South and West from Townsville

After a lovely 2 days in Townsville it was time to head west to Charters Towers, a town built on gold and proud of its heritage. The Flinders Hwy took us the 130k, stop on the way of course for morning coffee and having a chat with a bloke from Charles Sturt University who had been to the piggery and had "guts" in the back of his ute. By that he meant he had containers of entrails for the veterinary students to practice with - much more refined than "guts". An interesting fellow indeed.

Old buildings of Charters Towers

Charters Towers has many old buildings, well preserved by the Council, with the history built on Gold mining. It is home to many exhibits exploring their past, as well as the quirky- such as a Texan Longhorn Ranch, with, you guessed right again, Texan Longhorn cattle. One of them holds the world record of over 2.5m tip to tip. At $50/head for the tour we said forget it. We get a little tired of paying through the nose for so called tourist events such as this. The tour only goes for an hour to see cows and kangaroos - whoopee!

Macrossen Bridge

We had left the van about 20k out of Charters Towers at a free park beside the Burdekin River near the Macrossan Bridge, a great spot with basic facilities and a beautiful sunset. Very serene and many friendly campers around, though not cheek to jowl like some places. Tuesday we head further south towards Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands.

Whitsunday water and boats

The Bruce "roadworks" Highway took us through sugar cane and pineapple plantations towards the beaches. A stop in Bowen where much of the Baz Lurhman film Australia was filmed did nothing to excite the senses - wide streets, so so beaches - a little ho-hum but maybe we had been on the road too long today. We understand that there are some lovely spots around Bowen but we didn't see them.
We arrived at Airlie Beach and set up camp and looking forward to a relaxing afternoon.
Wednesday was a wander day, through the market places, coffee with the tourists, watching the people stroll past and soaking up the Whitsunday vibes. All very pleasant. There is a huge amount of work being done around the main street with a beautification program, paving and planting everywhere. Maybe the town is gearing up for the school holidays which start at the end of the week. That means we will now have to start planning ahead where we are staying as the pesky Victorians and NSW people head north. A full day 3 island tour has been booked for Thursday, something to look forward to.

Daydream Island

An early start, bus at 6.55am to the marina to join our tour. First stop is Daydream Island, the only resort that actually take up the entire island. It has everything that you would want for a holiday, is quite modern (completely refurbished 13 years ago) and would be somewhere we would love to come back and stay. They have the largest outdoor aquarium in the Southern Hemisphere. Well set up seeing the original owners bought it for £200 in 1933.

Lunch at Hamilton island

The next stop is Hamilton Island - oh boy what a contrast to Daydream. Fully commercialised and built up, restaurants, shops, resorts - it has it all. Even a golf course where the PGA will be played next month. Also the shortest commercial runway in the Southern Hemisphere with water both ends. Real estate is expensive, the cheapest block of land $1.5 mil., 1 br apartment $850000, resorts at $2000 +/night. A great lunch overlooking the marina and had a fascinating talk with Noni who has a 105 year old mother who lives independently, she is a jazz pianist, had her own jazz restaurant in Hobart, travels to the outback tutoring, still has paid employment which she needed a break from - wow, she must be close to 80 and is talking about buying a place in the country to grow veggies and have dogs. Wonderful to meet these enthusiastic people who make you feel great.

Onto the beach - quickly

Onto Whitehaven Beach which is only accessible by boat, in a national park. Brilliant white sand which is like powder. It is very fine silica which will play havoc with electronic equipment. Our boat had to drop us on the sand very quickly and then back off due to the falling tide. There is absolutely nothing at the beach other than what you bring. Walking the beach, swimming or lying in the shade/sun/shade/sun whiled away the two hours then back on the boat to head back to Airlie Beach. Tomorrow is another quiet day, washing, relaxing by the pool and planning our next stops (due to the holidays).

Homeward bound

Of course, traveling around these places is very interesting in that you meet the most unexpected people. An old couple next door to us were retired dairy farmers from Rochester, a place where we lived for 9 years and had our children. Opposite us was a work colleague of David's who he hadn't seen for 6 years and who lives in Melbourne. It is a small world once again where time lines collide many kilometers from home.