September 17th & 18th
Rockhampton Day 4
We wake up to a hot sunny day in Airlie Beach, too bad we have to move on to Rockhampton where storms are expected later in the day. Before we drive west again to pick up the Bruce Highway we decide to drive the short distance east to Shute Harbour. Shute Harbour takes its name from Shute Island, a small island just 500 meters away south east of the headland. A beautiful sheltered bay ideal for small vessels became the ideal boarding point for ferries between the Whitsunday islands. Now many of the charter boat tour operators favour the harbour, due to the close proximity and easy access to the islands with their various resorts and campsites. Apart from the dock area, the idyllic setting with tropical islands set like emeralds in a turquoise ocean, there is not a lot see. Very few people live here, the facilities are negligible, Airlie Beach and the much bigger town of Cannonvale though are close by. Once the largest seaplane terminal in the southern hemisphere operated from here and small boat traffic rivalled Circular Quay in Sydney. The rapid rise of Airlie Beach with their huge investment in marine infrastructure has no doubt had a detrimental impact on Shute Harbour. We can see that some new home development is starting up, one can imagine waking up every morning to these spectacular views from the surrounding hillsides.
Time to move on again, we drive back from whence we came, through Airlie Beach and back to the Bruce Highway. The temperature continues to rise as we drive further south reaching 33c (96f) before we reach MacKay. After some more hijinks with the Apple Navigation app. on our third try we find a fuel stop that supplies high octane fuel, the first try took us out in the boondocks to a decrepit service station that looked as if it hadn’t sold any fuel this century and the second didn’t exist at all. Back on the highway the weather begins to change, the closer to Rockhampton, the more threatening the heavy dark grey clouds building before us become. The temperature drops 7c and the darkness prompts us to remove our sunglasses. Goodbye summer we fear, our sunny days are over. By the time we reach Rockhampton the rain has started to fall and by the time we reach our hotel we are in the midst of a tropical storm. Thunder and lightening flashes all around us, the intensity of the rain becomes torrential just as we enter the Kortes’s portico. Thankfully we have covered access to reception and to our room, the latter having a convenient carport that we can back into and unload. We are planning a day trip tomorrow, a circular loop from the hotel to Yeppon, Emu Park and back.
Yeppoon Day 5
The next day we wake to clear blue skies, the dark clouds of the night before have disappeared completely, not a cloud in sight. Perfect for our last coastal trip, this time to Yeppoon, Rossyln Bay, Kinka Beach and Emu Park. The shorts and T shirts have a stay of execution for now, as the temperature looks to be in the high 20c’s (70f’s) again. The highly recommended drive by people that know the area, is north of the city of Rockhampton. Just a short drive from our hotel we turn north east for the 30 kilometre drive to Yeppoon. The countryside is lush and rich in vegetation, first settlers must have thought all their prayers had come true, when they first arrived here. First impressions of Yeppoon are of a colourfully landscaped, neat and tidy well laid out town. Queenslanders, at least in these parts revel in their tropical gardens and meticulously mowed lawns that on some properties are parklike.
We have to take care of necessities first, making our first stop a Coles supermarket. Amanda has a list of supplies to take us through the coming outback days as we travel home. Restaurants are hit and miss, making a booking hard work, so many are closed due the lack of staff. Making sure we have breakfast and lunch sorted is a priority. The shopping centre is a new one with probably the best Coles I’ve ever seen, wide isles, well lit, even the shopping trolley behaved itself. The shelves well stocked but range not as extensive as we are used to. Having put that chore out of the way we make our way to the Yeppoon Sailing Club where we have booked a lunch of fish and chips by the sea. The sailing Club is situated on the Esplanade in an elevated position overlooking the beach and the South Pacific Ocean to Great Keppel Island. We arrive early, find a carpark, giving us plenty of time to walk the pathways that run along the main beach area. The beach is wide with golden sand that runs for 1.4km in between low intertidal rocks at the northern end, to the mouth of a small creek at the southern end. As with most beaches along this northern coast line stinger jellyfish are not uncommon but generally don’t appear until November, disappearing again in the following May.
