Step 108 Airlie Beach – Clairview (free camp) 326 km's

Thursday 18^th August 
RIP Alfie. We'll miss you.

A quick drive down to Shute Harbour before heading off this morning. Shute Harbour is a few km's down a dead end road from Airlie, but it's a nice scenic drive.

Shute Harbour is a harbour. It has: a ferry terminal; loads of boats moored in the harbour; a hundred cars with (empty) boat trailers parked by the boat ramp; a motel that wouldn't look out of place in a 1950's American road movie and for no apparent reason a four storey car park. Pretty harbour though.

Our drive down the Bruce Highway is made more entertaining by the road signs that start appearing just after MacKay:

    3 hours to Rocky (Rockhampton)

    Still a long way to go kids

    How long to go Mum?

    How long to go Dad?

   Are we there yet?

Mind you I'm not sure how funny the signs would be if we were travelling with 4 kids (who could read).

We had originally planned to stop for the night at a little place called Armstrongs Beach. But having arrived there about 1:00pm and discovering it's a beach but not that attractive a beach and that the caravan park doesn't look that inviting. We decided to just have lunch and move on.

But you can launch your boat straight off the beach

It's quite popular with the duck set too

Our second choice is much better. For a start it's free. Secondly, it is right on the beach with ocean and island views from the windows of MM. Honestly some of these free camps are amazing.

Educational note: Clairview Beach is one of only three places between Cairns and Coolongatta where the Bruce Highway touches the coast. Funnily enough I said to Di this morning "this road isn't very coastal at the moment."

(afternoon TED)

Our "free" view

Special note 10:24pm:  lesson for today -  Do NOT park next to a train line

Step 107 Bowen – Airlie Beach 81 km's

Tuesday 16^th August.

After a quick phone call for Steve about a prospective job (no, I do NOT want to talk about it) we headed down to the beach at Horseshoe Bay. Very pleasant it was too. The bay is horseshoe shaped (how did these early explorers have the imagination to travel half way round the world without a map and yet completely lose that imagination when it came to naming things?)

Steve swam here
Well a bit to the right actually

Realising that we haven't actually had a swim in the ocean for a long while (more than 5,000 kilometres?) and given there were plenty of people in the water, Steve braved it and dived in. Not quite as warm as I was hoping but a lot warmer than Torquay (on a good day).

After an exhausting drive (81 km's) we arrived in Airlie Beach and checked into the Seabreeze CP for two nights. The park is currently being renovated and the amenities could do with a bit of work but they have a new swimming pool, the sites are a nice size, we managed to get one with a bit of shade, and it is nicely positioned. Just across the road from the pathway and boardwalk and with a view to the islands from the front gate.

Taking advantage of the pathway we headed off for a walk after lunch and ended up at the marina. 

There are a LOT of boats up this way. Yachts, motor yachts, small and big. A lot of money floating around out there. There seems to be some sort of sailing comp on at the moment and as we walked along quite a few of the racers were heading in to the docks. Hope there were multiple races because some of them were a long way behind the first ones we saw come in. 

Just to keep the sugar levels up for the walk we had a magnum ice cream each.

Wednesday 17^th August

Pottered around in the morning then a quick bit of retail therapy. Di finally convinced me to get a new pair of shorts. The two pairs I have been wearing the most I picked up in Phuket a few years ago (for $5 each) and they are both aging badly. One pair has the back pocket hanging off and (small) holes in the legs and the elastic in the other pair struggles to cope when I have too much weight in the pockets. Di reckons I am too old to be showing my jocks like a skater boy. Particularly since the jocks are Target not Calvin Klein.

In a burst of energy I took off in the afternoon for a walk along the board walk. 

If you take a photo directly into the sun it makes it look darker than it really is

This time I walked the 3 kilometers all the way to Airlies pool, which turns out to be a massive lagoon style swimming pool in the town itself. The pool must be 150 metres long and very well designed with a bridge across the middle, life guards and lots of “beautiful people”. This is definitely not a Grey Nomad hang out.

A brisk walk back, no ice cream today, and there was just enough time to kick back with a good book and wait for wine o'clock to arrive.

My day was then spoiled when I received an email update from the author of my (and Vicki's) favourite author Lee Child. Ordinarily I look forward to an email from my old mate Lee, with an update on when the next Jack Reacher book is being published. But today! What should have been brilliant news ie they are in pre-production for the first Reacher movie, is destroyed by the news that Tom Cruise has been cast as the hero, Jack Reacher. Now don't get me wrong, I actually love Tom Cruise's work. I have no problems with his couch performances and I cast no aspersions on any man's religion. Here's the problem, the character he is to portray, Jack Reacher, is 6 foot 5 and weighs 250lbs. He is a giant of a man. It is key in all the stories. Tom Cruise is 5 foot 7 and weighs no more than 160 lbs. It is a travesty, it is a crime against nature it is just plain wrong. The author has now gone on record as saying that Reacher's size is a "metaphor" for his power. I'm going on record to say the authors greed for Hollywood money is a methaphor for his gigantic cop out and he is severely annoying his fan base.

