From Airlie to Atherton

Thursday 9^th November

Today, we made the decision to head inland to the Atherton Tableland inland from Cairns.

South of Innisfail, we turned onto the Palmerston Highway, otherwise known as Canecutters Way. There were lots of sugar cane and banana plantations along the road.

We saw our first rain since Sydney; the morning delivered several short, heavy tropical downpours which cleared by lunchtime. But then, we were going through the Misty Mountains!

Our first stop was at the Millaa Millaa Falls, reputedly the most photographed waterfall in Australia. We saw a turtle here, but not the elusive platypus.   

                         

Next stop was Malanda which has a swimming hole by the falls. The information centre here was rebuilt after a bushfire and gives an interesting account of local geology and aboriginal history.

                              

 We moved on to Yungaburra, pausing to do a board walk to the Curtain Fig Tree. This is a big parasitic strangler fig tree whose base is entirely covered by a stringy mass of aerial roots.

                   

Lunch stop was at Lake Tinaroo, 5kms north of Atherton. This is a convoluted reservoir formed by pooling the Barron River's headwaters.

Towards Mareeba, we turned off to the Granite Gorge, where we bushcamped for the night. Here there are rock wallabies, which we hand fed, mingled with peacocks, bush turkeys and a very inquisitive bantam hen! We went for a walk through the Gorge as far as the weir, where we saw a greeny brown snake slithering over a rock (between the two handrail poles). Didn't hang around there!

Ended the day with a barbecue in the camp kitchen.'

                 

Highlight of the day: feeding the wallabies.

Wednesday 8^th November

From Rollingstone Beach, we travelled through more sugar cane plantations and bananas and called in at Tully, where there is a huge sugar mill. We saw the cane train arriving with a new load of cane.

This is the wettest town in Australia with an average rainfall of 450 cms a year. This is marked by a huge 7 meter golden welly boot in the middle of town. 7 metres represents the depth of when the town got flooded some years ago.

We continued to Mission Beach, through an area renowned for Cassowaries but they remained well hidden. We had camped at this South Mission Bay site before, right opposite Dunk Island. It is just on a glorious, golden beach fringed with palm trees and stretches for 14 kms. We had a welcome swim in the pool and a walk along the beach (stinger nets are in place) before our fish and chip supper.

                     

Highlight of the day: Revisiting this campsite.

Tuesday 7th November

Back on the road again, we first called in at Bowen, which featured in the film Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, a seaside town with crocodiles evident.

            

 When we reached Townsville, we drove up Castle |Hill where we got a great view of the city, sprawling across the flat plains and Magnetic Island off the coast.

Moving on, we drove through more sugar plantations, mango orchards and pineapple plantations. 

  

                       

We turned off the highway to Rollingstone Beach parking right on the beachside next to a sign that said: Danger – Saltwater Crocodiles inhabit this area. Fortunately, we only saw a goanna.

Highlight of the day: being camped in such a lovely location.

Just another day in Paradise....

Monday 6^th November

So today, we walked down to Port Airlie at 6.00 am to catch the Sea Quest catamaran for a trip to The Whitsunday Islands and most particularly the iconic Whitehaven Beach. The Whitsunday Islands were so named because, yes you've guessed it, Captain James Cook sailed by on the Endeavour on Whit Sunday in 1770.

Back in March, cyclone Debbie swept through this area and devastated Hayman Island and Daydream Island, so they are both closed. Such a shame as we had visited both before and they were lovely. Hamilton Island also suffered and you could see how the vegetation had been ripped away and some of the buildings were still being repaired or replaced.

Whitehaven Beach which is a National Park has also suffered loss of some vegetation, but it still remains a tourist attraction and is beautiful. 

                          

We were required to wear the “stinger suits”, not the latest thing in fashion, but supposedly to prevent us from being stung by the deadly urukandji jellyfish, which are just coming into season here. 

The water was crystal clear and turquoise and very warm. We had a couple of hours on the beach before returning via Hamilton Island to Airlie Beach.

Back at camp, we had our customary swim and at 4.00 pm went to see the birds being fed. This was all very well as the rainbow lorikeets were beautiful, but they did take advantage and I had two land on my head, one on my shoulder while two were eating off my hand! It was rather like a scene from a Hitchcock film!

Highlight of the day: The catamaran trip and Whitehaven Beach

Sunday 5^th November

Today is rest day – no driving allowed. We spent a pleasant morning by the pool and then walked into Airlie Beach and spent a pleasant afternoon at the lagoon. 

                     

This was followed by a pleasant Happy Hour at Magnum's Bar with a jug of ice cold beer for 10 AUD.

What was very surreal here was the atmosphere in the bar. It was full of trendy young backpackers in brief shorts (with a few grey nomads here and there) but the music that was playing was the same that I had heard over 10 years ago in another bar in Andorra where the trendy young people were kitted out in apres ski wear. It just struck me as amusing.

Highlight of the day: swimming in the lagoon

Sitting on the dock of the bay.....

Saturday 4^th November

Peter was up at sunrise for the inevitable shot of the beach and we had a prompt start with the aim of reaching Airlie Beach (Backpackers' Paradise) by lunchtime.

We passed many sugar plantations and saw a cane train making its way to the mill.

                               

Airlie Beach was very busy with people of all nationalities, backpackers young and old. We checked into the campsite and then walked the 800 metres back into town, browsing in the market along the esplanade.

                         

                        

 We had a fish and chip lunch and then wandered along to the Airlie Beach lagoon, a huge freshwater swimming pool alongside the beach.