There is a very light breeze above the beach but at the beach’s northern end the lifesaving flags are fluttering and sand is causing a low haze as it is picked up and blown towards the rocks. The rest of the beach is calm with small white foamy wavelets gently rolling in. Despite the perfect beach weather and the fact that it is a Sunday, there are not a lot of people on the beach today.
Time to have lunch, the sailing Club speciality a seafood basket, of prawns, reef fish, scallops and calamari. The window of the upstairs restaurant and bar area that faces the sea is a vista of sand, ocean and islands for the length of the building, quite breathtaking. The crossbars on the window are an indication of the age of the building, no doubt that it has stood in this spot for sometime and has obviously stood the test of time. Not many restaurants in Australia have vistas like the one in front of us.
After lunch, we follow the road south, the scenic drive takes us high above the ocean overlooking Fisherman’s bay and around the rocky hills to Cooee Bay (must be the cutest Aussie name for a town). Overlooking Cooee Bay is a lookout at Wreck Point, with an installation representing a wrecked ship.
The story of Wreck Point, Selina, a transport schooner, washed up on the shores off the coast near present day Wreck point, on its maiden journey from Brisbane in 1847. Disaster hit early on the journey, the full story never will be known, resulting in the Selina losing its crew, no further sightings of the ship occurred until 15 months later. The mystery eventually revealed by marine scientists using maps of ocean currents, they proved that the schooner had wandered for thousands of nautical miles in a huge circle from near the Victorian Coast, before heading towards New Zealand and then heading crew-less again north. The ship finally ran itself ashore, wrecking on the Capricorn Coast, which in turn gave name to Wreck Point.
Then on to Rossyln a small village that sits in a snug corner of Statue Bay. This is the most beautiful coastline we have seen on our trip, islands dot the ocean, tropical green against the tropical blue of the sea. It is fitting that the best is left for last. Then on to Keppel Bay where here too, there is a large marina. Kemp Beach stretches from there to the Capricorn Coast National Park that juts out into the South Pacific. We follow the road, now south along Mulambin Beach that stretches to the tip of a peninsula. Then makes way for an inlet to Causeway Lake that is fed from various creeks running into it from the surrounding hills. A paved roadway runs across the inlet neck as part of the scenic route. Over the Causeway is Kinka Beach that runs for 3 kilometres along Shoal bay. There are a few residences and limited holiday apartments in this area but it is stunning, lacking amenities maybe, but for natural beauty truly wonderful. From Kinka Beach on to Emu Park, truly feels like a you are entering a park when arriving in this coastal village. At Emu Park we find a monument named the “Singing Ship”. A white concrete and steel interpretation of a sailing ship, 12 metres tall. Created and erected in 1970 to mark the bicentenary of Captain Cooks journey to Australia, his discovery and naming of Keppel Bay in May 1770. The Singing Ship is notable for the sound it emits on windy days as the wind whistles through the cables that represent the sailing ships ropes.
The Singing Ship, Emu Park
The Singing Ship sits on the hills high point, a boardwalk takes you around the hills edge allowing a view out to the many islands in this area, 18 in all.
At the end of the boardwalk there is a lookout with a memorial to the Anzac’s of World War 1. A complete timeline with pictures of the places and events that Australians became involved in, in a period our grandparents called the Great War. We leave in a somber mood as we reflect on that war and the freedom we enjoy today, because of those that went before us. It is quite fitting that the memorial is set in a place of such natural beauty, man’s ideologies will come and go but the earth will remain forever.
We leave full of praise for this area, full of stunning natural beauty, the pictures do not really do the area justice. Time to head back to Rockhampton. Tomorrow we are back on the road travelling inland, looking forward to several more adventures as we make our way through the outback in a south westerly direction to Roma.