We arrived in Agnes Water after a 9.5 hour bus ride from Airlie Beach. It was about time we covered some ground as every time we looked at the map we weren’t making a lot of progress down the East Coast. 600km later, we had definitely covered some ground, with my maps.me even asking me to download a new portion of map to my phone. The bus ride itself wasn’t that bad. I was expecting the worse to be honest, but somehow we managed to get onto a pretty full bus first. Simon grabbed the back two seats which had twice as much leg room and we settled in for the night. I was a little apprehensive about a) sitting in the back row (motion sickness) and b) how much space there was, because I couldn’t reach the foot rest. Simon however, was pretty chuffed and could spread out nicely. We slept a lot, but was fooled into think we had a good nights sleep as soon after arriving in Agnes Water, as soon as we were fed and water, we both fell asleep for about 4 hours. We both woke feeling pretty groggy, but to a beautiful sunrise.

Agnes water/1770 is still establishing itself as a East Coast Australia backpacker hotspot, with most people still choosing to zoom straight through from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay. It’s a sleepy town with small boutiques, bakeries all meeting just your basic needs. We read a sign, whilst having a wander around that said the first motel was only built in 1985, to which Simon responded with ‘This town is as old as me’. We walked to the beach and read our books for a while. The beach was pretty gorgeous, as are all the beaches here, but I was definitely feeling the chilly wind. 600km south had definitely changed the weather a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still lovely and warm in the sun, when there is no wind, but definitely not as hot or humid as we had been used to. I found myself wrapping myself up and looking out to sea. This area was called 1770, because it was the year that Captain James Cook first landed here. This was the second place he landed at in Australia, with Sydney being the first. Most people come here for 2 reasons. 1) to learn to surf 2) to take part in scooteroo (more on that later).

After walking around Agnes Water and enjoying the beach we headed back to our hostel for a lazy evening of food and a movie (Gravity if you were interested to know – I give it 2 out of 5 popcorns). We needed an early night after all of the excitement recently and didn’t emerge until about 9am the next day, scooteroo day. I’ll let Simon fill you in on that one…

Author – Simon (for a change)
So today was really cool. We had a nice lie in at our hostel in Agnes Water, had a cup of tea and some watermelon for breakfast, which was a little strange, but hey! On the menu today was scooteroo. We had been told about this by a lot of people online and on our travels. It was a must do activity on the East Coast, ranked top 5 of things to do and number one for value.

We were picked up outside our hostel by Eddie who did look the part in his biker leather jacket with scooteroo emblazoned on the back which immediately increased our excitement level. We knew this was going to be fun!

So looking cool and feeling cool we strutted over to the practice track where various people were having their first experience on a little motor bike. Some doing ok some crashing into cones and some terrified. I was used to the feel on two wheels so no worries and Becky took to it like a duck to water. The ‘motorbikes’ have a 49cc engine, the same as a scooter, but the frame had been kitted out to look like a Harley Davidson.

Safety briefing completed, it was time for a quick photo on a big mean looking hog. We were told to be as bad ass as possible, so hopefully our photo shows that. Whatever these bikes lacked in size they made up for in looking cool. We eagerly jumped on and waited, impatient to get riding. Then we were off! 22 little motorbikes cruising around Agnes Water and 1770. We were part of a biker crew and were loving it. We saw loads of wild Kangaroos whilst cruising around. Looking at these whilst trying to keep the handle bars pointed in the right direction will have been tricky for most. The feeling of cruising with the sun on your face and the smell of petrol fumes is exhilarating and I miss my own little bike back home. We stopped for a snack of potato wedges and a drink at the 1770 marina which was beautiful then our convoy made its way back to the bike shed. We were both really gutted it was over and 4 hours had zoomed by in a flash. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is passing through 1770.

Its Becky again! I have to say, for someone who doesn’t like motorbikes and who makes her husband text her every time after a journey, I really did enjoy scooteroo. It was fun to have a leather jacket on, the wind blowing in my hair and to feel super badass whilst looking at wild kangaroos. It was a great day and really did make the trip to Agnes Water truly worth it.

On to Hervey Bay next! Another 6.30am bus though. Oh the hard life of a backpacker 😛