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Published: July 11th 2008
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This blog begins in Townsville, where we arrived quite late in the evening and set ourselves up at a campsite. Our impression of our whistlestop visit was positive, Townsville seemed to have an upmarket French feel to it with a picturesque marina and colonial style buildings. The following morning we decided we would go over to Magnetic island which is just offshore from Townsville and is roughly 50% national park with some lovely bays and beaches to explore. The name of the island came about because of the apparent "magnetic" effect it had on the ship's compass of Captain Cook as he passed the island when sailing up the east coast of Australia in 1770. We spent a few hours relaxing on Horseshoe beach, one of the largest stretches of beach on the island before having to leave so we could get back to the mainland and head to Airlie beach.
We arrived in Airlie just as the sun had set and made our way to the 'lagoon' which has been built by the council to provide an alternative to the very small beach and sea that is full of marine stingers. We parked in the carpark by the lagoon,
had showers there and then went out for dinner and a few drinks. We had an early start the next morning as we had booked a boat trip for the day to tour around the Whitsundays.
We decided we would splash out on a fairly expensive trip on a Catamaran that included food and drinks all day (including unlimited alcoholic ones - needless to stay we had planned to stay another night in Airlie!) So we boarded our beautiful looking catamaran called 'Camira' at 8am the next morning with the excitement of a whole day of sailing and sightseeing ahead of us. Our first meal of the day was breakfast with tea, coffee and cakes (including cream scones!). Ro and I were really relaxed and enjoying ourselves, it was a little breezy but in the sun we were warm, so we kept moving around the boat to maximise our sun exposure! At one point we sat right at the front of the boat on the 'nets' (so you can see the sea below). The sea became really rough and the boat was moving about a lot and I got a bit nervous. Then there was a huge wave that came
right over the boat and soaked this poor guy near us and also there was a huge bang. A few moments later one of the crew came over the tannoy system to tell us something had been badly damaged and they would have to cancel the trip (at first we thought it was a wind up) we couldn't believe our bad luck, we had only been on the boat for a couple of hours and were half an hour away from the first Whitsunday island on our route! They said we could be dropped off on daydream island on the way back (an island quite close to Airlie) and then get a complimentary ride on one of their ferry services back to Airlie later that day. We decided this would be a good option and proceeded to board their dingy/speed boat that would take us to the beach on daydream island. We hadn't reckoned on getting absolutely soaked in the process!!! I think because there were so many people on the boat and also the waves were very choppy, Romana and I had also stupidly sat at the front and so she quickly moved to crouch in the middle. By
the time we reached the beach Romana literally rang her towel out!
Daydream island is beautiful, it's one of seven islands of the Molle Group, a sub-group of the Whitsunday Islands and is quite small, measuring 1km in length and 400m at its widest point. It's basically a bit of a private island with a resort that spans across 2 sites, one site has some shops, a restaurant, a fun pitch and putt, along with a beautiful pool. The other site on the other side of the island has the accommodation, a wonderful pond with beautiful fish, sharks and stingrays, and 3 large pools and other sports facilities. This resort is for the rich and famous and we were gatecrashing it for the day!! So we started off on the pitch and putt side of the island and laid by the pool there sunbathing and drinking a (very expensive) beer. A butterfly landed on Romana's leg on 2 separate occasions and stayed there for ages, it was really spooky but nice at the same time. After a little while we decided to go for a wander and that's when we discovered the area on the other side of the
island and we stayed at the pool there for the rest of the day. Spookily, what looked like the exact same butterfly came back and landed on Romana's hand!! We decided it was because she had been talking about her Uncle who had passed away when she was young, we figured it was some sign of reassurance. We had a lovely chilled day, somewhat frustrating that we hadn't made it to the Whitsuday islands we were supposed to (and we could see them in the distance from Daydream island!) but still had time on a beautiful island enjoying the sunshine.
As we headed back to the mainland of Airlie, Brad was waiting for us at the marina. Brad and I worked together in England and he was now back home and living in Mackay, it was really nice to be able to catch up with him on this trip. He had booked the 3 of us into a hostel for the night and after a quick change we headed out for a lovely meal, a few games of pool (lost by Brad!!) and a few alcoholic bevarages to boot. The following morning, after a McDonalds breakfast to cure a
hangover, we followed Brad in the campervan to Mackay. Brad wanted to show us some of the sights in his area so we left it completely to him to be our guide for the day which was really nice. Brad took us to Eungella National park which is a short drive from Mackay with the last bit of the journey being a steep climb to the summit with amazing views at every turn. We decided to have our picture taken at the Eungella chalet with a silly twist of jumping in the air and it had quite funny results! We sat out in the garden at the Eungella chalet and enjoyed the amazing panoramic views, the sunshine and a couple of small 'pots of gold' (they call half pints, 'pots' and there's a beer called Gold so I found great amusement asking for a pot of Gold!) We then made our way down to Broken river where you can be patient and look out for a glimpse of a platypus which we managed to see, but not for long enough to get a photo as they're quite shy creatures! We also saw many turtles which are really cute and slow
moving in the river. We had such a nice time in Airlie and Mackay and it was really nice to be able to catch up with Brad on his side of the world!! So, cheers for being a great guide Bradders!!
The following morning we left Mackay early in the morning with a very long drive ahead of us. We wanted to make our way down as far as Hervey Bay which was 594 km (369 miles) away. There wasn't much to see on the way apart from the caves near Rockhampton. On arrival at the caves, we discovered that you could only see them on a guided tour that took an hour and wasn't due to leave for another half an hour and sadly we didn't have enough time to spare in our calculation of our journey time. Whilst we were there however, we did see my mum and dad in the shop window (well, Romana commented that the guy looked like my Dad) and I saw my first Kangaroo up close, and there was a roo in it's front pouch with its little legs poking out!! At first I thought it was a pregnant Kangaroo about to
give birth! We stopped just long enough to make ourselves some lunch and have a break from being in the van. We arrived in Hervey bay in the early evening, having just witnessed the most spectacular sunset as we got out at a petrol station a few kilometres away.
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Mum (again!)
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Butterfly daydreams
Glad you had such a good time with Brad, know you were looking forward to seeing him again. Sounds as though this was an interesting part of the trip! U missing Romana? xx