What an adventure we had today! We had been told and had also read, that inland from where we are now are some beautiful water-holes so we thought we’d take the kayak out there and have a picnic lunch. The road into the Wongi Waterholes wasn’t too bad but it was mainly gravel. Arriving at the waterholes we noticed that there were a few people camping. The area around the waterholes looked quite dry (as everything is in this area at the moment) and unfortunately the waterholes were covered in waterweed which would have made kayaking difficult. The Burrum River is nearby and has been dammed up to form a reservoir/lake. We decided to drive to the lake and thought that maybe I could kayak there. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the lake, the wind had really sprung up and it would not have been that pleasant out on the water. We went for a walk and noticed once again, the fantastic infrastructure set up for visitors around the lake with, toilets, BBQs, shelters, etc. A couple of families had set up their caravans on the shore of the lake. From here we decided to drive to the nearby town of Howard. Rob had wanted to check out the golf course and we thought it might be a lovely spot to have our lunch. Google maps took us on a bit of a “wild goose chase”. We travelled on many minor, dirt roads around state forests and in a couple of places I had to open gates due to grazing cattle. Finally we could see through the bush the main highway we were trying to get to. We drove along the track to where we thought we would meet up by the main highway but couldn’t believe what we saw. A new fence had been erected here and we were not able to make it to the highway! We had to back-track on all the rough roads and tracks before finally making it to the highway. We enjoyed our stop in the small town of Howard and I was in my element due to the fantastic history boards around the town. The town’s main industry was coal mining in its early days and from what I read, many of the tunnellers used in WW1 came from this area due to their expertise in tunnelling. Returning back to Burrum Heads, I decided to venture out in the kayak, despite the wind being up. I had an enjoyable 2 and ½ hours spending a very peaceful time in a small, mangrove lined creek. Out in the main river I did see a huge stingray in very shallow water, so shallow in fact, that it’s tail and barb was out of the water! As I had a tail wind heading to the mangrove creek, returning to the caravan, took me a little longer.
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