Proof readers note: Steve, stop hitting the keys so hard. Steve, breathe. It's only a book series, it's only a movie.

OK,I'm fine now. Let's move on. Airlie beach, very nice spot. Well worth a visit. Even more so if you own a multi million dollar yacht.

Step 106 Townsville – Bowen

Monday 15th August

Before hitting the highway we stopped off at Woolies for a bit of a shop and ended up chatting to a couple in the car park who had their own MM. Completely different layout inside though, which has given me some ideas for MM Mark II. In fact we ended up chatting for so long we all adjourned to the coffee shop and continued there. A very fortunate misunderstanding, for Di, when I ordered her “large” coffee. She ended up with a VERY large coffee, with 3 shots of espresso. She was certainly more bubbly and wide awake in the afternoon than she has been for awhile.

Heading out of town on the Bruce Highway we soon crossed the mighty Ross River. Home to Ross River fever. I immediately felt unwell, flu like symptoms, dizziness. But as Di pointed out I hadn't actually been outside MM anywhere in the area so I slowly began to feel better. Mind you even hypochondriacs do get sick and as Spike Milligan had carved on his tombstone “See, I told you I was sick”.

Another in the BIG collection
The Big Mango

Our stop for tonight is Bowen, it wasn't goig to be but that's as far as we could get after spending the morning chatting.

We had intended to call in to Bowen as Bowen mangoes always remind Di of her Aunty Jean who loves Bowen mangoes. We were surprised however to discover that Bowen is also famous for tomatoes and seafood. Amazing.

Educational note: Mangoes were introduced to Bowen in the 1800's from their native India. Apparently Australia was exporting horses to India at the time and the horse wranglers from India bought some mangoes over with them for morning tea. Today, the mango is the mostly widely consumed fresh fruit in the world. To be fair to apples, bananas and oranges, any fruit that is native to India is going to have a several billion people head start in the consumption race.

In another sign that this is peek season up here and that people from the South who can, do head North. There is no room at the Inn at the first two caravan parks that we call into. The third takes pity on us and put us on their “emergency site”. This turns out to be the side of the driveway up against the games room. Running our power cable across the driveway to plug into a power point on the outside of one of the apartments. Really should have got a photo of that. Oops.

Here's a photo of Bowen waterfront instead

Step 105 Mission Beach – Townsville (Rowes Bay) 247 km's

Sunday 14^th August

Drive out of town via South Mission beach this morning. Seems a little less touristy, but still a nice beach and great views out to the Dunk Island. Gotta love this Whitsunday setting.

South Mission Beach and Tully showing even more signs of Yasi damage. But again people seem to be getting on with it.

An occupational hazard on the Cassowary Coast
A speed cop cassowary attacking your car

Morning tea in Cardwell, right on the beach. FNQ has some VNB (Far North Queensalnd has some Very Nice Beaches).

Caught out today by the WA syndrome. That is, no Sunday trading. Luckily we still have plenty of packaged and tinned food that we have been carrying for the last 20,000 kilometres so we won't starve.

Apart from the storm damage from Yasi, there is a lot of kangaroo damage from cars. This would have to be the highest incidence of road kill we have seen on the trip so far. It's like the Kanagaroo killing fields.

Our lesson for today is: do NOT believe all the signs you see. Pulling up at the Rowe's Bay caravan park in Townsville the sign said no powered sites. Ha! We got one. So there.

Mind you the other signs were a little more worrying: “Lock up your valuables”; “Do not leave anything outside on your campsite; “Thieves love the tropics”. Followed by a lecture from the lady at check-in “do not leave anything outside your van at night”. I thought being named after my mate David Rowe this place would be a little more salubrious. Never mind we survived the night without getting robbed.

Apart from that, Townsville was very nice. After checking in, to our ocean view site, we went for a walk along the beach front and took in the views of Magnetic Island (or Maggie as we call her up here).

Don't know why the Loch Ness monster hunters haven't thought of this
Don't start hunting until the tide goes out

Monday 15^th August

There is a cultural festival in town this week, so we were asked to leave. No trailer trash please.

But before leaving Townsville we drove along the Strand. A beachfront boulevard that is far more attractive than Cairns

Proof readers note: Let it go Steve. We understand, you didn't like Cairns.

