Red Rock Storm

We hope all our friends and neighbours in Red Rock are all right after that destructive storm. Fingers crossed that you are all safe and haven’t had much damage. Thoughts are with you. Thank you to Val who kindly looked in to check that all was ok in the Five Star Fibro and to Lesley who is sorting out a small problem caused by the inundation.

Airlie Beach

The There & Back Again Tour to FNQ

A picture-postcard day. Perfect weather. Not too hot, not too windy. We had decided to stay a few extra days to make up for the wet start we had here at Airlie. So we had our big reef splurge ~ the Panorama Tour with Air Whitsunday.

There were only four on the plane (plus the pilot) and we flew out to the Great Barrier Reef on a small sea plane. We landed on the water, transferred to a private semi submersible inside a coral ringed lagoon for some underwater viewing followed by snorkelling. Out in the middle of nowhere on the reef. Awesome! Then we returned to our seaplane and flew off for a picnic lunch on Whitehaven Beach - a long stretch of amazing, fine, white sand edged by aquamarine water.

I shall post a photo album soon! It was a great overall experience.

I fell in love with snorkelling in Maui ... and Alphie said that I HAD to snorkel the GBR to get the benchmark. Sadly our experience yesterday wasn’t up to his earlier memories or mine of Maui. Maybe the coral was suffering damage from Cyclone Yasi, but visibility wasn’t terrific, the coral wasn’t colourful and there were few fish.

And Alphie promises to post a blog entry from Cardwell ... where we hope to do some Barra fishing

Airlie Beach

This is a composite of the scenic road trip ... a lot of long, long open stretches of highway ... a lot of sugar cane ... and not much else. There were some cute, quaint country towns along the way ... but towing LardArse behind you inhibits the photographic opportunities!!!

The There & Back Again Tour to FNQ

We arrived here on Thursday after a drive of around 400km. The caravan park is on the outskirts of Airlie Beach on the way to Shute Harbour. As it is a holiday weekend for the Queen’s Birthday we decided to have a break from the travelling and catch up on a few maintenance things.

We have already had 2 trips to Bunnings.

I’ve done 2 loads of washing.

I’ve been to the supermarket twice.

And we have only been here two days.

No problem ... there isn’t much else to do as it is quite cold and it is raining. Ahhhhh! Cabin Fever ... who said it couldn’t get much better.

But is has been a chance to do some maintenance on this website and get it reposted.

And it has been a chance to do some reading ... finished off “The Last Werewolf” (I liked it Michael. I obviously have lower taste than Alphie!)

At least on the afternoon we arrived the sun was shining so we had a teasing taste of the stunning seascape of the Whitsunday Islands. Fingers crossed for more sunshine before we move on.

So that’s this blog up to date.

Marlborough

The There & Back Again Tour to FNQ

Did I say yesterday’s drive was a long haul ... today’s was longer! Around 480km.

Maccie is loving it!

We had another drive-through-no-need-to-unhitch site so there was little hassle at the end of the day and little hassle to start the next.

Marlborough is a flyspeck on the map. As with most little towns the highway now bypasses it. The campground was dry and dusty and the amenities a bit on the sparse side. The motel attached had a Restaurant but it was more an old 60’s style Dining Room where we enjoyed prawn cutlets and steak dianne. Not saying that we would recommend it to fellow travellers ... but we loved it.

Maryborough

The There & Back Again Tour to FNQ

A long drive ... we crossed the border into Queensland, through the Gold Coast, through Brisbane, through the Sunshine Coast and on to Maryborough. A long haul ... around 460km. Alphie has done all the driving so far ... hey, why mess with perfection.

Just before we reached Maryborough the arm of my glasses suddenly went “boing” ... broken beyond repair. Cool! I needed that!

We only had an overnighter in Maryborough on a site where we didn’t have to unhitch the van. We think our plan is to head to the Far North rather quickly, taking note of where we would like to stay on our return trip (so if you are reading this and have any campground favourites then please Add A Comment).

We plan to stop at Poona on the coast a short distance from Maryborough on our return. Maryborough really deserves more time - such beautiful old houses!

Traffic noise got the better of a good night’s sleep again.