Town of 1770 to Yeppoon to Great Kepple to Rockhampton to Airlie Beach to Whitsundays to Townsville to Tully...

After leaving Bagara we headed up the coast a bit to Town of 1770. Very cute little place which is basically the start of the places that do trips out to the Great Barrier Reef. They do a trip to Lady Musgrave Island, which we had been warned off due to the fact that so many people have been there and have dived there, it's a bit shit. We really wanted to go to Fitzroy Reef. Only one company goes out there, three times a week - they are the only company allowed out there (at the moment!) and they only take about 10 divers each time. So it has a reputation of being one of the better places to dive on the reef. Unfortunately you have to pay a bit to get out there and prior to getting to 1770 we had already ruled out the option of diving there, due to the fact it's $135 to get there and then $60 for two dives on top of that. But with nothing else to do once we got there we checked it out anyway and found out that if you are a backpacker and have one of the three cards (VIP, Nomads, YHA) you get the boat trip for $80! Bonus, so we booked for the next day and had some fish and chips to celebrate!!

Up early the next day and off to the reef - we were lucky enough to happen on some dolphins just as we got to the reef, I even got a couple of photos which makes a change! The first dive was better than the second (first dive was outside the reef, second was inside the reef) but both were definitely worth doing. We saw a crazy amount of different things on the first dive; Lionfish to nudibranchs to massive bull rays about 3m nose to tail. The second dive was good for the nudibranchs and fish life - and it's so refreshing to see so much healthy coral, so much coral in general really.






Rod (or anyone) - any ideas what this is? About 3 inches long and very, very quick - hence the bad focusing!! Can't find a decent fish ID book out here. Juvenile Barramundi maybe??









After 1770 we skipped through Rockhampton to Yeppoon (gateway to Great Kepple Island). This campsite was so nice we decided to stay a couple of days and take the opportunity to sort through (i.e. throw out) some of the crap we have accumulated in the car, which as each day passes it gets closer to resembling an old blue skip. We set the tent up so that we could have the door at the back open, which gave us a cool view of the beach and the Islands just off shore.
Both mornings we were there, the noisy cars from the road did us a favour and woke us up in time to see the beautiful sunrise.



We dumped the car and got the ferry over to Great Kepple Island, a very nice place to do a bit of exploring, sunbathing and snorkeling for a couple of days. It was very quite, but nice. The snorkeling was awesome once you got over the shock of the cold water! I saw a little shark - I found the name of it at some point but didn't write it down so it's lost until I get my hands on a fish book again. The last morning we were there we went to the closest snorkeling point (shelving beach) so we'd be back in time for the ferry and we were lucky enough to see a turtle! Following the rules and not chasing it, it soon got too curious and came and checked us out getting some air at the same time. Very nice way to end our stay on GKI. If you can - go there.

















From the ferry port we picked up the car and headed into Rockhampton for the night to have a steak in the 'Beef capital of Australia'. Very nice steak, though there was an obscene amount of it! It was also 'Beef week 2006' so there were plenty of bulls, cows, horses and cowboys/girls around. Always good for a giggle!

From here we headed up to Airlie Beach to see what sailing trips were on stand-by for the next few days. We had our eye on a maxi-yacht that did diving as well as a trip to the outer reef. Unfortunately it came with the name "Spank me". But you can't have everything! Lucky for us - it was on stand-by so we got a nice $150 off advertised price and jumped on the boat the next day!

This is my second Whitsunday trip and I have to admit I enjoyed the first one better. When I was here last Prosail were the big company to go with, but now they appear to have been bought out by a company called Oz Sailing Adventures, which is who we went with. Prosail do apparently still operate as a separate company so I’m not sure if they are as good as they were. Having said that it was an awesome trip, and so great to see that even though so many things have changed in Australia, the Whitsundays have not.

The Bad Points: If you've done a lot of sailing, you may well be disappointed with the boat and the amount of sailing you do, though I guess safety regulations have been tightened and things like that so I suppose they did what they could. Unfortunately we didn't put in one tack or jibe in the three days... Sleeping was a very warm experience, though I think you fair better if you are in a single bunk rather than a double. The diving operation wasn't very well organised, and although I appreciate how difficult it must be on a boat that is in no way set up to accommodate divers, there was definitely room for improvement. Though the dive instructor did get praised for being good with intro divers, I wasn't too impressed with the way he handled the certified ones.

The Good Points: The big sail we did was on a reach back from the outer reef, and even with our baggy baton-less mainsail and ripped jenny the power of the boat was amazing! This is the fastest I’ve been (and possibly ever will go) on a monohull. The group of people we had were really fun and everyone got on with one another - surprisingly the majority of the group was British, with Americans coming in a close second. We were fed enough that Rob only said "I’m hungry" 3 times in the whole 3 days which I think is a record in our entire relationship. :) Whilst I was catching up on my sleep Rob was prancing around on the bow (as he often does on yachts) and a dolphin came right up and played in the bow wave about 2 foot below him for a good few minutes. Unfortunately my camera was asleep with me. We also got to see dolphins a few other times, though more a few fins in the distance than a close-up flipper experience. I counted about 7 turtles (though it could well have been just two coming up again and again) coming up to the surface for a breath and a look about. The diving was great, a nice shallow, long dive, with plenty to see. Some great nudibranchs and fish - we found a fish I’ve yet to get a good photo of because it's super shy and tends to put tail first to the lens which is weird as most shy fish head to a hole and then stare at the camera! But I did get a video of it, so hopefully get an ID on it sometime soon. You got the chance to dive on the outer reef too - Rob and I didn't, because it was a choppy surface and an hour past high tide and I’m too much of a lazy diver to deal with current and all that and the faff of getting kitted up on that boat! Also I don't think you saw much more diving out there than we did snorkeling.

