Agnes Water

 10/10/2012
 Burnett heads was a bit of a disappointment, it just wasn’t how it was described in the camping and caravanning guide. Where we are now is very much as it is described in the book and very nice too. We have hopped up the coast about another 120K to Agnes Water, a very secluded beach front park, we know it’s good because we came here in 2009. It’s a lovely place and still quite busy with holiday makers, a few backpackers in their beat up VW’s and still some grey nomads. We have decided to stay at least 3 nights.
 Our van hot water system packed up some time ago and so we have managed just boiling water in the kettle or toughing it out with cold water, but today, we did something about it. We found a guy in Bundaberg who waved his magic water wand over it and now we can have hot showers in the van again. It’s great when everything works properly.

  11/10/2012
  Nothing much to report as we have sat waiting for a severe thunderstorm to arrive, which duly did at lunchtime and went on for an hour. We did manage to stroll up to the village and along the beach before the storm arrived. Now it has gone through, hopefully,  the wind will die down and we can get back to some normal weather.(HOT!)
 Agnes Water is the most northerly surf beach in Queensland, from just north of here the Great Barrier Reef starts , so no more surf. It’s such a nice spot we have decided to extend until next Monday.

 12/10/2012
  Agnes Water didn’t start to be developed until about 25 years ago, up until then there was just one house and a beach shack. It didn’t get mains electricity until 1987 and a telephone line came a little later. The road in was just 70K of dirt track. Now it is quite a busy village with a few shops , a supermarket a couple of small holiday apartment blocks and this caravan park.
 Having said that, just down the road , about 5K, is the oddly named Town of Seventeen Seventy, called that after the year Captain Cook dropped in on his way north. . So why didn’t they call this place Town of 1987? Just a thought.
 Much improved weather today except really irritating wind, though the beach is quite sheltered. Our neighbour is a regular here and told us it is nearly always windy. He said that one year he and his wife came for 2 months and the wind dropped only twice…… just long enough to change direction!

 13/10/2012
 More good news about our Grandsons rugby career as we had a much more sensible chat via skype with the family. Robbie has been selected to play for Gloucester County XV  to play against other counties in the South West and is now in the selection process for England schoolboys.
 As we have no one here to share our good news with, we celebrated with 3 swims in the sea and an early beer!  A hot day with sea temperature up to 23 degrees though we are not sure we believe that.

 14/10/2012
 Agnes Water is such a relaxing sort of a place we have extended our stay by one more day. We came for 3 days and will have stayed for 6.
The busiest part of our day today was sitting on the beach watching the surf lifeguards practising some of their drills , it really was hard work (for them!) Their job looks a cushy number but they have to train very hard and maintain their fitness. Swimming in surf is difficult at the best of times but having to rescue someone in trouble in it takes some doing. We were exhausted just watching!

 15/10/2012
  Another day of doing not much, couldn’t find anyone doing any work so we could watch. Bit disappointing really. We have a bit of fun each evening whilst we sit under the awning having a sun-downer, watching newcomers trying to park their posh caravans . Him getting all flustered with her as she guides him up along the concrete slab with signals that only she know the meaning of. It can be a real hoot sometimes and goes on every night as this is a busy caravan park, full every night.
  We have to move on tomorrow as our essential supplies have maxed out , or will have by bedtime. There will be a traveller available, however,  to take on our evening stroll along the beach before it gets dark.

 16/10/2012
  The surf looked to be the best it has been in the 6 days we have been here, as we packed up to go. That’s probably the last time we will see good surf as we head north parallel to the barrier reef.
 We have driven a good way, about 300K’s bypassing the industrial port of  Gladstone where trains over one kilometre long bring enormous quantities of coal to the docks. The coal is then loaded onto huge cargo ships to be exported around Asia.
We did our essential supplies shop in Rockhampton then drove out to the coast and the seaside resort of Emu Park. The caravan park is right on the beach but not one of the better beaches. Everything is within walking distance so we will camp here for a couple of nights.