DAY 6 KINKA BEACH... LUNCH AT YEPPOON AND EXPLORING FARNSBOROUGH...

Ee were on our own today.  John and Barb were committed to an outing to Stoney Creek and Byfield with the Avaners today.  We had a very leisurely start to our morning.  We actually slept in a little this morning, and then watched a movie together.  Just before lunch we decided to go for a drive to Yeppoon to have fish and chips at the beach.  It was such a beautiful day... Too good to remain in doors...

 Tomorrow John and Barb are heading up to Byfield for morning tea and lunch with the Avaners so we are being left to our own devices.  I am sure we will have no trouble filling in our day....

The fish and chip shop at Seabreeze on Lammermoor Beach had been highly recommended to us, so we decided to try them out this time and take them through to the beach front at Yeppoon to have our lunch..

The esplanade at Yeppoon

A feature at the foreshore is the “Spirit Stone", a sculpture in Stanwell Sandstone by Maurice Lempire who is a Blackwater local. It was a gift from the Rotary Club of Yeppoon to the people of Livingstone Shire to commemorate the Centenary of Federation and appears to be an iconic point of reference for the locals.

One of the newer additions to the Yeppoon foreshore and taking pride of place there is the amazing Keppel Kraken which is a water play feature quite unlike any other.  With a mythical sea creature centre piece and set against the spectacular backdrop of Keppel Bay, it is the perfect place to soak up the lovely sunshine on our beautiful coastline.  

When ever our grandchildren are in town we love to bring them down here.. They just love it as it features a host of interactive elements including water cannons, jets and a unique umbrella bucket, the only one of it's kind in Queensland.

Timber decks and custom made picnic tables here were the perfect place for us to enjoy our fish and chip lunch at the beach. 

Lunch at the beachfront in Yeppoon.

We shared Fish and chips for lunch...

 

The sea gulls were our friends and were very forward and hung closely around whilst we ate our lunch.  You can guarantee that lots of folk down here feed them their scraps once they have finished their lunch which would account for the fact that these birds are fearless around humans..

Perfect weather.... perfect spot to spend the afternoon...

 

Keppel Kracken....

Steve peering through the Spirit Stone...

After lunch we both enjoyed a lovely stroll along Yeppoon Beach...

Yeppoon main beach is an amazingly long and wide beach and is patrolled by the Yeppoon Lifesaving Club,  The sand isn't as white as sand on some of the southern beaches but the views out to see of the Keppel Islands makes up for it.  

Yeppoon Main Beach

Enjoying a stroll along the beach at low tide...

Seeing all the little sand balls from the sand crabs brings back lots of wonderful childhood memories.  You don't often see this on the populated beaches these days, so when ever I do see them,  I love to take a photo for old times sake...

We wandered up the beach to the iconic Yeppoon Surf Life Saving Club to view the lively street art that adorns the building.  The street art was created by Simon McLean, and his quirky characters portray the vital role of the lifesaving community in supporting beach safety.  

The artwork was commissioned by the YSLSC and the artwork does double duty, drawing attendion to the building's function, location of public amenitites and the first aid centre as well.  There are lots of fun elements within the work including cheeky seagulls and pelicans.  Definitely worth the time, to check it all out and catch the detail in the artwork....

We headed back to our car along the footpath as we wanted to head off and explore some of the beaches further north..

We decided to head out to Bangalee as Steve had not been there before.  This area of the beach can be driven on with a 4WD although we had decided not to take the car onto the beach today.  There is quite a thriving community there with lots of houses built pretty much on the beach front.  We drove around checking them out and we came across this pretty darn cute blue beach house that had heaps of character and street appeal.  There were also some quite impressive letter boxes in this area also....

Surfboard letterbox..

Love this quaint house right on the beach front..

Some pretty impressive letterboxes in this area...

We found the track that leads to the beach...

From here we decided to head back towards Yeppoon so that we could find some toilets.  However we did get a little distracted on our drive back when we came upon this teddy bear's picnic which was set up in the median strip on the way to Rydges...  it was too good not to stop the car and check it out...  We had to grab some photos...

Have no idea why it is there or the significance of it, but it was quite cute and definitely photo worthy.

Teddy Bear's picnic...

We were both keen to make a pit stop so headed back towards Farnborough Beach until we found some public amenities.  These have recently been done up and now sport some pretty amazing artwork.  Once we had used the facilities, we had a good walk around checking out the different art work.  Most were photo worthy so we took several snaps before heading down onto the beach for another stroll...

 

 This is one of the Capricorn Coast's latest public murals and it certainly has livened up the amenities block here with a joyful splash of colour.  It is actually the work of Youth Arts Yeppoon, which is run by Capricorn Coast artist and teacher Lee-ann Handley with the support from the Livingstone Shire Council's Placemaking project and Vicki Ven Der Meer from Lady of the Lake Signs.    Their first public workshop saw them paint the plan grew and white walls bloomed with ocean and sky, seagulls and pelicans, fishing figures, mermaids and even a friendly German Shepherd.    They got together each month until their work was complete.  A real credit to them and it has definitely brighted up the Rotary Park at Farnborough Beach.

 

After visiting the amenities here we headed down onto the beach to explore the rock pools.  We were like a pair of kids again as we went looking to see what we could find.  We found a rather large star fish which was a little exciting as well as all sorts of crabs, hermit crabs and small fish...

We would have spent a good hour on the beach and it was a lot of fun...

 

 It was after 4pm by the time we arrived back at the Caravan Park.  John and Barb had been back for a while and John had managed to have a nanna nap.  Barb was keen to go for a swim.  We had planned to do our laps daily but the weather has not been kind so we have only managed to get into the pool a couple of times.

It was pretty cold when we first got in but once we started swimming the water warmed up or maybe we just didn't feel the cold any longer.  I managed to swim my 2kilometres, so I was pretty pleased with my effot.  Barb swam about a kilometre and a half before she had to stop as she was getting cramps in her feet. 

Swimming our laps

It is hard to beleive just how quickly this week has gone.  We only have one full day left down here so our plan for tomorrow is to catch the ferry over to Great Keppel Island and spend the day over there...

We are all looking forward to it.  It is seven years since we have been over and many many many more years than that since Barb has been there and it will be John's first visit to the island...