We went to Bundy for three days to help Steve's folk who have not been fairing so well..
We packed for three days....
No make up or shampoo for me....
Only one good outfit and only one cardigan...
I mean we were only going for three days, and we were going to work...
So when Steve goes to hospital, we are not really prepared for a full week stay down there....
New PJs needed to be bought for Steve for hospital....
It was wear and wash for me, but we survived....
He got out of Hospital on the Thursday evening and we decided to head home on Friday... We didn't leave early in the morning, we waited until Steve felt he was ready to leave... and then we had a nice slow trip home...
We weren't in any particular hurry as we didn't have to be back for early the next morning...
We went for a drive through the Bundaberg Botanical Gardens on our way out... These gardens hold some special memories for me as they were one of the projects that my dad undertook for the city when he was the Mayor.....
The main drive around the gardens has been named after him and so I took a photo of this.
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| Hinkler Botanical Gardens.... |
Such a great place to spend a day...
So much to do and see there....
There is Fairymead House that is open to the public,
Bert Hinkler Aviation Display...
Bert Hinkler's home.
plus on the weekends you often have the steam loco rides...
Plenty of beautiful gardens to walk around including the Japanese and Chinese Gardens, as well as the Wallum Scrub area, wetlands, the lake and even a restaurant where you can stop for a feed or a cuppa.
If you are in Bundaberg, it is definitely worth a visit here...
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| Chinese Gardens |
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| Bridge across to the Chinese Gardens... |
Then there are the wetlands and lakes....
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| Pelicans and ducks |
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| The birdlife is amazing... |
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| Fountain in the middle of the lake. |
We didn't have time to go for a walk today...
Steve was probably not really up to it anyway, so we just went for a drive around the gardens.
From here we drove out along Rosedale Road and had a stop for some fresh Bundaberg fruit and vegetable produce... Nothing like freshness straight from the farm. Most of the stuff we bought was grown on the farm there....
After leaving here we had a straight run through to Miriam Vale where we stopped for lunch.
This time we didn't buy out lunch but ate the picnic lunch we had bought from home....
Definitely not risking another bout of food poisoning....
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| Bringing the esky... |
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| Picnic time.. |
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| Perfect day, perfect weather... |
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| picnic spot |
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| Our lunch |
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| Egg and lettuce sandwiches for me.... |
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| Ham, cheese and tomato for Steve... |
There is a lovely little picnic and parkland area just off the highway in Miriam Vale, lots of shade, exercise equipment, picnic tables, amenities.
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| Perfect spot to stop for a break... |
Just a lovely spot to have a short stay...
Miriam Vale is looking lovely at the moment. The grevillia trees are all out in bloom and laden with flowers at the moment. I went off to have a little wander and look at them whilst Steve put his head down and had a rest...
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| Having a little cat nap.... |
The park is looking lovely at the moment...
Alive with these flowering trees..
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| The trees are all laiden with flowers... |
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| Golden yellow |
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| Creamy white |
Even the highway looked lovely with these avenues of grevillia trees all out in flower. The photos don't do it justice...
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| It really is a pretty picture coming into Miriam Vale at the moment... |
From Miriam Vale, we headed back up the highway and our next stop was Bororen. Home of amazing pies, although we still were not ready to eat anything that we hadn't prepared ourselves..
We did stop though and check out these fellows..
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| The large giraffe..sitting right on the highway.. |
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| Some strange little fellows... |
From here we headed back up the highway again.. It is nice not to be in a hurry and have the time to stop and have a break when you feel you need one...
We decided to stop in on the northside of the Calliope River for a break. There is a free camping area here that we were keen to check out again as there seemed to be quite a few vans there. It is probably three or four years since we have been in there and we were very surprised at the size of this free camping area now. It is really lovely. Lots of lawn area, a couple of amenities blocks there now. No showers but plenty of water.... It is a really beautiful area with camping spots on both sides of the river.... There would have been more than 50 vans on the Northern side of the river and probably just as many on the southern side as well.
Took some photos to share with our good friends who will be heading our way in September...
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| Vans parked alongside a little creek... |
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| Plenty of space... |
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| Lovely parklands with plenty of trees and shade... |
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| Obviously people stay here for a few days at a time. |
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| A real little community |
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| some travellers are obviously only staying over night. |
There is plenty of room to move in and stay hitched for an early morning departure...
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| This car followed us into the camping area.. |
It didn't take them long to find their spot beside the creek...
We also took some photos of the vans camped on the other side of the river..
This whole area is very picturesque
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| Looking across to the camping area on the southern side of the river. |
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| Plenty of water for swimming and fishing.. |
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| Panoramic views of the Southern camp grounds. |
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| A lovely peaceful spot to camp... |
We probably spent half an hour or so here and then it was time to take off on our final leg home.
This was our last stop. We ended up getting home just after 5pm. Normally this trip with take us three hours without a stop. With all our stops today it took us just on 5 hours, but it was a lovely day and we arrived home feeling quite relaxed...
