Posted January 8, 2023
About August 11 – 30, 2022
Aside from the marina and the Gladstone Marina Parkland with its cafe and bird life, Gladstone did have some other things of interest.
East Shores
By crossing the bridge towards the city, making a left turn by the yacht club, then walking along the water for 5 minutes, we’d arrive at a place we’d noticed from our marina, East Shores. People had been telling us we should check it out, followed by a visit to the Auckland House brew pub nearby for a meal and some beer tasting. So we did just that, and I have to say East Shores was lovely.
It’s no secret that Queensland gets hot in the summer, but jumping into the ocean is not the best way to cool off, particularly north of (and including) Bundaberg. Stinger season starts late in the spring (around November) when jellyfish, some of them deadly, start to appear in the warming waters off the Queensland coast. I’ll go into this more in another post, but suffice to say summer is not a good time to swim in this part of Australia unless diving or snorkeling in what’s called a stinger suit.
Since it was only August (winter in Queensland), the stingers were not yet an issue. But then there were the crocodiles. These are generally north of Gladstone; so we hadn’t given them much thought. But walking one day we saw this QR code on the sidewalk where we could report a crocodile sighting. When Rich tried it, we got an advertisement and thought this might be a prank. But as it it turned out, it wasn’t. There are occasional sightings this far south, and the wildlife authorities do rely on people to report them. Since we had no plans to go in the water here, this wasn’t a problem at the moment (although we realized we should shelve any future plan to jump in the water and clean the bottom of our boat).
As a result of the summer stinger season and year-round possibility of crocs (and in some areas, sharks), Queensland cities north of Bundaberg have beautiful free parks filled with water attractions so people can cool off and have a place to take their kids other than the beach.
Here in Gladstone, the public water park is called East Shores, beautifully landscaped, well shaded, and very wet for those who care to get wet. There’s no pool here, but instead an array of fountains and sprayers for kids to run through, and of course, playground equipment.
This park has a nice location at the base of a large hill, surrounded with native bush and rock cliffs beyond the landscaped areas, separating it from the feeling of being near a city. It had a view of the waterways and our marina. At the east end of the hill was something that had intrigued us since arriving here. From our boat we could see this massive wall of bright pink and knew it was some sort of vegetation, but what could it be?
Today, getting a closer look, we realized that entire cliff end of the hill had been planted with bougainvillea, creating a wall of it that cascaded down the face of the cliff, about 4 stories high. Very striking!
We walked through the park at East Shores, then by a historic Royal Australian Navy boat, the H.M.A.S Gladstone, dry docked and on display. After checking that out, we headed to the Auckland House beer brewery. Below, some photos from our walk including the wall of bougainvillea (click any photo to enlarge).
Up to this point the day had been really nice, but sitting at the brewery’s restaurant the writing was on the wall. The secret to getting beer was to stand in a line going out the front of the restaurant. This line eventually ended up inside at the bar. We should have known from seeing that line that something was up, or why else would people stand in the hot sun when they could sit and order from the comfort of a table in the shade.
Going to the shaded sitting area where food was supposed to be served along with drinks was a guarantee of getting neither of them. It seems the staff was insufficient, overwhelmed, and frankly not the sharpest pencils in the box (giving jobs to young family members, maybe?). We managed to flag down the hostess who we had, moments before, strong-armed into seating us (another bad sign when seating is beyond the understanding of the restaurant worker), and now she saw us waving in an effort to get menus.
Instead of menus, she sent over a waiter with a pizza. The waiter had understood her gesturing to mean this was our pizza. We could have just accepted that pizza if we wanted it, but frankly it didn’t look that good. Plus of course it didn’t belong to us, and while we’re not perfect angels; snagging someone else’s pizza would be over the line (well, depending on the pizza). We knew it was time to go elsewhere. (Below, phot of Auckland House.)
So, no Auckland House for us (and apologies if we offended any fans of the place —we know we may have caught them on an off day). Meanwhile, both the Yacht Club and the marina’s café were closed at this time of the afternoon. What to do? The Seafood Market came to our rescue where we got two individual platters of banana prawns and Moreton Bay bugs to bring back to the boat. Those banana prawns and bugs were delicious!
Spinnaker Park
Another area of interest was, of course, the park across from the marina on the breakwater, Spinnaker Park. This is the park that had the colorfully lit up trees when we’d arrived here.
As the crow flies this park is pretty close to the marina, but the walk there was a bit long and took us through an industrial area that was ghost-town quiet and unappealingly barren. Needless to say we didn’t enjoy this part of the walk. Once we got to the park our stroll was nice, the park’s inner walkway lined with a piney tree that grows in north Australia, the She-Oak.
These pines are not very tall, with “weeping” branches, the needles long, sparse, and a faded shade of green, sort of a scrubby-looking pine. But the breeze blowing through the needles made that wonderful pine-tree sound I love. As it happened, this day was chilly and breezy, not something we experienced much as even wintertime in this area is pretty warm. It was the first time since leaving New Zealand that we’d been chilly.
