A final few hundred km up the coast to our northernmost point on this trip; Townsville, calling at Airlie Beach on the way to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef.  

Day 23 – Chilling at Airlie Beach

We had a leisurely departure from the cabin and a final chat to Dianne.  Plenty of time for another game of Settlements of Catan (Aiden got this one which seemed pretty neat).  Dianne was telling us about the jellyfish which hang off the coast for much of the year in these northern waters.  It seems that we won’t be swimming in the sea at Airlie Beach as we’re in jellyfish season now apparently.  Because of this most the towns have their own lagoons for swimming.  The one at Airlie Beach looks nice so we’re heading there today as its going to be a hot one (at least 30 degrees). 

We followed the road back down out of the hills and through the valley (stopping for some hot snacks in the local store including Chiko Rolls – some sort of large spring roll thing).  The sugar cane continued, interspersed with forest as we headed across country back to the Bruce Highway.  The grasses are still brown here, even though the trees are lush and green – I guess they have access to deeper water sources.

We headed straight for the beach when we arrived at Airlie.  One of the quieter ones to the north. 

As usual they have loos, a playground and covered picnic areas.  This one also comes with a sea view and an outdoor gym, which we of course made use of!  After the picnic lunch we took a wander on the beach before heading to The Lagoon. 

Airlie Beach is probably the most touristy place we’ve been to so far.  But it was actually ok.  The facilities are great, with massive playgrounds and a huge double outdoor pool which is beautifully landscaped.  There is reasonably priced parking, a whole load of shops and places to book tours.  Useful when we’d decided we wanted to buy Evie some swimming shorts.  She always ends up wearing her rash vest over her cossie for warmth or sun protection and Aiden is so much more covered with his shorts to his knees.  We also lost her sunglasses within the first few days of Australia so touristy shops were just what we needed.  We headed there after a swim in The Lagoon. 

Another little cabin for the night, surrounded by palm trees.  Cute. 

Bird species seen: 136

Day 24 – Surely free sailing at Airlie Beach sounds too good to be true!?

The kids were up in the morning to swim in at the pool on the complex.  Despite the sun shining and the day being warm, at 10am the pool water was not!  Cue a very brief swim before playing outside the pool.  Chris and I chilled and caught up by the side.  We made use of the outdoor cooking facilities by having a BBQ lunch before heading to the Whitsundays Sailing Club in the early afternoon.  I had read online that anyone can turn up on a Wednesday between about 2 and 3 and you may get taken out on someone’s sail boat as an extra hand.  After messaging to confirm we decided to give it a shot seeing as we’d be nearby on the Wednesday.  It was such a beautiful evening to be out on the water so we turned up feeling very excited.

Unfortunately for us, loads of people had the same idea as us and only one boat came in.  They didn’t want kids so we didn’t get to have a free go at sailing.  It had sounded a little too good to be true.  We spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to the other people who had turned up (mostly other Europeans) whilst the kids played in a pretty epic new playground outside before heading back to the cabin for more pool time now that the pool had heated a little in the sun.

Bird species seen: 136

Day 25 – Snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef in the Whitsunday Islands

An early wake up this morning as we had to be at the marina for 7am to catch the sailboat Illusions 2 for our snorkelling tour out to the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef.  A lot of hours went into picking which tour (there are loads of providers who take people out there as Whitehaven beach is one of the major Aussie tourist draws; as is the Great Barrier Reef).  We chose this tour based on price, the double snorkel spot, because it was a small family run boat (owned by a couple) and because it was a sailing boat and we have never been on one before.  The only problem with sailing boats is that they are slower so you can’t fit a double snorkel and Whitehaven beach in so we’d had to pick, world famous white sand beach or fish spotting.  Not that gripped by the idea of being dropped off on a beach with no shelter for two hours with a load of other people, even if it is one of the most beautiful and has a very high proportion of silica, we chose the fish.

Once again the tour was a small one, with only 5 other people, who were all lovely.  Joshua was from a farm in Mudgee, which we drove through a couple of weeks ago.  It was interesting to hear his tales of catching hundreds of rabbits to sell and supplement the farm income.  Unfortunately his family are some of those hit by the droughts out there.  Normally they drink their rainwater, which collects in a huge tank.  They have been buying water in for months now though which is very expensive.  Where they used to have hundreds of cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens there are now only 60 cattle left as the land cannot support more.  All of their stock built up over years has had to be sold off cheap as they make no profit on it by the time they provide it with water!  If the drought continues they will lose the final cattle and the farm will be over.  Very sad.  It’s the worst drought they’ve ever experienced. 

