It was a pretty hot Christmas this year and I had to feel sorry for Santa who, in spite of the heat, hopped aboard the fire truck and drove along every street in Tanilba Bay, Mallabula and Lemon Tree Passage doling out sweets to the children. The truck sounds its siren as he makes his way around and, as you can imagine, it takes some time for him to complete the route so for hours the streets are lined with children shouting 'SANTA' every time they hear the siren in the distance.
Enough about that. I like to kid myself that this is a travel blog so,back to our recent trip. 

We got up early on our first morning in Tin Can Bay and wandered along to a cafe at the waterfront where they feed wild dolphins. These dolphins have been turning up at 7.30 am for years for a feed and the cafe have turned it into a tourist attraction. They have very cleverly positioned billboards, fences etc so there is not a centimetre of dolphin to be seen if you have not paid your $5 entrance fee to watch or $10 to feed them a fish.

 It is all very closely controlled with uniformed volunteers standing in the water to make sure there is no dolphin abuse and to supervise the feeding. The dolphins were really patient remaining incredibly still in the water while the feeders purchased their fish and queued waiting to be called one by one to hand over the fish to their designated dolphin. It was good fun and well worth the tiny entrance fee.
We had an appointment to view the caravan later in the day (the real purpose of the trip) and drove up through Maryborough to Hervey Bay. The drive was as boring as bat poo through endless rows of identical pines grown for logging and it was a real relief to get to the other end. We stopped in Maryborough to find the bank and discovered a splendid market. Maryborough looks reasonably prosperous and must be to support a fairly large market even though it was once a town that thrived on the sugar trade and the little narrow gauge sugar train rail lines are still there. The town is proud of its history and there are interactive information boards dotted around, all quite impressive.
Next stop Hervey Bay where we fell in love with the caravan and agreed to buy it then trotted off to look at Hervey Bay itself which is a big holiday destination, pretty smart and one of the main setting off points for Fraser Island. I was quite taken with a cafe where you could hire a big cushion and umbrella for the day facing the sea and the cafe kept you topped up with cold water. 
Anyway, back through the boring pine forests to Tin Can Bay where we got chatting to one of the permanent residents at our campsite only to discover she was great pals with one of the people we meet at the quiz night at home every week!
Next morning we had arranged to go and pick up the van so set off through the incredibly boring pine forests again, paid for the van and towed it back. When we got back, we swapped everything from tent to van, much to the amusement of the other campers. 

We liked Tin Can Bay very much so decided to stay for a few days and play with the new van while we explored the area.