Last weekend I decided that, with now limited time left, I would head straight to the Whitsundays to allow me a decent amount of time there. Then, the plan was to visit just three more places further north en route to Cairns, namely Magnetic Island, Hinchinbrook Island and Mission Beach. The overriding plan was to have a relaxed last three weeks before heading back to Sydney.
With all of that in mind I put in a good few hundred K's to Airlie Beach. On the way I travelled through "Beef Country", "Sugar Cane Country" and "Rum Country"! Rockhampton, the Beef Capital, was an interesting stop off point complete with statues of famous beef cattle. The Botanic Gardens were a pleasant find...
A typical Queensland House, on stilts to catch the breeze with a nice shady palm...
Airlie Beach is the mainland gateway to the Whitsunday Islands; a name I've always thought sounded so exotic! It's a small, one-main-street, town focussed on the myriad ways of getting tourists to part with money and explore the islands. Everything from cheap-alcohol-focussed backpacker boats gong to Hamilton island to seaplanes taking Russians to the $1000 per night, Hayman Island. The Whitsundays are a bit down on their luck at the moment with 7 islands recently being mothballed, going bust or being put on the market. The exceptionally strong Aussie dollar is being blamed for the marked drop off in tourism in the last couple of years.
Airlie is a pleasant place but it's the first I've been to so far that has a population of European backpackers far outweighing anyone else. It's a bit annoying to be honest!
Nevertheless it is a beautiful spot and the Coral Sea is the most dazzling aquamarine colour (not that it shows up in photo's)...
I spent a couple of very relaxed days exploring the environs and researching what tours to join.
Cedar Creek Falls is a great little spot for being lazy, 20 minutes from Airlie
And Conway Beach, also nearby, was all to myself!
As time passed, the weather deteriorated. It is, to be fair, still the back end of the wet season and I'm told that some years there is a "sting in the tail of the season". This will be one of those years then...
At first it got really cloudy. I went to the Marina to book a tour and just happened to see plenty of people getting off the incoming tour of that day looking rather green and unhappy. Pretty choppy out there apparently and difficult to see anything. With that in mind I changed plans and booked onto a day's fishing charter... Might as well be doing something exciting whilst out on the water!
The blanket of cloud developed...
And by the next day it was raining, hard! The fishing day was actually great fun. 5 of us all caught lots although the best catch went to Marcello who landed a 50-60lb Great Trevally (GT). We were also treated to watching a Sea Eagle fishing within 2-3m of the boat. Amazing!
Back on dry land I checked out various weather reports and spoke to a few people to gauge what was unfolding.
In brief, a monsoonal trough had moved in and all reports showed heavy rain for weeks with no prospect of seeing sky in that time. These weren't downpours followed by sunshine to dry out, just rain!
No matter how keen I was to see any particular place, I was more keen to not spend the last couple of weeks in relentless, miserable monsoon rains confined to the back of a van! The reports were even worse the further north I looked so my best bet was to retreat south to a longer term forecast of "sunshine and some showers" which sounded a whole heap better.
So after having a long chat to myself to make sure I wasn't being crazy, I stocked up on crisps, coke and Tim Tams, and drove 900 km back south! About ten hours, easy.
I've concluded over these months that decision (even if it proves to be not the best) is far better than indecision. Also, that if you are to have regrets it is much, much better to regret what you did over regretting not doing something. after around 400km the crazy, super-sized monsoon raindrops eased and the clouds began losing their menacing blackness for something a little fairer. Another couple of hundred km's and there was a chink in the cloud with blue sky! I was so pleased to see it and felt vindicated.
Yesterday was, as forecast back down here, sometimes sunny and sometimes raining ("normal" rain!) and it felt good to be out of the cycle of getting out of the van in the morning in torrential rain, not being able to cook, sit outside etc and to retreat into the van at night with everything soaked... Miserable!
So, after a couple of nights in a motel drying out, I'm now just going to relax back here in Hervey Bay and enjoy the intermittent sunshine! A further twist is that there is some heavy rain to come here. The upside is that the 'Heavy Rain' where I was, has developed into several weather warnings with the possibility of a cyclone developing about Cairns. Joy. Currently all roads 'about Cairns' are closed due to flooding and the rainfall quantities up there and in the Whitsundays are making regular news bulletins. I'm pleased I decided to leave when I did.
Let's hope it's all moved on by the time I have to make my way to Cairns which is where I've got a planned trip to the Great Barrier Reef, have to return the van, and have a flight booked back to Sydney.
All good fun! Anyway, must dash as I appear to have an ant infestation in the van to deal with...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Back in Hervey Bay!
Where is the mailbox located? Couldn't find it on my trip.
ReplyDelete