Stirling to Palm Cove Day 9 & 10

August 12th & 13th

A pink haze stretches out from the horizon as we look out over the Mackay Marina at the sunrise a little after our alarm as woken us at 6.30am the day is going to be beautiful the chill in the air is not as frosty as yesterday in Rockhampton. After breakfast at the hotel we pack the remainder of our bags, then make several trips via elevator from the 4th floor to once again load the car. By 9.00am we are on our way along the Bruce Highway headed for Townsville. Once again fields of sugar cane dominate the landscape, we pass by a refinery puffing clouds of white steam into the sky from the process. The air smells like candy floss, taking us both back to the days of our youth and the fairs we went to as children. The further north we travel the more tropical the landscape becomes, mango orchards with their hundreds of neatly planted and pruned trees are in blossom putting on a colourful display of peach patches that adorn the trees like ornaments on a Xmas tree.

Agave plants also are grown out here, mostly used for tequila production, if it involves alcohol than we Aussies find a way to produce it, The plantation stretches out into the distance. Our plan is to drive straight through today, we have plenty of healthy snacks and water to keep our energy levels up. When we checked out the hotel the manager advised us that the road from Proserpine to Bowen would be slow going as the construction company carrying out the roadworks began the work in several places over more than several locations then promptly went broke, leaving the state government with a mess to clean up and a find new contractor willing to do the work. Construction at the moment is fraught with disaster many have quoted low prices to obtain the work only to find the cost of materials has gone through the roof. Sending one by one to the wall. While travelling our son Troy calls us from Philadelphia, ostensibly to wish Amanda a happy birthday, we have to wonder at the technology that enables us to speak clearly with someone so far away while we are on a bush road in the wilds of tropical Queensland. When the phone system works it works well, but so often the system is unreliable even over just a few kilometres. Our chat sees us through a good thirty minutes of road time the traffic again is heavy until we reach Proserpine, this town is the gateway to Airlie Beach a jump off point for the Whitsunday islands. This brings back memories for me of sailing with Troy and Matt and Amanda’s dad Jim, on Shirley’s brother Bryan’s yacht to Hamilton island and White sands beach, where we swam with turtles in turquoise waters. Bryan moored his yacht at Airlie Beach from where we departed on this once in a lifetime adventure in 1986. Further north the road opens up and we are able to put on some good time, their are plenty of drivers always anxious to pass slow moving traffic. We too do not like to sit behind buses or road trains for too long but it’s a game of patience on these narrow roads with only the occasional overtaking lane that seem to be randomly placed. Bowen is our next comfort stop but we waste no time there, quickly back on the road.

We are making good time with about 125 kilometres to drive until we reach Townsville when without warning we come to a grinding halt, no roadwork signs alert us of a problem, all we can do is wait until we can move on again, after about twenty minutes the line of traffic behind us stretches for kilometres, a curious young girl from somewhere behind us walks by she is off to find the cause of our stoppage. Meanwhile our bladders are yearning for some release fortunately we have stopped on a low bridge over a dry creek called Arrow Creek. I decide to take a walk under the bridge for some relief. Amanda wants to on hold on for awhile until we discover the cause of the problem. Our young scout returns to tell us bad news indeed, ahead an accident has occurred, a triple fatality, it will be several hours before the necessary services arrive to record the accident and remove the vehicles and very sadly the occupants. We can’t move forward although there are other roads to or destination they are distant and remote, a few drivers turn around to go back but most can only sit out the long wait, like many others we too have to respectfully wait it out. Amanda once hearing this news decides to use the creek, that I now rename Piddle Creek as I am sure many more will be using its services over the coming hours. The hours pass by, as we read or talk with other travellers, with no change in the situation, news filters in from the front that our wait could be as long as 6 hours, we chat to the motorists nearby some are going to Townsville like us, but other Queenslanders are going to a dinner with friends or attending a wedding. Still others are on a tourist transfer bus to Cairns to go diving, or other activities and one young man from Brazil is hoping catch an international flight to Bali the next day. There are delivery drivers and caravaners, truckers and travellers all stuck together in this moment.

Just as the sun goes down a local young farmer with his wife and child pass by they have access to the road via their farm gate, they are handing out capsicums (large red and green peppers) they have so many they are giving them away, too bad we have no use for them at the moment. Communication from the police is still non existent as the sun goes down in a ball of flame lighting up the sky to  the west, moments later a glorious full moon rises in the east.

Life goes on. As darkness descends news filters through that we should be moving  within the next 15 minutes, we arrived at 12.30pm and eventually slowly move off at 6.30pm. As we pass the scene we can see a road train off to our right where it eventually came to rest 20 meters off the side of the road, on a flatbed truck is the remains of a single vehicle crushed beyond recognition. There are 10 Kilometres of vehicle head lights ahead of us in a long line and just as many we imagine behind us. We finally make Townsville by 8.30pm, tired and hungry. We have an early start tomorrow as we are catching a whale watching boat like Captain Ahab and his wife we will go Whale hunting for our Moby Dick. The morning brings a beautiful sunset, orange light fills the sky over the ocean in front of our 10th story room on Townsville’s Strand.