Anyway, the boat was a lovely catamaran, a proper sailing boat rather than a commercial vessel with a little lounge, kitchen and bedrooms.  We headed out of the harbour and tried to set sail, but it wasn’t to be.  There have been a couple of windless days (explaining why there were so few sailing boats out yesterday at the sailing club).  The main sail was take down and we continued partially under motor (the other two sails were still providing some forwards motion). The speed was chilled and the catamaran very stable so we could roam about the boat, chatting and relaxing as the Whitsundays grew on the horizon. 

We were headed to the northern-most island of the 74 islands to Blue Pearl Bay.  On the dingy to the beach Joseph (our skipper) was explaining that this bay is special as it was hit hard by cyclone Debbie a couple of years ago.  The island was flattened with no leaves remaining on the trees, there were a number of rockfalls into the ocean and the waves destroyed the corals off the shore.  Totally destroyed then – the beach is now made up of dead coral.  What’s exciting about this place is that after just a couple of years it is regrowing well.  Some coral are over a foot tall and the fish are still here breeding.  We had an hour and a half here to play on the beach, snorkel over the recovering corals and swim.  I was surprised by the number of large fish as it didn’t seem that there was much food for them.  There was massive diversity here too – I must have clocked over 40 species.  And some of them were very close to the surface so we got to swim as part of a shoal which is always nice😊

After her bad experiences in Costa Rica, Evie did well and managed to get in and join us. Her squeals when she’s really excited will never get old!  The kids went back to shore after a while so Chris and I stayed out a little longer and then I went for a swim as I was freezing.  In hindsight, using a float and fins meant I didn’t have to swim which was a bad idea – movement keeps you warm! 

Lots of beautiful fish later we clambered about on the rocks onshore and reboarded for another 30 minutes to “one foot beach”.  So called because at high tide there’s so little sand left (it’s the end of a spit) that you have to stand on one leg!  This area is more sandy and there are turtles here.  We saw one off the boat heading in to prove the point right on cue!  Unfortunately Evie was not loving the cold here, our stinger suits were not quite dry and so the sea breeze on this exposed beach was pretty chilling.  I tried getting her in the sea but she said it was too cold and went back to shore.  The waves coming in didn’t help and she got herself pretty worked up ☹.  The water was not as clear here with the stirred up sand and whilst others saw some turtles on the bottom I was a bit behind and saw none.  Nothing could surpass my experience with them in Costa Rica though and I was just glad that Chris had seen one as he missed out last year.  He was pretty happy. 

Back on board to dry and change and enjoy a salad buffet whilst we sailed back to shore, warmed by the afternoon sun.  From the front of the boat we could see flying fish leaping out of the water away from the boat.  Very relaxing. 

Driving the couple of hours to Townsville in the dark we saw a number of fires off to the right of the road, scarily close to the town of Ayr.  One was only a hundred metres away and smoke was across the road (it was a small fire though so we weren’t too worried)!  Then as we were approaching Townsville there was a hill with smouldering fires on it which reached right down to the roadside!  Crikey!  Flames were barely a foot high and very patchy but only a few metres away!  There are signs along the highway telling you if it’s open.  We wondered if this stretch had been closed earlier… (we later found out that these were controlled burnings to create fire breaks in case of a proper fire).

We arrived in the dark in Townsville and had to find our home for the night – a converted train carriage in a back garden.  As it was dark we knocked on the door first rather than sneaking around the back in the dark!  We were greeted first by the lovely Shelby who will be entertaining the kids I’m sure (she’s their dog). 

Our train carriage is very cute and cosy.  Outdoor toilet though…

Worldschooling:

Naiomi and Joseph obviously have a love of the ocean and it’s wildlife and were fonts of information about the area and wildlife, happy to answer any questions the kids had so they must have learned something!  For Evie just seeing the coral on the reef and the variety of fish should have been pretty educational.

Bird species seen: 137 

Day 26 – Chilling out in Townsville at the Common

So the outdoor toilet is definitely not for everyone!  In the dark you walk outside and can’t see the floor at all, you just walk forwards until the sensor light come on.  As it’s a sensor it goes off pretty quick and plunges you into darkness until you wave your arms around.  Then on the way back out you have to find the door back into the carriage.  Certainly wakes you up a bit!

We’re all really tired today, a day on the sea is usually tiring but we were really lack lustre.  Perhaps it’s a culmination of all of the travel to this point.  The others would happily have hung around the train carriage all day playing with Shelby the perfect dog.  She is literally faultless (if you don’t have dog allergies); quiet, fun to play with, very affectionate, obedient and she even poos at the side of the garden.  If I got a dog it would be a Shelby.  Aiden loved her.  Evie, unfortunately, also seems to be allergic – sorry for the bad genes Evie! 

