Hydeaway Bay

Wow! This place is a real throwback to the way things used to be on the QLD coast years ago. It is quiet and unassuming and the van park (yeah – another van park as there are no legal places to just set up camp for a while) is not overly technologically endowed – even our Telstra mobiles don’t work out here – but it is friendly and it is beautiful.

After arriving here, and ”here” is just a few klms north of Airlie Beach, we took a drive down through the township to get a feel for the place. The road through the township continues as a gravel road along the coast and after about 5 of 6 klms we found a couple of resorts right on the water.

These were the Cape Gloucester Eco Resort and Montes and they are both right on the beach with views out across to Gloucester Island and are surrounded by glorious bushland. Yes, we liked them both, and once you take a look at these photos I am sure you will see exactly why.

If anyone is planning a wedding or a honeymoon then either of these places would be a brilliant venue. They would also be good for a weekend getaway. The Whitsunday’s Airport (near Proserpine) is just 30 or 40 klms away so getting here from a major city would be easy.

Don’t spoil the place though!

This is the "Oar Bar" at Cape Gloucester. Reasonably priced everything and friendly staff. There is also a glorious pool off to the side.

 As we neared Montes, walking down the beach for half a kilometre, we found where the boaties anchor up.

 

The view from Montes Bar

Montes bar itself.

Walking to Montes - just half a kilometre down the beach.

Loking west along the beach

And back at Cape Gloucester - this is the view from the bar.

Back at the van park we bumped into a couple that we first met at an overnighter in Marlborough (north of Rockhampton) and we joined them and some other people for a beer or two around the campfire. Great fun.

Our next day there was also pretty good. We took a short drive to Dingo Beach where we found more glorious Whitsunday sights.

<sigh>

This is the anti stinger swimming enclosure - basically a safe(ish) pool for the kiddies.

For any non-Aussies out there reading this you might want to read the notice below to get an idea about the stingers.

Oh yeah - the place has a pub overlooking the beach too!

After  enjoying that place I decided to get a little fishing in – the tide had turned and was making fast so we drove past the Eco Resort to a quiet little bay where I chucked out a bait and also tried my hand at squid jigging off the beach and lure fishing.

Not a single bite never mind a fish. Karen had more luck recording six or seven bites, but as these were all sand flies biting her ankles as she sat reading in the shade of a tree they don’t really count.

Back to the van park then for lamb chops coked over a wood fire and a few beers with the others there to pass the evening.

Airlie Beach

While we are still camped at Midge Point, we took a drive into Airlie Beach to both get an easy fuel fill (using 16.5 litres per 100 klms while towing the new van) and to check out the town as it has been five years since we were here.

Well, the town is as lively as ever and they have turned the park that was at the back of the main street and facing the harbour into a pretty special place centred upon a couple of lagoons and it is really nice.

Lots of backpackers lying around soaking up the sunshine only added to the visual joys!  :) 

Talking of visual joys, the harbour is as beautiful as ever.

One for my brother and SIL - Hey guys, I think that is the cruise ship you sailed around Australia on!

They have also added a few bits of art work around the place. This one of the dugong is my favourite.

We ended the day eating fish and chips as we looked out over the harbour before driving back to Midge Point.

Lovely!

Midge Point

Midge Point - not named for the biting insects (thank deity for that!), but instead named after a ship that sank just off the point here.

We are in a van park as it seems to be getting harder and harder to find free and interesting spots to camp legally.

Many rest stop places along the road that have some excellent looking facilities also now have big signs up forbidding overnight stays, usually with a sign indicating where the nearest caravan park can be found.

Frustrating.

Still, the park here is friendly and has widely spaced spots. It is also right on the beach.

The beach - well our first sight of it was not encouraging - the water was a looooooong way out and there were acres of rippled sand. Still, it may turn out to be a decent whiting fishery as a result.

Cape Hillsborough

We've been to Cape Hillsborough before, so we knew what to expect and the place didn't disappoint us.

We ended up with the furthest camp site from the entrance, but we thought that would be good and we set up happily. What we didn't expect were the sheer number of people who drove down the track to our site presumably just having a sticky beak and then three point turning to go back where they came from. Seriously, there seemed to be someone doing this every five minutes or less.

The beach and the points were beautiful - no pics though as I forgot to carry the camera, but here are a few from our visit in 2007 and they will do as the place hasn't changed.

This was our camp then. Shady and right on the beach.

The tide is out and Karen decided to take a walk.

These are pictures of the points. Pretty eh?

Back to this year though and on one walk through the bush we came across a felled tree growing these fungi.  Not quite as impressively neon bright as those we found in Tassie, but cool all the same.

Tin Can Bay

Tin Can Bay - people rave about this place (I am thinking of you Marnie), but I fail to see quite why. It is a pleasant enough river/beach side town, but it isn't anything particularly exceptional.

The one big drawcard is the dolphin feeding and that is indeed good to see.

Here is a pic of Karen with a 2.7 metre Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin called "Mystique". I don't think anyone could deny that there is a certain magic when it comes to dolphins.

Where there are free fish being handed out you'll also find these little bludgers - cormorants. Quite surprising that we didn't have pelicans around too.

The biggest down side of Tin Can Bay were the sand flies though - vicious and numerous. They forced us inside as soon as dusk fell.

Sunshine Coast

Well, we made it as far as Mooloolaba and once again we can see why Oneputt found the place so nice to live in. It is a gorgeous town and even though it continues to be developed it still retains something of that old welcome and comfortable feel.

We are marking time here right now, waiting for a couple of little niggles with our new van to be resolved. The microwave doesn't work (it lights up and spins round but no microwaves are emitted) and the little gas gauge on the fridge (the one with the red line that moves across into the green area when the fridge is working on gas) doesn't work although it still cools on gas so it will be a minor gauge or wiring issue. The long weekend has complicated things there, but we aren't in a hurry.

Mooloolaba - We didn't expect to see quite so many dogs although they have all been walked on leashes and have been well behaved, and it has been amazing to see that so many of them have been Staffordshire Bull Terriers - there is almost a plague of them!

All in all though, it is a pleasant time here and the weather has been exceptionally kind to us with 27 degree days of uninterrupted sunshine - you can see how this looks from the photos below:

The surfers were also enjoying the conditions, and the surf life savers were also putting on a bit of a show.

Cool eh?

Brisbane

We have been in SE Queensland for about 10 days now and it has been fun catching up with old friends and rellies.

Here's a picture of us with a couple of our friends, Laura and Julie. Yep - lucky bloke eh?

We have also spent time with Jo and Ron and Shane (thanks for dinner guys) as well and my brother and SIL (Jim and Sandie) who have been putting us up while we searched for and bought a caravan to replace the HTC, and here it is:

Yeah - "Bilby" is a stupid name and it doesn't have the clearance or suspension travel that featured on the HTC, but it DOES have a shower/toilet, a hot water system, air conditioning, a microwave and a heap more space than the HTC. In the end, we found that our little 11ft long and 6'6" wide HTC was just too cramped for log trips and we wanted a bit more comfort.

The indoor loo will be one of the biggest aids as it will make Karen's night time comfort stops much easier.

Anyway, that's about it for Brissie. Heading off tomorrow!

For all those people we didn't manage to get around to seeing, our apologies, but we just needed to get the purchase done and then to head off and get away from the big city!

One other noteworthy thing was our trip out to Moogerah Dam. We had a beaut day out there and while we were walking around we found a large python looking for somewhere quiet to digest its meal.

When I say "big" I mean that this python was around 2.5 metres long, so no monster, but big enough.