Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Agnes Waters and 1770

When we returned to Rainbow Beach after our Fraser expedition, there was a voicemail.  For some reason I knew the minute I saw it that it was bad news about the Whitsunday Island trip Connor and I were supposed to leave for the next day.  Low and behold, the boat that was to carry us for our three-day two-night sailing and diving adventure had run areef.  Splendid. 

I had a very important date that night and decided not to think about where we would go until the next morning.   Besides, our bus that would take us anywhere north of Rainbow was leaving at 3:30pm the next afternoon, leaving me the whole morning to figure our shit out.  And it was noon o’clock and I didn’t know.  One o’clock, still didn’t know.  Two o’clock in the afternoon and Connor and I had finally mapped and arranged that we would hit Hervey Bay for a night, home of the famous Bundy Rum, Bundaberg, for a night, and Town of 1770 for a night before moving on to Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays. 

Hervey Bay was quaint.  I can see how many people choose to use it as their base for Fraser Island trips.  The YHA hostel there is one of the best and cheapest we’ve stayed in so far.  I kept trying to remind myself that I am not traveling to see hostels but it was so nice to just stay there and relax. 


The tiniest frogs I've ever seen are in Hervey Bay.

We were then off to Bundaberg.  Now this is a cooky little town and, in general, not very friendly towards backpackers.  They have a lot of harvesting work and in the last five years or so it has been taken from the locals (probably because they’re so lazy) and turned over to backpackers.  Connor and I asked five different people where the nearest hostel was and the fifth guy seemed to be the only one that didn’t give us false directions or lead us around in circles.  When we did finally find the hostel, Federal Backpacker’s, it was shit.  Hands down the grossest most run-down hostel I’ve ever stayed in.  But the people were very friendly.  The guy at the desk even drove Connor and me to the Bundaberg Distillery.  He forgot to pick us up, but everything happens for a reason.  We received a ride back from a large Brady Bunch-type family like ours that we had been chatting up for the hour we sat there waiting for our missing ride.  They were very friendly, hysterically funny, very in to motor bikes and invited us to come stay in their home in Brisbane if we were ever back in town.  Hells yes.  Between our new friends and the four FREE and delicious Bundaberg drinks and two canned mixers Connor and I shared between the two of us, it was a great day.  One thing to note is that while we were in Bundaberg it was the leatherback turtle spawning season and viewing was happening down at the beach at night.  Unfortunately Connor and I didn’t learn of this until it was too late.  I don’t know how it happened, but I have another reason to go back to Bundaberg.

Our next bus took us to Agnes Waters and Town of 1770.  The Nomads hostel we stayed in was nice enough.  Connor and I had a cabin all to ourselves and stayed up late that night laughing through Friends episodes.  The towns of Agnes Waters and 1770 are small and quaint with little to do but lounge on the beach and enjoy the surf, so that’s what we did the next day.  Somehow, I also let Connor convince me into buying a tub of ice cream and a large box of overly-salted chips (known as French fries in the States) that we gorged ourselves on to a near-puking state.  We lounged off our food comas with a multi-hour conversation about the books we’d want to write someday.  It’s on my bucket list so I better start thinking of it sooner rather than later.  We finished our day with a spectacular multi-hour group-kayaking trip out of 1770 (the town, not the year).  We had good fun surfing the waves into the beach and then drinking a glass of wine as we watched the sun go down.  It is only one of about three places all along the east coast of Australia where one can watch the sun set over water.  To top it off, there were dolphins hunting fish right off our bows.  We then said goodbye to Agnes Waters and jumped on our first night bus for Airlie Beach, link to the famous Whitsunday Islands.  

Ocean kayaking surfing