Good old MM then made it up the hill to the Castle Hill lookout. The view is just stunning. The road is just steep! Unfortunately there was no sign to say how high the lookout was but the 2.9 km drive was as steep as anything we have driven on. The locals however seem to consider it a challenge because there were loads of people walking or jogging up to the top (and back down). Most of the walkers were female and a lot were mum's pushing kids in prams. Nearly shamed me into attempting the walk myself, but not quite.

"Maggie"

Townsville town and Rowe Bay

Step 104 Cairns - Mission beach 159 km's

Friday 11^th August TED

Despite the fact that we were warned that we probably would not like Cairns it still managed to disappoint. Quite glad we didn't bother coming into town yesterday on the bus. It's just a big town, office buildings, shops, industrial estates and a very dodgy beach. The tide was out and it was just a mud flat. Amazing really when you consider the magnificent beaches either side of Cairns. To top it all off, apparently the 47 traffic lights we got stuck at on the way through the other day constitutes less than half the total number of traffic lights in town. Yep, we did get stuck at all of them. Not to mention at one point we turned right at a cross roads (after eventually getting the green light) and found ourselves at the boom gate for a pay to park car park. A sign beforehand would have been handy.

Anyway, that's enough about Cairns, move on. So we did.

Lots of roadworks on the way out of town on the highway and lots of traffic too. Not used to this anymore. We are also seeing a fair bit of building works as well, all part of the Yasi (cyclone) cleanup.

Yet another town that surprised us by being bigger than we expected is Innisfail. Didn't surprise us or excite us enough to stop though so we ended up stopping at a small park in the cane fields for lunch.

See, told you it was cane country
A sugar cane train

Loads of traffic, both ways today, and quite a lot of roadworks too. There's a lot of evidence of Cyclone Yasi through this area as well. Quite a few houses still with tarps over the roof, a few with dents and bruises. Some of the forest area looks very untidy as well where trees have been uprooted and blown over. But it looks like places are recovering on the whole.

Just before Mission Beach we did a fly by photo shoot of Clump Point jetty and beach. A lot of holiday houses there but no actual town by the look of it.

A quick tour of Mission Beach (really doesn't take long), a visit to the info centre and then we checked in to the Top Tourist right in town. A bit over budget but it's just across the road from the beach and we have scored a site with an ocean view. So after setting up we wandered across the road and had a walk along the beach

Wine o'clock and dinner outside tonight and life is good.

Life is then spoiled for Di as she applies for a job online. Trying not to get in her way Steve slid to the other side of the sun room/couch/bed and watched a movie.

Saturday 13^th August

Another relaxing morning in Paradise. A near personal best for Steve with a 45 minute trip to the amenities block. Fear not it was the social interaction again, not any serious stomach complaint. During one of the chats we were interrupted by a white bellied sea eagle flying overhead showing off his catch of the day. Not sure what the fish was that the eagle was carrying but a) it was quite large and b) it was quite dead.

Dragging ourselves away from MM we walked through the town. There's about 30 shops in all, 27 of which are either restaurants, cafes or bars. This is my kind of town.

While standing out the front of one of the bars checking out the menu and dreaming of the day when we can afford to eat in a restaurant again, a squeal from above attracted our attention. Not a sea eagle this time.  Looking up it was like a scene from the movie A Bridge Too Far as a dozen parachutists descended on the beach. Apparently tandem skydiving is an attraction up here. One that we obviously won't be taking part in.

Whoa. Pull the right toggle. Pull the right.

Phew, that's better

It's going to take more than a free night in a backpackers
to get me up there

After lunch we set off for the beach again but unfortunately it was a little windy so Di headed back to MM and Steve braved the elements and walked on.

“Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart.... and you'll never walk alone. You'll ne ever walk alone”.

Sorry don't know what came ove me there, suddenly breaking into the Liverpool FC theme song. Sorry El. At least I didn't break into the Frankston Pines SC theme song, very similar but the chorus is “you'll never walk again”. 

I digress.

The beach, allegedly is 14 kilometres long. I didn't make it all the way. But I did take the opportunity to indulge in some more photo magic.

Returning home triumphantly I was met by

snoring. 

Proof readers note: Shut up! I'm on holiday

At least Di woke up in time for wine o'clock. We didn't join in with the neighbourhood get together. Everybody here seems to know each other. It's a bit like the theme song from Cheers “everybody knows your name”.

A bit of a treat tonight roast pork chops and roast veges, including roast potatoes. Yum.

Another night of job hunting for Di another movie for Steve.

Step 103 Port Douglas – Cairns 77 km's

Wednesday 10^th August

Moving on today but touristing along the way. Starting with a very scenic drive along the coast.

