A WEEK OF CHILLING AT THE BAY...

We are on a weeks holiday down at Hervey Bay.  Whilst there is heaps of things to do around this area, this week is more about just chilling out and recuperating to cope with the term ahead...

We left Friday afternoon, but staying over night at Turkey Beach where we dropped Steve's parents off after they spent a week with us...

So it was yesterday morning when we finally fulled out of their drive way that we truly felt we were on a holiday...

We had a great trip to the bay, with stops along the way and plenty of chatting together... I love these road trips that we do...

We got away around 7am, and our first stop was about 30 minutes down the road where we pulled into Bororen.. I have wanted to photograph the big giraffe for several years now but normally we are in a hurry to get where ever we are going or to get home.  Steve was also keen to stop and program the Navman for our destination at Hervey Bay...  Winners all round...

A lot of these little country towns have a lot to offer,  we love checking them out when we are on our travels...

 Farewell to Bororen... and on the road again...

 Our next stop was about 130kms down the road when we pulled in at Gin Gin to check out the bakery there.  We have read so many reports of amazing pies, but as it was way to early to indulge in pies, we picked up a bun loaf to have for lunch or afternoon tea when we arrived at the Bay...

Gin Gin is looking pretty good these days also,  they are country towns that we have driven through for years without ever stopping to explore what they offer,  probably because they are too close to home...

We were back in the car again, and our next stop was only 47kms away where we stopped at Apple Tree Creek to visit some friends of ours.... It was a surprise visit so we were not too concerned when we found them not home.  Their neighbour spoke to us for a good half hour and infomed us they were in Brissie but would be home later that afternoon.  We might just have to catch them on our return trip next weekend...

From here it was straight through to Hervey Bay...

Home of the big Golf Ball..

We arrived at Ingenia Holiday resort around 11am and spent the next hour setting up our site... This is a beautiful park with beautiful amenities not far from the beach. 

Chilling out at last...

All set up,  all we have to do now is relax..

 We have had an interesting time watching a couple of baby butcher birds who are learning to fly in a tree right next to our van... We have been watching the mum fly in and feed them and encourage them to flap their wings...  They are extremely friendly and will allow you even to hold them... We have had to rescue them a couple of times, when they have attempted to fly out of their tree and not manage to get back...

 We were just about to get lunch when our good friends John and Barb arrived.  They are joining us this week, for a week of relaxation and fun...  So whilst they organised getting their van on site and setting it up, we organised lunch for us all..  It was so good to see them... We haven't seen them since their big trip overseas back in May, so I am sure there will be lots of stories this week...

We had a lovely leisurely lunch together which stretched into the afternoon.

 After us all having a little kip and catching up with families for a while in the afternoon,  Barb and I then decided to have a walk around the park and check it out...  There is a lot of things for families to do in this park... There is a lovely pool area for swimming with spa as well...

Kids pool

Sun lounges and spa pool behind..

 Hopefully the weather will be good enough for us to make sure of the pool this week...
The children's area here is lovely also, but perhaps we will need to photograph it later in the week as it was full of children playing when we walked past...

The caravan park also backs onto some lovely lagoon areas with lots of birdlife around, and we did wander down and have a look at that also...

The laundry is situated just across from us, and it is quite a large area with plenty of facilities..

Laundry area

 Once we got back from our walk, we had a nice chat, looking over some of the photo books from our lap around Australia from 2017 over a nice cup of tea...  John was catching up on some sleep and had a nice nap.

We all joined together for dinner, which consisted of left overs contributed by both of us... It was a lovely relaxing day without us going anywhere, and we all retired to our vans around 8.30pm

What will we do tomorrow......