Woodgate Beach, Saturday 18 to Wednesday 22 May 2019

On Saturday, we drove north from Cooroy and checked into the Woodgate Beach NRMA Caravan Park. This park is located across the road from a beach that must be about 10 km long. We had a concrete slab, which we found enabled us to keep the motorhome a bit cleaner. We put up the awning and the wall that attaches to the end of the awning. We were near the facilities and a dump point, the Serenity Cove Café is at the entrance of the Park, and there is also a convenience store selling essential items such as icecream. For dinner tonight, Katie made a pork, veggie and noodle stir fry dish, and we had Jenny’s leftover fruit and custard flan for dessert.

The 18 May was Federal Election day. We voted before leaving home as we were uncertain where we would be on the day. We watched the election result that night on our TV with quite poor reception. Everyone had predicted a Labor victory, but by the end of the night it looked like the Coalition had won, possibly even with a small majority. What a surprise, and I must say, a pleasing one for a change. We felt that after the Rudd – Gillard – Rudd debacle not that long ago, current Labor would struggle to run a chook raffle competently, despite the strong reforms undertaken by Labor in the Hawke – Keating years. Of course, Tony Abbot and Peter Dutton damaged the Liberal Party significantly by overthrowing Malcolm Turnbull, and we think it is fitting that Tony Abbot lost his seat. Peter Dutton is still there, so our current PM needs to watch his back.

It was sad that just before the election, Bob Hawke passed away. He was an impressive leader of a political party and a country in his day, and we wonder whether we will see anyone that comes close to his leadership ability in our lifetimes.

We started Sunday at Woodgate Beach with a family walk south to Banksia Park looking for a dog lead-free area. At the time we thought it was at the other end of the park, so we simply retraced our steps along the concrete path. However, we found out later that dogs are allowed on the main stretch of the beach on lead, and they are allowed off-lead on the beach from Banksia Park southwards, and north of the boat ramp opposite the pub. Katie shouted breakfast at the Serenity Cove Café and we enjoyed a Canadian breakfast of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, and coffee.

One interesting observation was that many places we had visited so far are dog friendly. It was common to find dog water bowls at street corners, front door of libraries, and near toilet amenities.

It was a good day for catching up with washing clothes and writing our travel blog. We shared the responsibility of writing up our blog, with most of the writing initiated by Katie (the Possum), and further text and photos added by Ian, who posted our entries to our web site.

Ian lifted the Trek mountain bike off the back of Matilda and took a long bicycle ride south along the path to Banksia Park, looking for an off-lead dog beach. He went on the beach and continued south on the hard sand for a fair way, then turned around and headed north until the sand became rather soft past the caravan park. He continued on the path to the pub and boat ramp, and then back along the path to the caravan park. This was the longest bicycle ride in months and took him 1 hour 20 minutes. He thoroughly enjoyed it even though his legs felt as though they had done some work.

Ian then took Dexter for an afternoon paddle at the beach on lead. On this holiday, Dexter has enjoyed his beach time.

Sunday night was the best night of sleep for both of us—Katie slept in while Ian took Dexter for a morning walk on the beach. Ian made porridge for breakfast for the first time this trip. We then planned for the next few days.

In the afternoon, Ian took Dexter for a long walk to Banksia Park along the concrete path, and then onto the beach where Dexter could legally run off-lead. The tide was out, and he chased a tennis ball and a red squeaky plastic stick that floats along the sand flat and in the shallow water. We walked back along the beach that was supposed to be for dogs on lead, but as the beach was almost deserted, Dexter did break the law and go most of the way lead-free.

Ian rode his bicycle into the supermarket to buy rissoles for dinner.

Ian rose early on Monday morning and took Dexter to the beach again, this time to see the sunrise. After breakfast, we drove into Bundaberg for the day—please see our separate post on this. Dexter had another 10 minute run on the off-lead part of the beach north of the boat ramp when we got back from Bundy. This was clearly not long enough for him, for Dexter bolted back to the beach after we toweled him down instead of jumping into Matilda. We enjoyed fresh prawn sangers from Bundy for dinner.

We left Woodgate Beach on the Wednesday morning to drive north to Agnes Water via Bundaberg. We concur with friends Grant and Jacqui that Woodgate Beach is a perfect place to relax and get away from the crowds. The weather was kind, and the caravan park is in an ideal location.