There's that nervous smile again

The brochures have all made the “world famous” Skytrain sound appealling. Despite the fact that it is a 7.5 km cable car ride. We all know what cable cars mean don't we? That's right heights!

Ever the dedicated editor in chief, I have decided to squash my own (and Di's) fear of heights in order to provide a better insight into the region for you, our dedicated followers. As the tour motto goes: What could go wrong?

Despite the appalling signposting and directions we manage to find our way to the cable car terminal and a few deep breaths later we are on our way.

To be honest it's all very civilised and the views, right from the start are stunning. Heading up and away from the coast, in front is the rain forest and behind is Cairns and the Coral Sea.

There are two stops along the way to the end of the ride in Karunda.

The first is deep in the heart of the rain forest. As with the Daintree experience its all been very well done, with a boardwalk getting you up close and personal with the flora. No fauna on this walk.

Second stop: Barron Falls. I'm starting to wonder about the effort we put in to see Jim Jim Falls. This is the second falls in a row now where you are delivered to the viewing platform without a one hour rock climb. No that's not true, I wouldn't have missed Jim Jim for the world.

For some reason the scenic railway train reminded me of the movie Von Ryan's Express
Is it just me or does Frank Sinatra get further away from catching the train each time you watch it?

Back on the cable car and I am seriously wondering how they got the poles and cable in to build this thing. This is seriously dense forest and seriously steep hills.

Helicopters. That's my conclusion. Big helicopters.

We saw a lot of these particular trees
as we sat swinging in the breeze

I'm starting to think about that steepness and denseness of forest even more when the cable car grinds to a halt. Well there's no grinding, but it has stopped. Eventually an announcement comes over the speaker in the gondola (gondola, that's the technical name for the little bubble death trap we are swinging precariously in at the moment) “Don't panic, we know what's wrong. Our best people are working on rectifying the problem as we speak. We'll get back to you if it's going to take longer than we thought.” Oh well, I feel a lot better now. Not. Even after they repeated the message in six languages.

After what seems a long time, but is really only 5 or 6 minutes, we are on the move again and make it to the end of the cable at Karunda. 

 Maybe it's not actually the end of the cable, I think the cable loops around, but it's the end of the outward trip anyway.

Karunda is an old hippie haven that has become a bit of a tourist village. That means lots of arty farty shops, lots of coffee shops, restaurants and souvenir shops. But it's got a nice feel to it. Seems like everything feels good in the tropics. Well in the dry season anyway. Not sure I want to be here in the humidity of the wet.

It's a pleasant little spot though and we had a nice couple of hours strolling around and sitting down for lunch. Finishing off with an ice cream. More traditional flavours today of english toffee and indulgent chocolate.

Now that's how I like my croc's
small
and stuffed

Steve getting into the arty feel of the town
attempts another artistic shot

Australian country town
Irish Pub

 Relaxed and fed it was back on the cable car for the return journey. A little less exciting on the way back and we make it all the way without any unscheduled stops.

The drive through Cairns, or the outskirts anyway, is a not so pleasant reminder of city traffic. I lost count but I think there were 47 sets of traffic lights to get from one side of Cairns to the other (and we didn't go right into the CBD) . All of them were cleverly synchronised (as always) so that we caught everyone of them on red. Good job I am a relaxed kind of guy.

Not sure if it was the way we came in or what, but there was a distinct lack of supermarkets on the main road and as you will recall from the last blog the cupboard is a little bare. We ended up stopping at one that was in the DFO centre. Nervously, for me. But this being unemployed has changed our shopping habits and we just hit the supermarket and moved on.

Our stop for the next two nights is the Cairns Coconut Holiday resort, and its huuuuuge. It should have it's own postcode. Loads of caravan sites, loads of cabins, two swimming pools, tennis court, mini golf, outdoor picture screen, minimart, restaurant, even petrol pumps. All in the standard (for up here) tropical setting.

Given all our touristing today there's just enough time for wine o'clock, dinner and a quick read before the day is over.

Thursday 11^th August

Well the plan was to catch the bus into the city of Cairns today and have a look around, but:

• the park is so nice
• the front gate is such a long way away (to catch the bus)
• there's a swimming pool beckoning
• we can always check out the city on the way out of town tomorrow

So, the chosen sin for today is: sloth.

It's a victimless crime really. A bit of reading, a couple of phone calls, the swim, a soak in the spa where's the harm in that. Just to avoid any lingering guilt I got Di to have a look at seek.com for a job. There, we achieved something, but it kind of took the edge of the day for Di. Particularly since she actually put a job application in.

My goodness, wine o'clock already. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Gotta love the tropics