Australia, Hervey Bay: Bicycling in the Bay's Botanic Gardens

The next destination on Queensland's coast that Dan visited was Hervey Bay, a collection of small villages that had grown over time, merging into one large, sprawling urban area along the bay. The ever-popular backpacker spot of Fraser Island was just off the Hervey Bay coastline and Hervey Bay was, therefore, a popular destination for many travellers planning to make the trip across the water to the largest sand island in the world (Fraser Island). To get to Hervey Bay from Noosa, Dan used his hop-on, hop-off bus ticket with Premier Motor Services and was dropped off in Hervey Bay after a short journey that only lasted a few hours.

When the bus left Noosa, it had been raining heavily all afternoon and Dan was eager to make his way further north in order to get away from the rain. The bus arrived in the evening and Dan was picked up by a shuttle bus that ran between the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) hostel he had booked, Colonial Village YHA, and the bus station. He was the only person on the Premier Motor Services bus that was picked up by his hostel, but there were a couple of other people on the shuttle bus who had already been picked up in town somewhere else. About ten minutes later, Dan and the others arrived at the hostel, ready to check in for the evening.

The bicycle track was a few miles long and was very pleasant to ride along, with excellent views of the bay

Reception was closed when he arrived and the night staff working at the hostel's bar sorted out his room. Originally, he was booked into an 8-person dorm room, but he was put into a 6-person room when he checked in that evening. He made his way to the room and noticed that the YHA hostel was once a holiday park, set up with several holiday chalets on its grounds. The dorms were set up within the chalets and Dan shared his with three German guys who had also arrived that night. When Dan dropped off his bags, he spoke with the Germans, who were very friendly, and they all went to the hostel's bar to enjoy a couple of beers before it closed for the evening at 11:00pm.

The next morning, the German guys left the hostel to continue their travels to the nearby Fraser Island. Dan headed out on foot to the Hervey Bay harbour in the small town of Urangan, not too far from the hostel. He tried to grab some breakfast there at a place recommended to him by one of the hostel's employees, but breakfast was no longer being served by the time he arrived, and he went to a cafe next door instead. After buying a bacon and egg roll, Dan walked along the harbour area to a grassy knoll to look out at Fraser Island in the distance.

He ate his breakfast roll during the walk and thought it was disgusting, since the bacon had an inch of fat on it and was very slimy; even after pulling off the fat, he still didn't enjoy eating his breakfast. After looking out at Fraser Island, Dan walked back to the hostel and hired a bicycle from the reception office so he could cycle around the area for the afternoon on a bicycle path along the esplanade lining the coast. It was a beautiful day and he also thought it would be a great way to check out the beach and to get some exercise, hoping to work off the previous evening's beers and that morning's fatty bacon roll.

The esplanade track was near the hostel and Dan started along it after he navigated his way past the harbour area towards the beach. Shelly Beach was a golden stretch of sand lined with trees, a very picturesque scene. Dan cycled a little farther to find a nice bit of beach to hang out on, get some sun and where he could swim in the sea. The beach was accessible by small sandy tracks that led down from the esplanade track every few metres.

After dragging the bike down onto the beach, Dan found a good spot and got himself settled. He called Kyle to see how he was getting on in the US with his family. Once he finished with the conversation, Dan took a dip in the sea, which was very pleasant and refreshing, thinking that it was nice to cool off from the heat. At that point, Dan had become hungry again and was very thirsty; he thought of an ice cold Coke from McD's and was determined to find one. He remembered seeing one when he arrived in Hervey Bay and got off the bus, so he used his map of the area to start his journey towards the golden arches.

The bicycle track was a few miles long and was very pleasant to ride along, with excellent views of the bay and many trees and bushes lining either side of the path. There were rest stops dotted along the track, too, for anyone that wanted a respite in the shade. After a couple of miles of cycling, he came upon a wide grassy area and thought he heard a large group of birds above him. Instead of birds, the loud noise was coming from hundreds of flying foxes hanging from the trees above him, all jostling for position on the branches. The sight of the huge bats was remarkable and he quickly took a few photos before continuing his fast food finding fiasco.

