Dingo Beach and Hydeaway Bay

I don't normally do a post for a day trip, but oh, what a glorious place. If you were looking for a perfect getaway spot, I think this is it. We drove down from Bowen, and it took us about an hour, although it would have been closer if there was a direct road.

Dingo Beach is a tiny town that was showing signs of storm damage, with quite a few tarps on rooves. Sadly, no caravan park, but a lovely beach with islands off shore. There was even a turtle swimming about through the no longer enclosed swimming enclosure.

Hydeaway Bay was a fair drive away, with a caravan park, but less pretty beach.  Our goal was past the far end of 'town' (lots of houses, no discernable shop), along a 2.8km dirt track - Montes resort.

Really a fancy name for a very nice restaurant with spectacular views/beach and a few self-contained cabins. I would love to stay here!

We had a lovely lunch on the deck, beside the ocean.

We had a swim and walked along the beach to the next door resort (Gloucester resort, I think,  after the huge mountainous island just offshore.

A perfect day.

Bowen

Bowen was hit badly by cyclone Debbie just a few months ago, but it has recovered well and we spent a couple of peaceful days here. The park we stayed in at Queens beach was lovely, with hedges between sites and still quite a lot of trees.

We had been told that there was great snorkeling at Horseshoe Bay, and we spent a lovely few hours here, clambering on the rocks and swimming, but the tide was too high to really get to the good snorkeling sites. But such a glorious bay and perfect day.  Foolishly, I left my trusty phone camera in the car, so I had to go back on a less perfect day for photos.

While we were there, we heard people talking about the North Head Island lighthouse walk, only possible on the very lowest low tides of the year, and by chance, that was the day we were there.  Naturally it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. While we waited for the tide to get low enough we had a look from the Flagstaff Hill lookout. The info centre and cafe were still closed after Debbie, but the view was still there :-)

Our goal!

The walk over was a leisurely stroll through ankle deep water, pausing to admire the huge starfish and slugs. Poor Ben was almost apoplectic when he saw people picking up the sea creatures, and wanted big signs on the beach to tell them to leave sea creatures where they were.

We then climbed up to the lighthouse, which had just had a new coast of paint, before wandering back across the island and along the sandbar back to the main land.

Back at Horseshoe Bay on a different day, we climbed the hill to a lookout over the bay.  We could see the contentious port at Abbot point from the hill, in the perfectly blue water.

We also did a day trip to Dingo Beach and Hydeaway bay, but I have so many photos that deserves a post of its own.

Townsville and Magnetic Island

Last year we visited Townsville, and, while we enjoyed the Reef HQ and museum, we didn't enjoy Townsville and hadn't planned to return. However I really wanted to go to Magnetic Island, so we had to stay there. This time we chose a caravan park at Rowes beach, and it was such a good decision.

We are now firm believers that the park you stay in has a huge influence on how you feel about a place.  We explored the Rockpool, had a lovely lunch and have decided Townsville is much nicer than we had previously thought.

Our day trip to Magnetic Island was brilliant!

The ferry over is only 25 minutes, and we bought an all day bus pass so we could check out several of the beaches. There are four small towns on the island, and a large primary school (students catch the ferry to highschool). Sadly, while there is a car ferry, there is no caravan park.

We spent most of our day at Alma bay,  as we stopped there on our way up to Horseshoe Bay, and then returned there in the afternoon. Such a glorious place, sheltered by the massive rocks on either side.

Horseshoe Bay is also gorgeous.

Back at Alma Bay, we swam and saw lots of fish. There are snorkle trails on the island, but we had decided not to bring all our gear because of the logistics of carting it on and off buses all day. Next time!!! I would love to stay on the island for a few days.

Cairns - again

Yes, we went back to Cairns, and the glorious weather we had in Palm Cove continued.

This time we spent most of our time just chilling at the Coconut, in one of its lovely pools, or just relaxing and enjoying the holiday atmosphere. Ben had a ball in the water park and on the water slide and managed to find a few kids to play with, but is really missing his friends.