Anyway, I was determined that we’d get out and do some exploring seeing as we’d cancelled the original plan for the day of heading to Magnetic Island for the day to do some more snorkelling.  It was hot and we didn’t get out as early in the morning as planned so when we arrived at the Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park to the north of town we walked a short way down to the beach in the sun to view Magnetic Island across the sea and decided that whatever we did it needed to be under trees!  How are we going to cope in SE Asia??  I’m pinning my hopes on us acclimatising.  By us I mean Evie and I.  We wilt in the heat…

Unexpectedly, this park includes an old quarantine hospital which is now a museum.  It was set up to be used to receive boats suspected of harbouring an illness as a form of quarantine area.  You would be ported here, all belongings steam cleaned and you would be segregated until you had been cleared.  There are still the massive pressurised drums which were used to steam clean all the belongings of the people coming in off the boats.  Not everything survived the cleaning process so people would have lost many of their belongings in the process.  Luckily this hospital was rarely required in the end.

After looking at the walk from here, which headed out along a shadeless path along the coast, we got back in the car to try the Forest trail further back with the theory that it would be more shady, and to head to the bird hides.  From the main road we effectively undertook a driving bird safari, as the road was unpaved so we had to drive slowly to the hides which meant we could look for birds on the way, and stop at the couple of lookouts over the wetland lakes. 

We saw a lot of herons and some cranes and storks here, and Evie was able to stay in the car.  The walk to the hides was hot, but largely shady.  Unfortunately all the birds were on the other side of the wetland area, but we did see these frogs stacking up on the walls.

After our outdoor exertions we headed to the Strand on the seafront of Townsville, which was very different to Airlie Beach.  Everything here feels more like it’s for the locals, rather than tourists.  There’s still a lagoon to swim in (as the water’s not safe for much of the year due to jellyfish), a playground and a handful of café’s.  We popped into one for some lunch, which was delicious and had more than enough for us to take away for lunch the next day. 

On the way back we could see the cliffs of Castle Hill rising in front of us so we had to go for a drive to the top to check out the view. 

Another pit stop on the way home to climb these amazing trees!

Bird species seen: 146

Day 27 – ReefHQ Aquarium and moving on to Melbourne

Our last day in the north.  Our lovely hosts had no-one else in the train carriage that day so they said we could stay until our flight that evening 😊. 

As a treat to the kids we decided to go to the ReefHQ Aquarium in the town centre.  We took advantage of the free parking at The Strand and walked up the sea front through the memorial garden which has walls with plaques for every serviceman who has died since the war.  A different way of doing things but it’s nice to see those who served and survived also remembered and appreciated. 

The aquarium is essentially a massive 2.5 million litre tank with over 150 species of fish (including some big predatory fish and some sharks) and 120 species of coral in it.  The intention is to replicate the reef on land. 

There are other small tanks with local fish species from the reef and they do a mermaid show in the tank to the kids disgust!  Haha – we left the rest of the patrons watching this whilst we headed around the rest uninterrupted 😊.  There are a couple of other talks during the day, we timed it right for the turtle talk.  This was really interesting and heartbreaking when they covered the plight of the turtles.  Whilst there are many threats like plastics, nets and boats their main threat is actually climate change.  The sex of the turtles is determined by the sand temperature when the eggs are developing.  If the sands are warmer then there are more females (hot chicks, cool dudes).  With global temperatures rising the male to female ratio has changed from about 1:6 male to female hatchlings to 1:116!  The males will simply not be able to meet and mate with all the females so many will not breed.  Not good for a species that can’t breed until they are 30 years old.  The outlook is not good.

There’s a turtle hospital on site too which we were taken around.  Luckily there are no turtles in residence right now.  Most of them come in having either been hit by boat propellers and cut up, or with floating syndrome caused by gas building up after eating something that blocks the guts.  Not always plastic, but it is in most cases.  Check out the plastics that have come from some of their previous turtle patients…

After the aquarium we went back to enjoy a BBQ and salad in the garden of our Airbnb hosts, pack up and play with Shelby some more.  The train carriage was less than 1km from the airport so we had been planning to walk there with our bags (the car had had to be returned at 3pm to avoid an extra days charge).  Our lovely host offered to drive us though.  So we arrived in plenty of time to get through the tiny airport and find out we were delayed.  In the end the plane didn’t take off until around 10pm (as opposed to the previously planned 8pm).  Excellent.  Not the best way to end our time on the east coast of Australia…

Bird species seen: 146

Continue the adventure down on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne (coming soon), or recap what you’ve missed from Rockhampton to Mackay.