Looking at the map to gauge where he was in relation to the bus station, Dan realised that he wasn't too far from there and he got back onto his bike to ride down a steep and painful-to-ride side street which would lead him to one of the main retail areas in Hervey Bay. There he found a McDonald's and ordered a large Coke and large water since he was thirsty from his bike ride. It was getting late in the afternoon by that point and it was time to return the bike, so Dan headed back to the hostel. He ate dinner in the hostel's bar that night, a cheeseburger with potato salad and rice, all quite yummy.

The next day was cloudy, not a good day to spend lying on the beach, so Dan decided to check out the Botanic Gardens which were located half an hour, if walking, away, near a Woolworth's and small shopping centre. Dan checked out of the hostel before leaving for the gardens and left his bags in the storage room for the day. His bus to Mackay was not scheduled to depart until late that evening and he pretty much had the entire day to spend in Hervey Bay. After setting out on foot, Dan was quickly picked up by one of the hostel's minibus drivers, who was heading in the same direction.

Dan hopped in the back of the minibus and was glad that he didn't have to walk since the car journey only took five minutes. After arriving at the shopping centre, he found a cafe inside and ordered some breakfast so he would be energised for the day (another bacon and egg roll that was much better than the previous morning's). Once he finished eating, he made his way to the gardens, which was not an easy task since the gardens were hidden on the other side of a large fence next to the shopping centre and Woolworth's.

Upon entering the gardens, Dan checked in at the office to obtain a map of the area and to see if there were any recommended activities or walks there. The map was basic and didn't have the best path markings, but it gave him a general idea of where he could walk. Dan ended up spending a good couple of hours in the gardens and saw a lot of wildlife there, including lizards, goannas, kookaburras, ibises, spiders and parrots. There were several different sections within the gardens; the first one he came across was an area around a shallow river that was bordered with long grasses and large trees harbouring many creatures, including goannas and spiders. Ibises were walking around everywhere, too.

At one point, Dan got so annoyed with walking into countless numbers of spider webs that he picked up a stick and kept swinging it around in circles before him to remove the webs spanning the path. He realised that not many people had visited the gardens recently, since there were many webs blocking parts of it. There was a forested section after the river one; it was quite dense with foliage and was alive with animal and insect noises.

In the end, buzzing mosquitoes drove Dan out of the dense forested section of the gardens; they had begun biting his legs and buzzing around his face. That combined with all of the spider webs made the experience less enjoyable, so he started making his way out of the wooded area. On the way out, he saw another lizard and managed to get some good photos of it, even though it was threatening Dan by expanding its neck area, trying to appear bigger and meaner than it actually was, and wanting to scare Dan away. Even though the spiders were too much and the mozzies were really aggressive and irritating, he thoroughly enjoyed the gardens and was very happy to see so much wildlife in the urbanised Hervey Bay area.

For dinner that evening, Dan purchased some hummus and crackers from Woolworth's. Unfortunately, there was no hostel minibus driver on the road at that time, so he walked 30 minutes back to the hostel. The sun had come out when he arrived back at the hostel and it was a perfect time for him to sit out by the pool, taking a dip and making the most of the facilities on offer at Colonial Village. After swimming, he showered and ate his dinner before catching the hostel's shuttle to the bus station. When he was waiting to leave for the bus station, he saw an adorable Australian brushtail possum in one of the trees next to the hostel; you can see a photo in the album for this journal entry.

The bus journey to Mackay, where he planned to meet up with Kyle when he arrived back in Australia from his short trip back to the US, was an overnight journey and something that Dan was not really looking forward to, since overnight buses were not normally very comfortable. Once the bus came picked up its passengers at 9:00pm, Dan grabbed a seat, his bed for the night. During the night journey, the bus was freezing cold from its heavily-powered air conditioning unit and all Dan was wearing was a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Trying to sleep with extremely cold air blasting his face and body was next to impossible, and it didn't help that the cramped seats were not very conducive to getting any rest. He couldn't wait to arrive in Mackay!