Jenni and I left Caloundra for a week in Hervey Bay. Jenni has family there and we hadn’t seen them for over a year. We were looking forward to catching up but, we also had a pile of work to get through. We booked the Mantra hotel, a lovely room overlooking the Marina. It had a good working environment for Jenni and I, was a great price and had superb facilities. No free wifi but a great view.
View from the Mantra hotel.
Whale Watching
Everywhere you go in Hervey Bay you see advertisements for whale watching tours. We were there in peak whale watching season and there we saw about 10 trips go out and come back from the Marina every day.
Two of the many whale watching tours heading out to seaAnother tour boat returning
Urangan Pier
If you’ve read our previous blogs you’ll know we love a good pier and there was a decent one about 2 kilometres from us in the hotel at Urangan, a suburb of Hervey Bay.
Urangan Pier is over 70 years old and is 720 metres long. Each day it is packed with fishermen and women and lots of walkers like ourselves.
We try and take a break each day and go for a walk for some fresh air and exercise. Most days we walked from the hotel to the end of the pier and back. It’s only about 6 kilometres round trip but there was something new to see each day. Here are a few scenes we captured.
There was plenty of wildlife around. This little guy and lots of his friends chirped and chattered at us all along the routeThis fella didn’t talk much at all. He was just sitting sunning himself but ran away when I got too close.This one didn’t speak or move at all.The statue of the fish and the boy at Urangan Pier. The Urangan Pier Entrance statue is made of Cast Bronze and was created from an original cardboard pattern. Commissioned by Hervey Bay City Council as part of Councils Public Art allocation. Pelicans sit on the top of almost every light along the pier. This lucky one was being thrown small fish by the fisherman. There were always plenty of fishermen and women at the end of the pier. Some of them rode specially modified bicycles.Pelicans and cormorants hanging out together at the end of the pier when the tide goes out. Not sure why they sit at this spot in this configuration.Our Facebook friends will have seen this one already. Seagull catching a fish.Saw this sticker on a large motorhome. Unofficial tourism advert for the Northern Territory. Quite memorable. The joke was the subject of a news article where the Northern Territory tourism board had to deny, on prime time TV news, that they had nothing to do with it. Secretly I bet they were very pleased, it obviously gave them more publicity than they could have paid for themselves.Jenni having a conversation with one of the many little birds that flew all around us as we walked along the pier
Cute
Millions of little fish hiding under the pier as the tide came in. Its very hard to see them as the glare was so bad. This is obviously what the bigger fish were feeding on.
There were quite a few fishermen with these big fish in nets dangled into the sea. Should have asked one of the fishermen what it’s purpose was. We presumed it was to attract even bigger fish, like sharks.
Or bigger fish like this massive tuna one of the lucky fishermen caught right in front of us, off the end of the pier.
Lemon and Denzel
On one of the walks out we met up with Kemp, Jenni’s brother and wife Tonya and two of their dogs, Lemon and Denzel, for a walk along the shore while the tide was out.Lemon is the bigger dog on the left, Denzel the little one on the rightThe tide goes out a looooong way in Hervey Bay.We’d gone past the front of the Reef World Aquarium every day during our walks, This side of it was much more interesting. Here’s there web site. reefworldherveybay.comThe tide comes right up to the sign.Poor Lemon isn’t very well and won’t be with us for much longer. It’s very sad as she’s a lovely dog. It’s now all about making her last few weeks as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. She does pose well for the camera though.
Stand up paddle boarding
As well as whale watching in the right season Hervey Bay also boasts a variety of water based sporting activities. Jenni and I decided to try our hand at stand up paddle boarding.
Jenni is a natural
Jenni took to it right away. Didn’t fall in once.
Even though the conditions were perfect for a beginner, not a breath of wind and perfectly calm seas I manged to fall off the board. I resorted to “kneeling down paddle boarding” or even “sitting down paddle boarding” like you can see from this picture.
This one was taken from the shore by Kemp and Tonya when they arrived to meet us for lunch. As soon as I saw them I struggled back up on my feet to get the shot above. Would do it again though, it was great fun.
Eventually it was time for us to leave Hervey Bay.
Cormorants flying home to roost every night at sunset.
So we waved goodbye to the marina and all the tourists and their whaling adventures. Stopped by Kemp and Tonya’s house to say good bye to Lemon and Denzel and their new little French Bulldog Tina. One of their many aquarium fish sang us a song before we left. It was very good.
The singing fish and the Millennium Falcon
We were going back to Brisbane for a week or so. On our way there we stopped for a couple of nights in Mooloolaba where we saw some professional stand up paddle boarders show me how it’s down.
Stand Up Paddle Board with a fin
These paddle boards had fins underneath and when they caught the waves just right it lifted the board out of the water. I’ll need a bit more practice before I give than a go I think.
Beach walks Mooloolaba
Mooloolaba was just a short stop for some work related activities. It is a beautiful part of the world, we’ll be back up around November for our team meeting, will be fun. Next stop Brisbane.
Walligans Travels 