Maryborough

Sunday 23 April

Sharon's birthday - she asked me if I would still love her when she was old, toothless and incontinent.
I said "of course I do".

The doctor reckons the stitches can come out in about a week's time.

But I digress. Today we had two objectives; firstly, to find a pleasant, historical kind of place to stop and have a wander and secondly - and more importantly - to find Sharon a Sunday roast lunch; something she has sorely missed since leaving the UK.

The town of Maryborough vaguely fitted in with our plans, but on arrival at around 11am everything seemed shut except the local baker. Whilst looking around for the Tourist Information Centre, we bumped into this lady...

... none other than Mary Poppins. It transpires that Maryborough is the birthplace of the author, Pamela Lyndon (P.L.) Travers. By a spooky coincidence, P.L. Travers died in London, aged 96, on April 23 1996 - exactly 10 years to the day before we unknowingly happened upon her home town.

The Tourist Information Centre was happily (and unexpectedly) open, and a kind young chap directed us to the riverside

which featured a beautifully landscaped park and river walk surrounded by historic buildings.

And - lo and behold - here we found the beautifully restored Excise building, which is now a restaurant and serves... Sunday roasts! Two excellent roast beef lunches later we took a leisurely stroll around historic Maryborough in the warm Sunday sunshine.

We needed to find a camp spot for the night beyond Maryborough, and so I suggested that the seaside resort of Caloundra might be a pleasant way to round off Sharon's birthday.

Caloundra is reminiscent of many English seaside towns; nice sandy beach, hotels and restaurants along the front, ice-cream sellers etc. And so, in true-Brit fashion we sat looking out to sea, eating good fish and chips and watching the sun set. Who says romance is dead?

In fact, the only real difference we noticed was that as dusk fell, the sky overhead was darkened by hundreds of noisy, squawking, circling parrots!