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Published: October 11th 2007
The second major attraction of the North Queensland coast is the Whitsunday group of islands, so called because they were first sighted by Captain James Cook on the HMS Endeavour during the festival of Whitsun in 1770. They are served by the port of Airlie Beach on the mainland. Unfortunately there are 600km between Fraser Island and the Whitsundays with sweet Fanny Adams in between.
We left Hervey Bay after a good night sleep with a spring in the step. The van was behaving well and the first day went without a hitch. We covered a lot of the distance to Rockhampton and found a nice little free camp site for the night. It was out of the city and the stars were clear. Interestingly Rockhampton is right on the Tropic of Capricorn, which is the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. Well, some of might find it interesting, anyway. Rockhampton is also famous for its cows, so we had steak for tea. Mmmmm.
The next day we covered most of distance to Airlie Beach, camping in a small place by the beach close to Mackay. The main reason was to find
somewhere to watch the NRL Grand Final, where the Melbourne Storm trounced Manly Sea Eagles. You may also have seen Mackay on the www.BBC.co.uk recently in an article titled "Doctors save man with Vodka drip". I enquired about this level of service but it is only available with private heathcare. Check out the article if you dont believe me.
Having completed the journey to Airlie Beach we reserved a couple of berths on the Atlantic Clipper to cruise the Whitsundays for 3 days. The islands were fantastic and the sand a beautiful white colour, finer than any sand I have seen around the world. We had the chance to dive off the boat and the submarine sights were pretty good too. Unfortunately this trip made me feel my age. There were a group of Irish lads who appeared to be a stag doo on acid, drinking from 10am till 3 the next morning. I could only observe and think back to the good old days, before retiring to bed with a cup of cocoa and a good book.
Once we were back on dry land is was back in the van and ready for the final leg of
Sticky the stick Insect
Stickier than a sticky bun!the trip up to Cape Tribulation and onto Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.....
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Dad
non-member comment
HMS Endeavour I bet you don't believe me but we have seen HMS Endeavour (Replica) ourselves - in Whitby. Small world innit. Dad