought some groceries and got some more travel advice, then moved to the coast. The area around Noosa Heads was really built up, houses all around the hills by the ocean and high rises near the beach. We found a small rest area further south and watched the sun set. It gets earlier as we go south, tonight it was 5 pm.

Pictures - Hervey Bay beach, Maryborough Town Hall, Etchings of workers biking home from work, Jeanne and Mary Poppins, Catholic Church, Samson in the fig tree roots, Band rotunda