Noosa Woosa

We take the bus into the main town area next to the beach. The town is a sort of hippy's delight as the shops are all selling very 1960's gear and everything feels so laid back. The beach is absolutely wonderful and many families are already enjoying the soft sand and clear water. We decide to have a coffee in a beachside cafe, then sit on the side of the beach to soak up the rays of the sun. This is a place where you can just chill and not think about the next day. Our day really is relaxing on the beach and having a few glasses of wine at the many places here; you are spoilt for choice, in fact. We have a great late lunch / early dinner at Miss Moneypenny's and we pretend to be James Bond and Honey Rider; but, for some reason, the staff treat us like any other tourist!! But the food (which included some lovely oysters) was great. Surprisingly, the day seems to want to end, as the sun starts its slow dip into the sea, and we have to catch the last bus back.

The next day arrives, so we drive off to seek the hospital for Diane to get the diagnosis for her foot. We head off to Hervey Bay and we stop off at the hospital. The staff there are really great and after Diane signed all the forms that allowed treatment under the reciprocal agreement between the UK and Australia, she waited to be seen. As it turned out, Diane waited a couple of hours and was sent off to get the X-rays she required. What was the outcome, I here you cry? Well, the official diagnosis was that Diane had plantar fasciitis and the only solution was rest and it may take 6 months to cure it. We will say that the staff were fantastic and a credit to Australia. So, we check into the campsite, Beachfront Tourist Park. Hervey Bay is made up of a number of towns and our camp for the next 3 nights was in Torquay. This town is nothing like the town in the UK; the beach has fine golden sand that stretches for miles, there is only one fish and chip shop on the sea front and it was quiet, really quiet. We eat in this night and decide that tomorrow will be a ‘sit on the beach and do nothing day’, to give Diane’s foot a bit of a rest.