1770

Not the year, the beach town.  Yes, 1770 is the name of a beach town about an hour and a half away from Gladstone.  My parents and I spent three days in this lovely place as a relaxing first Australian adventure for the start of their visit. 

We stayed in the most adorable place ever- "The Beach Shacks."  Don't let the name fool you, these surely were not shacks.  Instead, this place consisted of about 6 or 7 separate apartment-style lofts that were built ascending the side of a hill.  Which meant that each one had a beach view.  Our "shack" was the very front one, so not only did our apartment have a beach view, we had the best view- completely unobstructed.  The best part of where we stayed was the awesome porch (or veranda, as Aussies call it) that we had.  It was the perfect place to read, relax on a rocking chair or hammock, or watch numerous breathtaking sunsets. 

After getting settled into our shack, we quickly made our way next door (literally about 30 steps) for lunch and drinks at the patio restaurant, "The Tree."  This is easily the best restaurant I've been to "near" where we live.  It's too bad that it is an hour and a half away.  I'm so restaurant deprived... but that's a story for another day.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the area and hiking along a few viewpoints along the water.  1770 is considered the birthplace of Queensland since it was one of the first places where the explorer Captain Cook landed when he "discovered" (in the year 1770) what is now Queensland.  So a lot of the areas where we hiked and explored had historic monuments along the way. 

 

 

 

 

We ended the afternoon by exploring the beach right in front of where we were staying.  1770 is actually located on a bay, so our view and beachfront was a beautiful bay where heaps of boats were anchored.  The tide changes in this area are really drastic.  As you can see in the photos below, during low tide there are huge sand bars that make it look like the boats are beached. 

 

 

 

While walking along the beach, we noticed these strange "sand ball" designs.  They almost looked artistically designed.  As we were trying to figure out what created them, we saw a tiny crab (a soldier crab) appear.  In a matter of just a few seconds, he dug a very small hole, and as he did so he made perfectly rounded balls of sand with the sand he removed from his hole and deposited them around the hole he dug in a seemingly random placement.  It was really strange, but also really impressive.  Nature is pretty neat. 

 

 

More 1770 to come!