The park was pretty and similar to our Gladstone Marina Parkland. On one side it had a view of our marina and park, and on the other side, a view of the main shipping channel, protected by the outer barrier islands, Curtis Island and Facing Island. So like our area, this was protected and had that pleasant enclosed feeling.
This was all nice, but we much preferred our park by the marina which, to us, was prettier and more protected from the elements.
Gladstone Valley Area and Fresh Fix Café
For the most part, the area of the city close to the marina (which seems to be known as Gladstone Valley) didn’t have much appeal. It had, however, a grocery store within a 30-minute walking distance.
Along the way the walk took us through a small area with a few restaurants and nice trees. It could have been charming if the eateries were open for lunch, but it seemed they’d rather focus on the dinner crowd. It was a shame because the little shops weren’t enough to attract people to the area. There was a wine bar open during the day, but it was situated off the main street; so this area felt rather deserted.
We did find one place, the Fresh Fix Cafe, near this area of town. We mostly went there because it was the only place open at that time, but we ended up loving their BLATS (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwich) and their thick shakes. Proper thick American-style shakes can be hard to find in this area of world; so it’s always a treat when we come across them.
Stockland (West Gladstone)
What we considered the real downtown, West Gladstone, was beyond walking distance for us, but the marina had a daily shuttle bus that would go to this area in the morning then return in the afternoon. It was free—all we had to do was get on the sign-up sheet. So generally a few of us from the marina would pile into a mini van to begin the day’s adventures. Most of us went to the area called Stockland which had two major shopping malls across the street from each other.
OK, I have to break off here to do some long overdue venting about grocery shopping in the southern hemisphere (or at least this part of it).
Grocery Shopping Down Under: A Rant
I should mention first that while stand-alone grocery stores do exist, Australia has a real affinity for putting their big grocery stores in shopping malls. I’m not talking strip malls but actual, enclosed shopping malls. America would never deign to mix something as mundane as food shopping with the dream-fantasy world of buying clothes and electronics. Oh the humanity! Nor does New Zealand do this, preferring to keep the food shopping experience separate as God intended.
So what is it with Australia and grocery stores in malls? I can’t imagine being in the mood to look for a cute summer outfit followed by a trip to buy ground beef and broccoli. What a mess of bags to deal with, not to mention having the leaking rotisserie chicken bag get grease on a new blouse. Nor am I tempted, when on a food shopping mission, to think hey, maybe I’ll try on a cute dress before finding out the store is enragingly out of cabbage or spaghetti sauce or some other basic frigging thing I depended on for the evening’s recipe. Sigh.
While I’m on a rant about this, there is yet one more thing Australia does. They separate liquor and food shopping completely. So if you want to pick up some wine with dinner, you’ll have to stop at a Bottle Shop.
I will credit them for realizing this is an inconvenience; so they generally place bottle shops next to the grocery stores, but still. We come out of the grocery store, and now have to park our cart outside the small liquor store so we can run in and get something? Yes, that’s what we have to do. Conversely, there are times when one doesn’t need food but would like to buy a bottle of wine. In America it’s so nice to stop at a mini-market or liquor store without having to enter a crowded supermarket or mall parking lot to access it.
Yes, I can hear Aussies reading this saying, “If it’s so great in America maybe you should go back there.” Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like that as there are plenty of things Australia could teach America, like how to use a credit card without having to sign a receipt, or how to send children to school without worry about them getting shot. But I will take a moment here to tell my fellow Americans to appreciate being able to buy wine and hard alcohol along with food. So if one has, say, a recipe that calls for wine, sherry, vodka, or whiskey, etc., one can buy it right there in the grocery store along with the food.
New Zealand does sell wine in grocery stores (much appreciated), but they don’t sell hard alcohol. As a result, they don’t feel the need to put bottle shops near the food stores. So after a trip to get food for dinner, we need a separate drive to a bottle shop if we want to purchase, say, tequila for the margaritas we wanted with our guacamole and chips, gin for the tonics we might want to serve our friends, or the vodka for the penne alla vodka I planned to make. I understand that separating liquor purchases from food buying creates businesses and jobs, but boy it’s such an inconvenience for the customer.
OK, rant done. Back to the mall . . .
Our main interest in these shopping trips was, of course, the grocery stores. Our favorite one was Woolworths, a nice store but at times frustratingly sold out of certain produce I needed. But Coles, across the street, sometimes had things Woolworths was out of; so we alternated between them. We also got sim cards for our phone and a beloved addition to our boat that I’ve wanted for years: a toaster! We will dedicate a post to this wonderful device that came to live with us.
There was one very good thing about grocery shopping at the Stockland malls, and that was the eateries in the food court, especially our favorite chain in Australia, Guzman and Gomez for really yummy fast Mexican food.
When we first arrived in Gladstone, Rich didn’t remember how much we’d enjoyed this eatery during past visits. But it came back quickly and since we had lunch there, Rich became the chief Guzman and Gomez locator for any cities were here headed to. By the time we’d arrive, Rich had the nearest Guzman and Gomez locations already mapped out.
OK, I have a couple more posts to write about Gladstone, then it will be on to cruising the Queensland coast. –Cyndi
