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We completed our longest drive (650km) from Yeppoon to Airlie Beach on Friday. So we were slightly wasted after that, but enjoyed the scenery. At the Mackay district the land changed from dry, brown, hot and flat to beautiful fields (after fields) of sugarcane and dramatic hills. This continued all the way to the Whitsundays, where the big ranges look similar to Milford Sound (but with slightly warmer temps). We got bad news when we arrived that the weather for the next four days (the length of our stay) was going to be rainy. So we decided to risk it early on and do our three island cruise (Daydream and Hamilton islands, and Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday island). The Whitsundays would mean extravagant luxury to most people (which it surely is), but we and a few thousand other backpackers have found that it definitely can be done on a budget. Airlie Beach is the base for most backpackers, with a lively little township and backpacker hostels running the length of the main road. Thankfully we decided to stay a few k’s out of town in a caravan cabin, because this town is nuts at night! The majority of backpackers stick to
day trips to some (or one) of the 74 islands, and some camp on the beach which is very cheap. The first stop on our trip was Daydream Island, which is very small, I guess the size of Mt Victoria in Devonport. The whole island is a resort and features the worlds largest underwater aquarium, which Matt got quite obsessed with. They had reef sharks, 1m-wide stingrays, clown fish and even reefs and coral growing! We only had an hour here but encountered a little bit of ‘liquid sunshine’ as they say here, so kept moving. Off to Hamilton Island, which is quite nice, but massively overdeveloped and commercialized. It looks like Hawaii with large hotels lining the waterfront; they even have their own airport, nightclubs, restaurants and Australia’s first 6 star resort (to be 6 star you need a golf course so the owners thought ok let’s just turn the nearest island into a golf course even though half the island needs to be excavated and an underwater tunnel will need to link the two). The mode of transport there is golf buggy so watch out! But the highlight of the day is the trip to Whitehaven beach which
has some of the whitest and finest silica sand in the world. When we first arrived it was a bit overcast but after a couple of hours of playing AFL (!) and lying around it came out and almost blinded us! Matt thought the best part of the day was the BBQ buffet lunch, seeing as we are eating on the cheap and haven’t felt that full since we left NZ! We even got fish! And fruit! One strange thing about this area is that swimming in the ocean can’t really be done for half the year due to the deadly box jellyfish (north of Mackay). So with sweltering temperatures and beautiful beaches it is pretty strange just mucking around on the sand, although you can put on beautiful technicolour, see-through stinger suits that I can’t wait to wear at the Barrier Reef! The rest of the time at Airlie was pretty low key, as we were saving money and weather was a bit patchy.
Then we were off to Townsville, which we were a bit excited about, seeing as it is a reasonable sized town. Turns out this is a bit of a letdown, and Towny is a bit
of a hick town! Our hostel was right in the middle of about 20 pubs, which is apparently the favourite pastime around here. On the drive in we stopped at Bowen and it’s northern beaches, which were quite stunning with large pink granite boulders going straight into the water. From Mackay north there are occasional stinger nets on popular beaches that aim to keep all the deadly jellyfish out of that area (about 50m square). It seems so weird going to all these tropical beaches in the middle of the day and seeing no one swimming anywhere! Even in the Whitsundays! A bonus at the backpackers we were staying at in Townsville is free breakfast and dinner, which is at the local pub Molly Malone’s. Sooo many rough labourers around! The main purpose of staying in Townsville was to go to Magnetic Island which we sure did. We found it to be too expensive to take our hired car over or to hire anything over there so we started walking….and kept going! We ended up walking from one end to the other and through about 10 bays (about 20km). We found some hazards on the island; Matt almost stood on
a snake on one of the tracks, small echidnas (like hedgehogs) and we accidently ran into a nude beach with naked old men everywhere! But the island is beautiful, full of pink granite, isolated palm-fringed beaches, koalas and frangipani trees. It reminded me of Waiheke in a way because it is only a short commute from town, but still has that hippie island feel. At the end of the day we were so exhausted, and we smelt (and looked) so bad on the ferry home!
After Townsville we drove to Mission Beach which is our last stop before Cairns. We made the trip a little bit longer, since we were now in ‘green country’ with lots of waterfalls, bush walks and rainforest. First we stopped in Paluma Range, just south of Ingham at Joulama Falls. We had a bit of a field day here doing doughies on the gravel, and speeding through fords (in our budget rental car). When I got my tripod out to take some photos in the creek a snake came along the rock and frightened me off. Next we went to Wallaman Falls, part of the Lumholtz National Park. This is apparently the highest vertical drop
in the southern hemisphere (268m)! The drive was soo steep to the top of the gorge, as soon as we got out Matt had to go and sit down! The gorge was so steep and the waterfalls amazing! Probably the best thing I have seen in Oz so far! We finally arrived in Mission Beach home of the Cassowary (some weird emu/moa type cross) to our hostel where they hadn’t written our booking down….great! But this was the kind of place you wouldn’t want to be sitting around the hostel. So we were off to a nearby island, Dunk Island, only a 10 minute water taxi away. The island was beautiful, and very UNRECOGNISED. We thought that it was just as beautiful as the Whitsundays, with far less people and development. The whole island is covered with national park walks and a resort, with beautiful trees and pools. The best part about the day was when we inconspicuously tried to swim in the resort pool and we realized that the resort towels were exactly the same shade of blue as our budget towels. So no-one questioned us all day! Matt had his best day so far, spent swimming around the
Mission Beach
Looking towards Dunk Island with our water taxi awaiting pools in the very warm (30C) sunshine. Then it was time to say goodbye to our Mission Beach home…. This was a good thing as far as the hostel goes; one of the nights we were there someone came home drunk and basically crapped everywhere! It was so sick we could smell it for the whole day after! Aside from that and the fact that the hostel is pretty small and crowded the area was great and is even situated a few minutes away from Australia’s wettest place (Tully) where you can go white water rafting. But time is short and with our flight to Singapore in just over a week and no boat trip to the reef yet, it’s ‘Cairns here we come.’
PS. Wildlife count so far: three snakes, two koalas, about 10 wallabies and their babies, one iguana, three goannas, millions of geckos, one echidna, tons of random colourful birds (crows, lorikeets, cockatoos, parikeets, etc), one whale (or shark?), roos (many dead) and about to see a whole heap of fish! (Matt thinks he is Steve Irwin and keeps trying to pick things up… “put it down Matt!!”)
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Ngaire
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Fantastic Beaches
Gran's going to love this one! We certainly do. Joey wants to come over and join you. No doubt it was worth the long drive. Enjoy your last week in Oz! Love from us all.