Burnett Heads and New Years

From Yeppoon we travelled south heading to Susan River for New Years, on our way we planned to visit Ray and Carol who had just moved into their new home at Burnett Heads.

Burnett Heads marina at sunset.

We travelled down the Bruce Hwy until Miriam Vale where we turned towards the coast and Bundaberg.  This took us through the Baffle Creek area which had been burnt only a few weeks earlier and you could see the devastation the fires had done.  Also noted a number of signs hung on farm gates with messages of thanks to the wonderful fire fighters who fought the horrendous fires. At this time a huge number of fires were burning in Qld, NSW and Vic with fire fighters risking their lives in catastrophic conditions.

Stopped at Rosedale for a wee break and saw the Barber shop

We booked into Burnett Heads Lighthouse caravan park near the head waters for a couple of nights.  This gave us time to have a look around Burnett Heads in the morning before we had lunch with Ray and Carol. They have a lovely new home and Ray has already been very busy getting the shed organised and the garden and pool area established. It was great to catch up on all the adventures they have had since we saw them over 12 months ago.

We left the next morning to make our way to Susan River for New Years, we drove along the coast to Bargara Beach first for a coffee and to check out the area. Bargara seemed much more of a tourist area with several cafes overlooking the beach.

On our way out stopped at Bargara beach

From Bargara it was only another hour or so before we arrived at our friends property where we met the others and would spend New Years eve.

We set up next to one of the mango trees laden with mangoes which were so tasty!

With a couple of days to New Years Eve we had the opportunity to go into Hervey Bay, I needed to make a visit to RTM and get a part for the caravan water pipe as the temperature control mixers were leaking.  We also had a couple of golf games on the property before New Years Eve.

For New Years Eve it was decided we would have dinner at our own van then get together with the other guests to see in the New Year. Bob was providing the music while Rhonda assisted and Mike was MC who gave a little spill for the night. Rhonda had arranged to play celebrate heads which was OK but no one would have volunteered so your admission ticket number was used and drawn from a hat.  The first number out was 58 and Helen and I had 58 and 59 so we debated whose ticket it was, and being the good gentleman that I am, I went and played celebrate heads, and by the way I won a bottle of Champers. Rhonda started to pick the next numbers for the "volunteers" and you wouldn't believe it but number 59 was drawn, so no getting out of it this time and Helen had to play celebrate heads much to everyone's amusement as she had vigorously avoided the first game. Next we had the secret Santa presents which took a while to get through as you were allowed to steel other presents if you felt that would be a better choice. Bob then cranked the music up and before we knew it midnight was upon us and with good cheer we wished everyone a happy new year. After a few more songs we slowly made our way back to the van, a great night had by all.

We didn't leave on New Years day as to avoid what may have been a busy day on the road.  Instead we headed off on the 2nd and got a relatively good run all the way to Tugun.