Besides, I had a little spare time on my hands. My only near term deadline occurs the following Monday afternoon, 18th April – 5½ days' time – when Ellen's in Mackay QLD .. some 740 km [460 mi] – an easy 2-days' ride – up the Bruce Highway from Hervey Bay.
Away from Hervey Bay - the aussie wheat fields are now long gone .. and I find that I'm riding through endless acres of Sugar Cane plantations instead.
1770's neighbouring town of Agnes Waters serves as my base for the night - a sleepy little village with a great tavern (and drive-in bottle shop) at the top of the hill overlooking the settlement. Both places are idyllic locations for a family-orientated beach holiday.
Towards sunset (occurs 17:40 EST) I made the short ride of about 7 km [4½ mi] to 1770 .. and then strolled out to the headland, through bush teeming with wildlife. Some species of butterflies as big as small birds.
The time was precisely 17:37 when I snapped this picture, looking westwards through the bush palm on 1770's headland.
.. where I stopped and enjoyed an 'all in' cooked brekky that was slightly different, but every bit as good (in its own way) as the one I had served-up down in Noosa Heads, but at AU$13 - including a whopping great mug of double-shot flat white coffee - it worked out at only 40% of the cost of the Noosa one. I was the whopping mug down in Noosa, of course!
Fisherman's Beach, Emu Park - where this small pier was opened in 1924.
Emu Park is probably most famous for its Singing Ship Monument
But it's not a ship and it doesn't sing!
Tuesday 19th
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Quite a bit of development has occurred in and around Airlie Beach since my last week-long visit that took place exactly 17 years ago (April 1994). The town was still quite sleepy back in those days; now it abounds with tourists .. and especially backpackers.
and just generally 'hang out'.
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With basically only one main street, apart from eat, there's really not much to do in Airlie unless you're prepared to spend money on one of the Reef pontoon trips and/or the island sailing tours, which I know are more-often-than-not quite wonderful .. but expensive.
[Montage]
And my word, there is fierce competition from the tour operators - and their multitudinous high and low street agents - for your business.
We just didn't want to take part. We weren't looking for a Whitsunday's 'formula' holiday. I had 'done' the Reef and sailing island tours back in '94 in any case .. and Ellen seemed indifferent to the idea.
All we really wanted was (a) some poolside peace and quiet; with (b) the odd sip of grog and (c) tasty barbecued tucker.
I'm pleased to say that we enjoyed plenty of all three at our nicely appointed apartment.
:-) :-)
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Wednesday 20th
On Wednesday-20th we scooted northbound on a reconnaissance mission to inspect what else the area had to offer.
After around 60 km [37 mi] we ended up at Hydeaway Bay.
When the asphalt ran out we carried on. A bit of dirt riding [of approx 2-3 km] into the bush, eventually brought us to idyllic and comparatively quiet and uncrowded Gloucester Point ..
.. nice find! This is where we'll head for when our 3-day R&R stopover at Airlie concludes on Friday morning (22nd).
The weather is definitely settling down now .. and so it's time to break out the camping gear again, which has been gathering too much dust since last it was in used back in Newcastle NSW.
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Friday 22nd
We exit Airlie – and then headed straight for Dingo Beach on Gloucester Point.
A beautiful location .. BUT the local pub there was closed for the Good Friday Easter holiday.
No pub grub for us tonight then .. :-(
Just around the corner (well, about 6 km actually) from Dingo Beach, we immediately established common ground with our hosts, Paul & Roz Willcocks at the Hydeaway Bay campsite, as they had successfully undertaken a 9-month overland motorcycle trip from London to Katmandu, Nepal, back in the late 1980s. They spoilt us a bit by allocating one of the best pitches on the whole campsite .. right under a pair of shady trees. Gave us a couple of chairs to sit on too .. :-)
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Saturday 23rd
Gloucester Bay and the Gregory River is surely as good a place as anywhere to go on a jetski safari. Let's Go!
'Huh?'
.. as we get our safety briefing - complete in our Lycra 'stinger' suits that provide a barrier between skin and some nasty marine life, like the notoriously dangerous stinging 'box' jellyfish.
Down to the jetskis themselves, which are high performance 2009 model Kawasaki STX-15F. Completely ungoverned and unrestricted, they're allegedly capable of speeds up to 100 km/h (63 mph)
We get the operating instructions ..
.. and we're off!
We're all a bit nervous at first - until you get the hang of it.
[notice the camera's water-protective plastic housing on the right-hand side of the pic.]
We only saw a little wildlife - but no crocs whatsoever .. :-( - but the fun on the trip was non-stop for three hours.
We touched speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph). The acceleration capability of these machines is awesome .. it nearly pulls your arms out of their sockets if you open the throttle wide; the response from the four-stroke, 1,498cc (160 hp) engine is instantaneous.
By the end of it all we were shattered. But it was a totally exhilarating experience.
I would have liked to have added some video footage; but Ellen lost her own camera overboard whilst attempting some still photo shots due to the violent crashing and banging .. so I thought it best not to hand her my camera!
Final group shot: and needless to say, Ellen's and my participation takes the average age of our little party of eight up from around 23 to 45'ish!
Summary: A great way to spend an afternoon in tropical northern Queensland.
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Sunday 24th
Breakfast at the Dingo Beach pub.
You know you're in another place and doing something different .. when on the way to the pub you see a troop of wild Big Red Kangaroos along the roadside at half past seven in the morning!
Back at the campsite after a yummy cooked brekky. A couple of hours are spent working on the bike .. and then we're on our way to Townsville, Australia's largest tropical city, some 275 km [171 mi] to the north.
We're bang-on schedule - and 'touching wood' - everything is still going exactly according to plan. Just three weeks to go. Our remaining time in Australia is disappearing far too quickly .. :-(
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Here's a link to Ellen's journal for the period 15th March -to- 22nd April: LINKY
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