We did go and swim at the Cairns foreshore pool, which has a gorgeous location.

Palm Cove

Palm Cove is a lovely town, or maybe suburb of Cairns, we aren't quite sure. It is so beautiful we were determined to stay here for a week, and booked way back in January. It also has a patrolled swimming beach, with lifesavers to watch for crocodiles.

Sadly, the caravan park really spoilt it for us, with overly small sites jammed far too close together. We set up our van about a foot inside our non-door side (which would be very close in most parks), but that meant our annex ropes were in the next site. Which was ok with the first occupant of the next site, but we were very conscious of it with the next occupants.

There was also an aura of grumpiness from the regulars, who come every year and expect 'their' sites, and were very cross with the poor new managers.  Ugh. Luckily we also met some absolutely lovely, friendly people, which made it rather less dreadful.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, ate some delicious meals, and had a lovely day with James before he went back to Canberra. We visited the Cairns Cairns, which is an amazing headland covered with rock cairns. Naturally the boys had to add to the collection.

James' 5.30am flight let us watch the sunrise on the beach on our return from the airport, and the crazy lifesavers swimming in the dawn light. I thought there were crocodiles out there?

Cooktown

We squelched onwards to Cooktown, packing up in the rain, marveling at the change in terrain as we drove inland on the highway, and then the return to rainforest near the coast. Naturally it was raining when we arrived, so we set up in the rain again. The park was lovely, with lots of trees and many birds. It also had a very nice, if not very warm pool.

One of the most notable things was the change in the types of rigs being driven by the park patrons. Less nomads with big rigs, and way more camper trailers and roof top tents, on serious 4WD vehicles, many of which were deeply coated in red dirt that wasn't washing off in the rain. This is a jump off point for the Cape, and a return point as well. 'Going to the top' was a common goal here. But Cooktown was as far as we were going - we aren't equipped for that sort of terrain.

Cooktown is, of course, where Captain Cook spent 48 days repairing the Endeavour after it hit the reef.  So there are plenty of memorials to this event.

The concrete steps on the left were built for Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1973.

There is an amazing view from Grassy Hill, where Cook spent hours trying to search out a path back to outside the reef.

Apparently, when it is sunny, you can see the reef from up here. But, sadly, it wasn't :-)

But the grey weather is great for photography!

We visited the Botanic Gardens, which are some of the oldest in Australia.  From there we wandered down a path to Finch Bay, which was quite stunning, with big smooth boulders. We sheltered under an overhang with a couple who turned out to be from Canberra until the rain eased before heading back up the hill.

We also visited the Museum which had accounts from both Cook and Banks, and the Indigenous people about their meetings, which showed the cultural misunderstandings arising on this first contact. There was also a great deal of history of Cooktown, and the Palmer River Goldrush, which was very interesting.

On our last day we finally saw the sun!  We drove to Quarantine bay and enjoyed a walk on the beach, keeping a wary eye out for crocodiles, not that we saw any!

Atherton

After we farewelled James, we headed off to Atherton, which is only a short, but steep and windy, drive up the ranges. Naturally, it was raining.

We set up camp in a fine drizzle and organised ourselves onto a tour of the Bat Hospital. This was a fantastic opportunity to see some special little bat species.

Many are released from the hospital each year, but some are so badly injured they would not survive and remain in the hospital, which is entirely staffed by volunteers.

We also saw some birds freeloading from the fruitbats' enclosure and were told they were a female rifle bird and a Maclays honeyeater. I'm going to have to get some binoculars again :-)

The following day we went to the Nerada Tea plantation, viewed the factory and enjoyed a Devonshire tea.

The highlight of this visit was the excellent views of a adult and juvenile Lumholtz tree kangaroo, who were able to be seen from our table. Sadly they were too high up for a photo.

We drove to Lake Eacham, and decided to take the 3km walk around it. It was lucky we took our raincoats, but we missed most of the rain :-)

No visit to Atherton would be complete without checking out the local produce, and we went to Gallo's cheese and chocolate factory. We had a tasting plate of cheese - so much cheese! We didn't really need dinner that night.