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Published: February 16th 2008
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When I pencilled in the east coast of Australia on my round the world itinerary I had visions of superb beaches with great surf rolling in, the beautiful Whitsunday islands and the magnificent Great Barrier Reef. In all of these visions the sun was shining in a brilliant blue sky, maybe it was a little naive but I never thought it would rain constantly for weeks at a time. So mentally I wasn’t prepared for the deluge and never expected to be stranded by floods. More about that later.
So, the overnight Greyhound bus from Sydney to Byron Bay wound its way up the coast and I actually thought we were heading for the sunshine. My theory suggests that the closer you go towards the equator the warmer it gets and the less it rains unless of course you are in a rainforest. So the first day in Byron was wet and there wasn’t much to do other then try and catch up with missed sleep. In the evening I ventured out to the infamous Cheeky Monkeys with some guys and girls I had met on the bus the previous night.
The next two days were a washout and
Byron doesn’t cater very well for indoor activities so the only things worth a mention were the walk up to the lighthouse which sits on Cape Byron which incidentally is the most easterly point in Australia and a flood in the centre of town that was caused more by blocked drains than the amount of rain.
Now, those of you who have been following my travels will remember Gail who I met in Nelson and then we met up again in Queenstown. We had arranged to meet again in Brisbane so I headed up there a day early which gave me the opportunity to have a look round and visit the museum and art gallery which were good. The next day Gail arrived on an afternoon flight which gave us just enough time to grab some early dinner before jumping on the bus to Hervey Bay which arrived in at half past midnight. We got a few hours sleep before getting up early for a two day tour of Frazer Island. The tour was great and at last we had some good weather. We visited Central Station first which was a former logging camp and is now the
Information centre. From there we took a walk through Wanggoolba Creek which is in the heart of the rainforest. A buffet lunch was provided at Eurong where we would be staying that night. After lunch we took a drive up Seventy Five Mile Beach to Eli Creek and then on to the wreck of the Maheno which ran aground in 1935 during a storm whilst being towed to Japan for scrap. Going up the beach further we visited the Champagne Pools at Indian Head. Back down the beach to the resort where we grabbed a shower before being fed and watered.
The tour continued the next day visiting Lake Wabby in the morning and Lake McKenzie in the afternoon. The two lakes are very different and Lake Wabby was formed by a massive sandblow that moved and blocked a creek whilst the very beautiful Lake McKenzie has crystal clear water and a fabulous silica beach. Back on the mainland we headed straight for the bus station and just had time to get dinner before the overnight bus to Airlie Beach.
We arrived in Airlie beach early in the morning and were due to leave on the
Pride of Airlie at three in the afternoon. We had some breakfast and stored the majority of our luggage before doing a little shopping and then headed down to the marina. There were about ninety people who were split between two boats, both of which were large catamarans. The afternoon was very nice and the weather was great too. We arrived at the resort where we would be stopping for the next two nights and had a nice dip in the pool before having dinner; sorry I did I say dinner, what I really meant to say was slop. To say the quality of the food was poor would be an understatement so we had to rely on a good liquid diet for the night.
The next morning we were on the boat nice and early for a cruise round to Whitehaven beach which is a white silica sand beach and the one pictured on most of the promotional shots for the Whitsunday’s. We had to wear stinger suits to go in the water because of the risk of jellyfish in the sea. There are several varieties including the infamous Box Jellyfish, most of them can kill you
so it was comforting to have protection. We spent about 2 ½ hours at the beach in glorious sunshine before the heavens opened once again and we all jumped back on the boat for a leisurely sail back down to our base. It was a real pity the weather was so bad because the scenery was stunning and would have been better still with the sun out.
Once back on the island we had a quick swim before catching some much needed shuteye before dinner. However the shuteye lasted a little too long and dinner was missed which wasn’t too upsetting judging by the standard of food the previous night. The liquid diet was resumed and another late night was finished by an early morning dip in the pool. The final morning of the trip we woke to a rainy start and we finally set sail after some initial delays due to one of the party going awol. We arrived at a coral reef just off one of the many islands and once again donned our stinger suits and went for a snorkel. The reef wasn’t too impressive however there was an abundance of fish and at times
it seemed like you couldn’t move in the water because of them. The sail back to Airlie beach was a wet one and the rain just got heavier and heavier. There were about ten brave souls on the front deck playing drinking games and I am glad to report I summoned up the bravery to join in.
That night there was a concern that due to the rain there could be some roads flooded and this could affect our onward journey up to Cairn’s. This was confirmed the next morning when all services were suspended. Gail now had a problem, she was due to fly to Auckland the following day from Cairn’s in order to attend a conference and with no busses running this left her only one alternative. She had to get a ferry over to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays, fly down to Brisbane and then fly back up to Cairn’s. So we departed a day early and I was stuck in Airlie Beach!
The rain carried on for much of the day and like Byron Bay, there isn’t much to do when the weather is poor. The following morning I called Greyhound and
once again all services were suspended and the talk was that the rain would carry on for at least another four days. So I had a kook at the long range weather forecast which wasn’t very promising and decided to cut short my stay in Australia and head on up to Singapore early. The only problem was that I was still stranded in Airlie Beach. I found a flight down to Brisbane from the mainland and was in the midst of changing my flight up to Singapore when that seat disappeared. So, the only alternative was to fly from Hamilton Island, just like Gail had done the previous day.
My final night in Australia was spent doing what all of the east coast does best - having a few beers! The next morning I headed off for the airport to catch my lunchtime flight feeling that I had possibly missed out on a lot of what Australia has to offer. The Gold Coast relies heavily on the sun and is largely based around beach activities. I wanted to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef and see Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation however you need some good weather
to enable you to enjoy these wonderful places. It was a shame that the eastern side of Australia was experiencing it wettest summer for nearly twenty years and with that in mind I went looking for some sunshine in South East Asia.
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