Traveling around Queensland
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Bundaberg Ginger Beer: Well worth the airplane trip to enjoy it in Australia!
After Joan froze the first night at Queensland Astrofest, we retired to Kilcoy to purchase a heavier sleeping bag to keep her warm. We tried out lunch at the Snack Shop in Kilcoy.
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Joan reacts to receiving the deluxe hamburger at the Snack Shop in Kilcoy. Now that is a big hamburger!
We found a bakery across the street that had incredibly good meat pies (Don't knock them until you have tried them as freshly prepared in a local bakery!)
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Astro Bill warns the gentle viewer to never eat anything bigger than your head. (No, I didn't eat all of this hamburger.) Australians like pickled beets on their hamburgers (It's really very good!)
Prepared food was very expensive at restaurants in Queensland compared to USA prices. However, even the smallest of towns had fresh fruit and vegetables (often in a dedicated fruit and vegetable shop) that were outstanding in quality and very reasonably priced.
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Joan goes with the flow and has a photo taken for one of her upcoming lectures to nursing students on food portions.
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A laughing kookaburra at Camp Duckadang eyes me suspiciously over his shoulder as he warms himself on one of his morning perches after a freezing night.
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Astrofest attendees told us these signs were mostly for the tourists......You're not likely to find koalas at eye level or below while driving. They remain hidden up among the eucalyptus trees.
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We stopped for tea on highway 52 between Ban Ban Springs and Childers. When we got up from the table outside and returned the tray to the shop owner, he pointed out the visitor that had crawled into one of pockets of the tray.
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Brahman cattle on a hill on highway 52 near Biggenden. The costal hills reminded me strongly of foothills around the Sierra Nevada and coast in California.
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Joan grabs a snap on Highway 52.
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Hervey Bay at sundown. We were standing on a pier after sundown and listening to the cacophony of parrots and other birds roosting for the night in trees along the shore.
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Clothes were in the laundry, so I was dressed in my photo-nerd, astro-geek best for our evening walk on the pier. A very nice lady was walking by and agreed to snap our photo.
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We were advised not to go to Hervey Bay without a hotel reservation, so I found this on Expedia. It was supposed to be a motel.....but turned out to be a condo/apartment unit that rented some of its units for overnight stays. Very luxurious, and it had a washer and dryer! Whoopee!
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Getting ready to go watch whales after a night in luxury.
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We noticed this sign driving in and out of Hervey Bay and needed a snapshot for Joan. One stop shopping for car tires, surgery and having your eyes examined. Now that's efficient.
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Black angus and other beef cattle on the road back to Astrofest.
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Pool decor at the Kilcoy Motel. It was a cow-themed motel....very cute.
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Two artificial legs on the decorative cow were a nice touch. An original approach to those pesky foot disease problems in cattle.
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Wouldn't you want to stay at the Kilcoy Motel if you saw this driving by. We did....it was a nice place to stay for the last night after Astrofest before we headed to Brisbane.
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The "center" of Linville near Astrofest. Nice people...we stopped for a can of soda.

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