First blog from The Dream Lap

We are now Nomads officially! it is a surreal feeling a feeling you have been waiting to feel for over 12 months all of a sudden smacks you square in the face the unknown has never been more exciting and we really do feel FREE as we transition into the gypsies we have always dreamed of being , 19 days away and two weeks tomorrow since we have made our makeshift camp home site at Airlie Beach for the next few months.

We left Monday morning from mums place (Lennox Head NSW) and having seen most of the QLD coast up to Rainbow Beach we decided to go straight past all of that and check out a spot called Burrum Heads. Burrum Heads is an untouched little fishing town about 40 min past Maryborough just north of Hervey Bay, We stayed at the council ran holiday park and ended up getting a waterfront site for the price of unpowered due to how quiet the park was. We arrived around 2ish and by 330 we were in the water on the boat not to the best conditions as the wind had picked up but was good to get out on the water even with not even a bite had. Woke up the following morning put the boat in again and by the time a few hours passed we both came to the conclusion there was no fish in this river and packed up back on the road.

We then headed to Bundaberg , We were quite impressed with Bundaberg in its size and history but the highlight for avid rum drinkers like ourselves was the Bundaberg Distillery. The buildings itself were amazing as we pulled in and we jumped out of Nelly ( our troopy) so fast it was hard not to power walk towards the entrance. We took the self guided museum tour which cost $20 each which was really good value considering it took about an hour to walk through and at the end inc was two free tastings each at the bar. The history was really interesting behind not only Bundaberg rum but rum in general worldwide. Picture with Bundy Bear and we got to the bar on offer was a few exclusive drops to the brewery but the one that we wanted to try was the $1800 a bottle and now we know why it was bloody beautiful and very smooth. It was too good to not have another and also tried the dark rum which I wasnt as much of a fan. We bought a bottle got our tourist photo infront of the bottle and headed off to 1770.

1770 is must go to everyone Captain Cook landing here gave it its unique,numeric name for a bit of trivia for those that didn't know and it is a little slice of heaven approx 1 and a half hours from Bundaberg , It reminded me of Koh Samui off Thailand but in Oz and nobody trying to sell you scarves or watches on the beach! , We booked in for two nights got given our spot set up sat down and went right back to reception to book another night. We fished and crabbed to no avail over the three days locals putting it down to Christmas holidays everything had been wiped out. We did however catch two little flatties and Lyam caught a Toadfish which was a new notch on the species belt. We were constantly in and out of the water most relaxing place to lay and float and only steps away from camp to watch the beautiful sunsets.

Next day we planned to stay around Yeppoon somewhere , drove through Rockhampton another massive town with incredible old buildings and about 50 pubs!

On arrival at Yeppoon being Aus day a family fun day with rides and all was on and we decided against it and headed up to a free camp at St Lawrence Lyam had looked up on Wikicamps. On arrival what was described as being on the water was actually a dried up salt plain with no one around, We drove around to the pub a fibro shack with two locals standing out the front and a dog on the porch looking very John Jarratt like we decided to can it and head onto the Barra Crab Caravan Park at Clareview about 1 and half hours from Mackay making the drive to Airlie in the morning easier and Lyam was just a little excited.

We arrived and we could see a beach bar near reception planned happy hour and went to set up. We sat down and this bloke across from us was staring and staring to the point it was getting weird and he then started to walk towards us it was not until he was nearly at the car we could make out what he was saying which was " Fancy having a drink with some oldies" pointing back to his van and missus and off we went with our chairs only to end up missing happy hour yakking on for two to three hours as they had done the lap twice and had some good info for us.

We ended up at the Beach Bar around 730pm and they had the music going and the dance floor was filling up from Zac Brown Band to Brooks and Dunn we were loving it chatting with backpackers drinking XXXX Bitter which tasted surprisingly great and danced the night away.

Next morning a bit dusty we headed off for Mackay stopping into Sarina Beach about 20km south which was a beautiful little beachy town. Arrived in Mackay which was like a full blown city wanting to see the Port and Marina it took 15 min to get from East to North Mackay!

The marina and port was massive like MASSIVE it took about 5 min to drive to the end of the break wall , After that we headed off to Airlie arriving around lunchtime and found our new semi permanent home which will be all in our next blog post along with our first stats for everything so far on the road!