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Published: October 2nd 2011
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Well folks, its been a long time since the last blog, so after a wonderful week's holiday up the coast, I thought I would share with you all our latest road trip.
Caz and I headed up the coast nearly 500km, to a small township on the Mainland at the southern tip of the Barrier Reef.
There are two towns within 4km of each other on a beautiful peninsula, the first and larger town ( and by large I mean small!!!! ) is called Agnes Water and the second and smaller town ( and by small I mean really small!!!) is 1770.
The town of 1770 is so named as it was the first place where Captain James Cook made landfall in Australia back in.... strangely enough 1770.... the 24th May 1770 to be precise.
I first visited here in 1990 and Carolyn and I came here 5 years ago, so it was fantastic to be here once again. And for the second week of spring, mother nature certainly brought on the weather for us...as they say, the sun shines on the righteous!
We arrived at our apartment in Agnes Water on the evening of 8th September and woke on 9th
September with a pleasing view of the ocean from the the balcony....albeit a glimpsing view!
We did the usual first day setting out of the stall to decide what we would do during the week ahead.
First stop, Deep Water National Park. So we put the car through it paces on soft sand tracks and she handled like a dream. Deepwater National Park is a coastal park with 4WD sand tracks to three main areas, Red Rock, Flat Rock and Middle Rock. The beaches are pristine and home to turtle rookery's at certain times. From November to January you can see the turtles head up the beach to lay their eggs and from Jan to March, you can see the hatchlings scurry into the ocean. Sadly for us, this was not quite the right time of year, but the usual dolphins offshore put on a show for us and a huge bait ball was slammed by Tuna just off the coast and within sight.
Deepwater National Park also has some amazing birdlife and has the red tailed black cockatoo which is a huge stunning bird and whilst I have no picture to show you, Carolyn will indeed confirm we saw
Busy Beaches
No beach vendors here then! a number of these impressive birds.
This is also an ideal fishing spot and whilst Caz relaxed on the beach, I caught a few beauts, including whiting, bream and dart. The dart was filleted and panfried for dinner one night....yum yum.
Next on the list was a trip out to the Barrier Reef Island of Lady Musgrave.
Lady Musgrave is a stunning coral atoll with huge coral gardens full off life. Its a 90 minute boat trip from 1770 but well worth it as you emerge from the 3 metre swell of the open Pacific Ocean, to a calm island paradise in the "Bunker Island Group". Here we had a wander around the island which is a mecca for sea birds and both Caz and I had a great snorkel together on the reef and spent a good five minutes with a turtle within touching distance. He didn't mind us being there and we just loved to share his time! We could have stayed all week, suspended in the crystal clear waters with our little friend! You can camp on the island for $5 per night but you have to take all your food, water and other provisions as there
is nothing on the island, I mean nothing! I really fancy that for my 40th...we'll see!
Eurimbula National Park was next on the list. Another 4WD coastal park, North of 1770. Eurimbula has Emus in the park although they are seldom seen. However, having been a few times and almost given up, we rounded a bend in the soft sand track and there he was, in the middle of the track before taking off! But for all the non-believers, we managed to get this one on camera! We were really chuffed to have seen this magnificent bird however, better was to come from the ocean that day.
On arriving on yet another desolate beach, we set up camp for the day, with our picnic and sunshade and I headed to the waterline to fish.
First cast and a huge bite followed immediately and then a snap! The one that got away! I wandered back to our "camp" and being as the line had been bitten clean through, changed the trace to a 40lb line, ramped up the hook and offered a full 6" squid as bait!
In knee depth water in small surf I cast out and waited patiently. As
More Wildlife
A Goanna blocking our way! I was waiting I noticed out of the corner of my eye a movement by my leg! There it was, a white eye shark! Only about 2/3ft long but big enough to make me retreat to ankle depth and to shout for Caz who stirred from the hard task of baking in the sun, but missed all the action.
Not so however, as not long later, Caz got to see Mr Shark. Mr Shark was well and truly on the on the end of my line. He took the squid and couldn't get through the 40lb line! After a terrific fight I got him up the beach into edge of the surf and the sand and thankfully at this stage before the need to try and remove the hook, he chewed threw the line. Some flapping in the sand followed and a nicely timed wave enabled him to swim back out to patrol his beach once more. We never did swim in the sea that day!
Evenings comprised of either a cool beer at "The Tree" pub overlooking the restaurant or a cool beer sat on the beach watching the sky turn from blue to red to black!
So all
No Room At the Beach
Where will we find a space? in all a wonderful week, with fabulous Queensland weather, superb wildlife with the Emu, Shark, Turtles, Goanna's, Red Tailed Black Cockatoo's, Bee Eaters, a close encounter with an Echidna and my car ( I nearly ran it over! ), great food, great sunsets, great company and much much more!
Wish you could all experience it but for now, hope the pictures will do!
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Edgar & Dorothy
non-member comment
Hello you two, It was good to receive your e-mail which is so very interesting and so thoughtful of you to remember everyone, you certainly put lots of time and effort into your very descriptive adventures in your new Country. It makes our latest holiday seem a bit tame, however we did enjoy our touring around Northern Ireland of which we have just returned, did not really fancy going there but our son Philip invited us and off we went. Our first visit there, and have to admit that we had some pre conceived ideas about the place which were totally unfounded. It is a beautiful country with fantastic scenery around every corner lovely people and Belfast was really special with great buildings and first class shops, no army there of course any more, Such an interesting time. Do hope that you continue to enjoy your new life and keep well and happy, as we both are here in Longton. Love Dorothy & Edgar.