The ocean is almost flat only small ripples move gently to shore, we have to double take for a moment as a group launch their outrigger canoes and upright surfboard paddlers, paddle along on the quiet ocean. Are we in Queensland or Hawaii? We are definitely in Queensland but the scene is very much Hawaiian. A short walk down The Strand on Townsville’s beach front, now quiet after last nights revellers are sleeping in, brings us to the Marina precinct. From there we find our way to our assigned wharf embarkation point, we have arrived early, find a bench on a grassy spot and wait for the boat to arrive. We have arranged to meet our friends Helen and Howard here to share this experience, our efforts to meet up with them last night for dinner didn’t pan out due to our traffic delayed problem yesterday and in Rockhampton the previous night we ended up on opposite sides of the city. This morning though we are sure to see them as we are both booked on this adventure

Our boat, the good ship Kalinda, soon arrives, as does Helen and Howard and the other 26 passengers. We have time for a short chat to to them about their journey too Townsville, but it is not long before the Captain calls us to order, we board the boat and set off into Cleveland Bay. Magnetic island sits just 8 kilometres off the Townsville shore to our north in recent years becoming effectively a suburb of Townsville with over two thousand residents, a ferry operates regularly between the town and the island. The islands size is approximately 52sq kilometres, mainly rocky and mountainous, 15sq kilometres is dedicated to National park. Captain James Cook named the island in 1770 when he experienced magnetic interference to his compass that he believed emanated from the island. No evidence found since could qualify his experience.

To the south of the bay is Cape Cleveland. Humpback whales are frequent visitors, after making the journey to Antartica to feed on enormous amounts of krill, they travel up the coast of Australia to the warmer seas to have their young, here they stay in sheltered bays where predators rarely visit to nurse their calves for a few weeks fattening them up for a return journey to the colder regions. We don’t have a great deal of expectations but it is not long before we see our first mother and calf. After a brief visit with them we pursue further sightings deeper out into the bay. The horizon offers up white plumes of water as whales breach the surface and crash back down into the small waves, we can see from a distance the occasional expulsion of water from the whales blowholes as they surface to take in air. Our pursuit is successful as we find ourselves in the midst of a pod, whales are surfacing all around us, typically rising and taking in air then, going back under the surface only to re-emerge a few seconds later, showing a dorsal fin and a large part of their upper body, before once again expelling water from their blowhole and diving a little deeper showing a tail briefly above the water as they dive.

We see mother and calves swimming side by side and a group of playful adolescents, rolling and showing a flipper. Again we can see larger breaching off on the horizon and the chase begins once more. This is the holy grail of whale watching, our Captain takes chase hoping to have us close enough to experience one of these breaching events. We venture deeper and deeper until we are out into the coral sea, but the whales are not interested in putting on public displays for our benefit. During a lull in activities I take a comfort break, from my precarious position in the rocking and rolling Head, I hear screeches of delight, not once but twice. Once back on deck Amanda lets me know I have missed the holy grail event. All in all we sight 22 Whales, the Captain tells us a record this season so far. At the start of the journey the Captain advised in the event that we did not find any whales as a fall back position we would sail to the eastern side of Magnetic Island. He had received reports of a large number of turtles sightings there and worth a look. Our pursuit of so many whales though put an end to that, not that anyone cared too much as we all said the trip after all is a whale watching one. The crew put on a great lunch of make yourself salad wraps, with many various ingredients to choose from with plenty of fresh fruit for desert. Freshly baked blueberry muffins came out for afternoon tea before we made our way back to shore. Arriving back at the Wharf at 3.30pm Helen and Howard join us for a drink at a local bar before heading back to their campsite. Another short stroll along The Strand finds us back at the hotel, we change and venture out again along The Strand, a promenade that stretches right along the beach front for 2.2km is lined with restaurants, hotels and apartments on the shore side a pathway and lawn on the seaside, with a water park for children, a swimming pool and an exercise park for adults with uniquely designed exercise equipment. There are also covered picnic areas and barbecues. A very popular place for walkers in the morning and party goers in the evening. Anyone visiting The Strand couldn’t help but be in a holiday mood. The restaurant we have in mind has filled up enormously since we passed by in the late afternoon, but we manage to score a table for two at an eating spot called Californian Taco. The meal is fresh and delicious, with many different taco ingredient combinations to choose from. We leave there tired but we’ll fed and well satisfied with the day. Tomorrow we reach our goal, Palm Cove.