I recently detoured off the main highway as I travelled north and called into Tin Can Bay. It’s a few years since I had visited this popular coastal village in Queensland, a couple of hundred kilometres north of the capital city Brisbane.

Mud flats and mangroves don’t make for fantastic beaches along the foreshore but do provide great conditions for fishing and crabbing – and Tin Can Bay provides plenty of those opportunities.

For many years local dolphins have visited for breakfast and under supervision tourists can feed them. I first did this about 30 years ago when we could buy a bucket of fish and stand in the shallows as the dolphins swam up to us for their treats. It is much more regulated now so I resisted the temptation to participate this time around. The 5.30 am start might have had something to do with that decision too 😂

There is no free or low cost camping in Tin Can Bay and only two caravan parks for travellers like myself. As the Kingfisher caravan park never returned my phone call, and when I arrived the office was locked and deserted, I made my way to the Tin Can Bay Tourist Park. I’m sure this is a popular destination for many but for me it is too far out of town and too expensive so I won’t be a return guest. 😕

Some detours lead to delightful discoveries so I will always choose that road to places with interesting names. I probably won’t detour to Tin Can Bay again though – as the saying goes “Been there, done that!”