 They need these lagoons because although the beaches are beautiful and the sea looks very inviting, it is not safe to swim in the sea in Queensland during their summer months as there is the danger of the tiny irukandji jellyfish which are only about one cubic centimetre with long entrails and are highly venomous and a sting can be fatal. Not to mention any sharks that may be lurking also!! hence the attractive stinger suits that we wore on our last trip here.

Late afternoon, we wandered back to the campsite via the pub and had another swim in the camp pool. We finished the day with a barbie under our makeshift awning, serenaded (or screeched at) by a friendly cockatoo.

                      

Highlight of the day: swimming in the lagoon.

Magic Moments, memories are for sharing...

Friday 3^rd of November

We left Yeppoon before 8.00 am as we had a long drive ahead to Mackay at the southern end of the Whitsunday coast. I drove the van today for about an hour and a half and we saw some isolated bushfires up in the hills. We passed through trees and scrubland with very little habitation between Rockhampton and Sarina, a stretch of about 200 miles.

There were no fuel stations either until we reached a place called Yaamba, where we found a dilapidated station but it had diesel at a good price so we filled up.

                       

In Australia, the road signs never cease to amuse us. Today, we passed several which stated that we were in a Fatigue Zone followed by signs which gave a Trivia question ( to keep one awake); for example: What is the floral emblem of Queensland? Further down the road was a sign with the answer: The Cooktown orchid. Must remember that for a Quiz night!

Then the farmland became predominantly plantations of sugar cane. The cane is usually planted in November and seven months later before cutting, the fields are traditionally fired to burn off leaves and maximise sugar content. Cut cane is then transported to the mills along a rail network. Cane is juiced for raw sugar and molasses, as the market dictates. Crushed fibre becomes fuel for the boilers that sustain the process and ash is returned to the fields to be used as fertiliser. We passed the huge mill at Sarina just south of Mackay.

In 1861, John Mackay settled in the Pioneer Valley, despite encounters with the aggressive Juipera aborigines and within four years, the city was founded and the first sugar plantations were established.

We stopped briefly in Mackay at a BigW (Woolworths) to 'refuel' our food cupoard and then headed for the coast where we have an amazing pitch right next to the beach.

Highlight of the day: Glass of wine at sunset gazing out to sea.

Thursday 2^nd November

Awoke really early due to a baby crying and a car alarm going off, but we needed an early start for the next part of our journey.

We actually left the campsite at 7.00 am and drove north on the Bruce Highway bypassing Gladstone to reach Rockhampton which sits right on the Tropic of Capricorn..

                          

 A few miles further on, we reached Yeppoon for a nostalgic revisit to Wreck Point, where on New Year's Eve 1972 Peter popped the question and in response to my answer, he gave me the ring-pull from the top of a Fosters can of beer for an engagement ring. Karen asked for a re-enactment, so we did, but this time, the 'ring' was the ring-pull from a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer. Never mind, I still have the real thing!

We met a fair dinkum Aussie ( in his eighties) up there and he regailed us with some amusing tales of life with his “Sheila”.

We stayed at the same campsite that we did nine years ago, only instead of goannas, they had a resident wild emu, who thought it was a good laugh to encircle our van repeatedly. Didn't dare get the crisps out!

Highlight of the day: that Peter thought it was worth asking again! 

Sugar and Spice and all things nice....

Wednesday 1^st November in 1770

1770? No, I haven't got the date wrong. Not exactly. Tonight, we are on a campground in bushland  next to the beach in a place called 1770. It was named thus by Captain James Cook in May 1770 as he used this wonderful, gentle natural harbour to anchor his ships. It is a very tranquil holiday place which hasn't as yet been exploited.

We were up at 6.30 am this morning, (It is daylight before 5.00 am) because we had to be at the Marina in Tin Can Bay for 7.30 to see the dolphins being fed. There were about 6 hump backed dolphins including a young one, which come in to be fed every day. Otherwise they remain out in the harbour.

So, back on the road, our first stop of the day was at Bundaberg, home of the famous ginger beer. We paid a visit to the factory and having seen how they make the ginger beer, we were invited to taste no less than 17 different varieties of Bundaberg ginger beer. Just as well they were non - alcoholic! The varieties added different fruits to the ginger beer.. Particularly nice were the pink grapefruit, mango and coconut and pineapple which tasted like pina colada. The interesting one was their new Christmas ginger beer containing cloves and cinnamon. Shame, our weight allowance won't run to bringing some home.

Back on the road and we headed through the sugar cane plantations and fruit orchards to the coast and the town called 1770. Having settled in, we had a pleasant walk along the esplanade/ boardwalk to the Marina before we sat on the beach with a cool glass of Semillon white wine,watching the sun set.

Highlights of the day: Watching dolphins and tasting ginger beer.

Tuesday 31^st October

It was 46 years ago today, that Peter and I met in Geelong,Victoria.. How the years have flown by and here we are travelling down memory lane again.

We were up early, so had time for another swim before we left Maroochydore campsite. We had to visit an autoelectrician in Maroochydore as the air conditioning was defunct yet again. While they were fixing it, we went for a wander and I found a hairdresser, so got a haircut, very reasonable at $25.00, I thought although a little shorter than I had hoped but it will be mor manageable in this heat.

Back on the road, we stopped at the Big Pineapple in Nambour.

 This had been a pineapple plantation with a zoo attached, but sadly, it seemed rather neglected since the last time we were here. 

We reached Noosa Heads for lunchtime – a beautiful up market resort with lovely beaches, but very busy. Taking another detour, we decided to head further up the coast through a pine forest park to Tin Can Bay. Being our anniversary we thought we would eat out. A 2km walk along the boardwalk by the beach took us to the Snack Shack for fish, chips and salad. How romantic! It was quite dark when we walked back to the campsite.

Highlight of the day: Another refreshing swim in another pool and the meal, of course!