After leaving Cape Byron and the sea behind me I turned back onto the Pacific Highway and put Gympie in as the next destination. There were a dozen more places I would have loved to have checked out but I wanted to get to Hervey Bay by three o’clock.

The rain began again but not as severe as yesterday. There were short patches of the white rain but mostly it was a heavy soft rain.

After approx 330 kilometres of rain and road works it was nice to be able to stop and rest a while. I pulled into Gympie and looked for a supermarket. I drove down a Main Street under re-construction. Witches hats made it a narrow one way street. With the bobcats in operation I was beginning to regret turning on to the street but I couldn’t turn back. Three cars in front of me the little white car pulled over and stopped. As we slowly drove over the dumped dirt and rocks in the middle of the lane there was the little white car covered in red mud and the owner now standing beside it in utter disbelief. Her face seemed to read. WTF. I was so so grateful that I hadn’t been just a minute earlier and that it wasn’t me standing beside JenJen say WTF.

There was a walkway war memorial with several tiled plaques.

I had my lunch in the rotunda in the park. The rain spat down and I was beginning to think I was going to be trapped in the rotunda. It didn’t last long but I had spent longer than intended in Gympie.

Deciding I wouldn’t make it to Hervey Bay on time I decided to miss Maryborough and go straight to Hervey Bay. I missed the turn off and ended by going through Maryborough anyway. The GPS couldn’t find the new streets where I was headed and long story short it took a bit of alternative thinking but I finally arrived at my destination. And not too much behind time.