The esplanade runs along the entire foreshore of Hervey Bay and there’s a lot that happens there. Markets, kayaking and paddle boarding lessons, restaurants, Tai Chi classes, exercises on the council provided equipment and of course, walking, jogging etc.

Every Saturday there is a market along the foreshore area and we arrived early enough to score one of the last parking spots along the front. Wandering around we saw the usual market items, Ray got a sausage in bread for the Captain and himself then went off to find some furry bottoms to meet. Again, there were plenty of dogs around, the air was crisp and fresh but warm enough for shorts and a singlet. “The perfect morning,” Ray declared. There was a stage with a variety of local talent taking it in turns to sing. Some were better than others but it was nice to hear the tunes as we walked around.

I approached a young girl sitting at a table in her school uniform. She was raising money to put refrigerated water in the bubblers at her primary school by holding raffles. First, she approached local businesses to donate goods and services, then she sat at the market on a Saturday morning with her mum to sell raffle tickets for her school. So far she had raised close to $2000. She said she needed another couple of thousand to reach her target and then a local tradesman would do the work. I didn’t really need to win the raffle and get a cut and blow dry, tyre balance, or the other locally donated prizes, so I bought a smelly sachet to put in my draw in the van to make my undies smell nice. Good on her.

We continued exploring and walked past a great looking stall. Ray suddenly said, “I need to go back there, let’s go!” We”d walked past a bath bomb stall and the clever lady had made all her bombs into donuts, cakes and chocolates and they looked incredibly edible all displayed in jars on staggered shelves. I realized that Ray thought it was a food stall. I should have strung him along a bit but I revealed what was obvious to me, to him, too soon. He was disappointed I know because he had his eye on one of the delicious looking donuts! Poor Ray. It was definitely time for coffee and cake.

Before we made it out of the market unscathed I walked past a homemade jam stall. It was being looked after by a gentleman named Bill who made the jams himself. When I asked him about the jams I expected him to say something like, “It is my wife’s recipe, who got it from her grandmother” or something similar.” Instead he said, “I could get all this fruit so looked up on Google how to make jam. Turns out I’m pretty good at it.” We bought some Satsuma plum jam for mum because I know she loves it and you never see it, and some tart lime jam for dad. His favourite too.

After chatting a while we divulged that we had a Kumquat tree or two at home that we got a lot of fruit from. Bill gave us a recipe for Kumquot jam and said it was his best selling flavour (sold out at the moment), and also brandy Kumquots…er…pardon me?

Yep! You can literally pickle Kumquots in alcohol and enjoy them for dessert, best dipped in melted chocolate, says Bill. I couldn’t believe it. We have had a goldmine of kumquats falling to the ground for the last nine years and the fruit has only been used as ammunition for the grandkids to have wars with each other.

I’ve put pickling Kumquots very near the top of my “to do list” when I get home and eating them with melted chocolate right after.

Ray was desperately hungry after a failed donut attempt and all this talk about jam and chocolate, so we really needed to find a cafe. We went to Aqua View which ,as the name suggests, is right on the beach and has a view of the water. Being so close to the water, there was a lot of bird life which continues to be a challenge for Henry. He doesn’t understand that he will never catch one, and that it is not polite to try. As he is always tethered in a café, he generally takes the leg of a chair for a ride or someone’s arm for a ride. This isn’t helping recovery of sore shoulders very much and I’m wondering why he’s just not learning. It must come down to beagle instinct.

At the table next to us was a family who were watching Henry and, as has been during this whole trip, I knew they were discussing what breed he was. So I answered the questions which I could hear and told them he was a Beaglier. We got talking about how he was chasing the birds and their little son who must’ve been about eight years old decided he could help by getting rid of the birds before they came into the café. He was kept busy getting the birds to stay away instead of coming and picking the customers plates clean when they got up to leave the table.

The couple had a definite accent, and we discovered they were from South Africa and had been living in Hervey Bay for three years. They moved here to provide a better life for their son, because of the turmoil in their country. They had their home broken into twice in a month, but luckily they weren’t home when it happened but they know of people who were not so lucky.

They applied for a job in a place called Hervey Bay and didn’t know where they were going and just moved. We told them they had won the jackpot. They were lovely people. This is probably the best thing about traveling. The people that you strike up conversations with, and meet along the way. People living different lives in different parts of Australia. It makes you realize the world is made up of such different people and everyone has a story.

We had about 15 minutes before our parking was finished. We weren’t sure if there were any parking inspectors around on a Saturday, but best to do the right thing, no rule breaking if I have anything to do with it. (It’s a hard call with someone as my travelling buddy). So we decided to pop onto the beach and quickly test the water.

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The water was lovely and warm. Perfect for me. We went back to the car and decided to go down to the pier. The pier here is over a kilometer long so that gave us a good 2 km walk. Even though it was about 26° it didn’t feel so hot so we knew Henry would make it OK to the end. We walked along the pier looking at everybody fishing. No one seem to be having much luck. Then we saw some commotion further down the pier. A young guy caught a stingray. He was able to get it out of the water and pull it onto the beach where the tide was out. He then ran down the pier some way, and jumped into the deeper part of the water and managed to take his hook out of it. He said he was going to use it for shark bait. He was pretty impressed with his catch.

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We got to the end of the pier had a look around. There was one bloke who had caught a big fish. He was the luckiest guy on the pier that day because no one else had caught anything. Then we walked all the way back.

As we got off the pier, Ray noticed a great big sign that we actually can’t believe we didn’t notice when we were walking onto the pier. It said “no dogs allowed on the pier.” I then turn around and said to Ray that I couldn’t believe they didn’t put a sign at the entrance to the pier as I waved in that direction, and I pointed right at a sign on the entrance to the pier that said “no dogs allowed on the pier.” Well, we missed that one too. I was very surprised that no one told us when we were on the pier the dogs weren’t allowed on the pier. Henry got his fair share of pats while we were walking so no one seem to mind him being there. So much for not being rule breakers on my watch!

We went back to the foreshore to a café for lunch, and again Henry was asked about his breed. We got chatting to some people who used to travel for 5 years in a caravan, but had decided to settle in Hervey Bay. It seems to be a popular place for people to settle.

We returned to the caravan park and Ray went for a swim in the therapeutic swimming pool. When he booked the caravan park, he booked it because it had a heated mineral water pool. But he said that they must’ve forgotten to pay the electricity bill because the pool was the coldest pool he’s ever been in. Henry and I decided to take a nap and I woke up just in time to cook some dinner. Must’ve been the illegal pier walking we did today that made us so tired.