The Photos:








The famous Hill Inlet.








Rod - again any idea what this is? i have a video of it if that will make it easier!











Back on land we all met up at Beaches for a few drinks in Airlie - Sara took most of the photos there with her camera so I’m waiting to steal hers... And here she is!



Our plan was to get up early and do the big drive (6 hours?) to Mission Beach, our next stop to go white water rafting, but after some much needed shopping for some much need items (mainly a hammer, yes we have been camping for 2 months without one!), and finally finding somewhere that would change the oil on the car it was dark by the time we got half way (Townsville) so we stopped there for the night before a bit more shopping (and some car pampering, runs much better with new sparks and HT leads!) and the rest of the drive. Because we had a bit more time we stopped off at one of the waterfalls marked - Jourama Falls, just south of Innisfail. It was just a short 1.2km walk to the lookout point so neither of us took our swimmers as it was very buggy and not that hot. By the time we actually got up to the lookout and had seen the water (lovely fresh waterfally water) we backtracked to the rock pools and went in in our underwear for an invigorating (for invigorating read f-ing cold) and refreshing swim! It was worth buying the car just to be able to do this!!





Next stop - WHITE WATER RAFTING - yeah! :)

Brisbane to the Coral Coast...

Brisbane to Deception Bay to Maroochydoor & Australia zoo to Noosa to Hervey Bay to Fraser Island to the Coral Coast…

Right – so after spending some time on the Gold Coast we headed back up to Brisbane for the night with everything getting super busy for Easter weekend. After finding that it’s all pretty much booked up there, and most other places – we went to visit Kelly, Malcolm and baby Aaron in Deception Bay where we were treated to real food, a visit to Eumundi Saturday markets and a fabulous home cooked proper English roast for Easter Sunday. Awesome!


Fingal Beach


Kirra Beach


Lorrakeets (sp?) @ Maroochydoor

From here we left (reluctantly!!) and headed north to Maroochydoor for a couple of nights to take Rob to Australia Zoo to see Steve and his crocs. Great little campsite right by the beach and the day at the zoo was really cool. Steve wasn’t there but we did get to see a very nice bird, snake, and then croc show in the ‘crocoseum’. Well worth a day of your time if you are near the place.









After Maroochy we went to Noosa and camped there for a few days – generally relaxing and playing in the surf and sunbathing. Good times.

From Noosa we drove up to Hervey Bay to book ourselves onto a tour for Fraser Island for a few days. We were lucky enough when we got there that the tour we wanted was leaving the next day – so we paid up and then got a room in the backpackers who said we could park our car in their car park for the days we were away. Hostel was the first one we have stayed at since we got to Oz. Very “I’m 19 and going to get wasted every night”. :). But a reasonable nights sleep before an early start and onto the ferry for the Fraser Tour.

Fraser was really cool, we had a great group that wasn’t too big but big enough that was enough people for everyone to get on (Hi people from group!). We did the usual on the first day… Lake Birabeen, Pile Valley, Lake McKenzie (lots of Frisbee and water playing!). In the evening Rob and I made the silly mistake of thinking we were 19 and got wasted on a couple of liters of wine and then $8 jugs of cheap beer. Good night, but the hangovers are by far outweighing the good times. We must be getting old! ;)





Second day was hangover day – luckily I sat up front for the first drive (about an hour and 20 minutes) if I’d sat in the back I would have thrown up for sure!! We saw some bats in the colony on the way over to 75mile beach – crazy bats everywhere. We stopped at India Head, then the Champagne Pools, and then Eli Creek for the rest of the afternoon. We even had a dip in the resorts hot tub on the way back before dinner. This evening’s entertainment consisted of very few drinks and a fairly early night… We know our limits!!


View from India Head


View back down 75-Mile beach





Third day was the best day – the sun stayed out for most of it and we got a very very cool walk over the dunes from Lake Wabby to the beach where our driver Mitch (surely one of the highlights of the trip?!?) picked us up. At Lake Wabby we found some Aussie’s that came equipped with a boogie board and they were nice enough to let us use it. Boys will be boys and they built a ramp at the end of the track which proceeded to make everyone do funny things like stop dead and come off boogie board to land their on head near water. Mainly the girls actually! I didn’t have a go, too chicken and when in Australia I always think back to last time I was here and all the silly things I did and injuries I acquired. Rob was easily persuaded though!


Lake Wabby













So we decided as we were all staying in Hervey Bay that night that we would go out and eat together – forgetting of course that it was Anzac Day so pretty much everything was shut – and the places that were open really didn’t want to be! So we had a Sub-way – which is always good! We then found a crappy noisy bar (at the hostel we were staying at!) that was open till 11, but even better was the bar next door that was open till 12. After that bar chucked us out we hit the beach for a bit of a stand about and chat and then parted ways and had another reasonable nights sleep before heading off early up the coast to here… which is Bagara Beach just on the coast from Bundaberg, otherwise known as the Coral Coast so we are getting some diving in while we can. Campsite is lovely – can highly recommend this one – a beaut.





We went out diving yesterday from the shore and also this morning on the artificial reef that consisted of planes, bits of planes, barges and boats that have been sunk over the last few years.. Photos below.. Feels strange to be putting fish photos back up on this blog again. Seems like ages ago when that was all I did! :) The visabilty is no little Cayman, but was good enough to see 3 massive turtles, a very nice ray that looked very similar to an eagle, a fair few nudibanchs, box fish, bat fish - basically a shit load of fish & animals everywhere!


Flat head fishy.


Big eagle type ray swimming for me!


Big eagle-type ray


Nudi


Nudi


Big turtle, about 2m from tip of head to tip of tail.

We are staying here for a bit and then heading up just a bit further to Agnes Waters/Town of 1770. Next major stop is Great Kepple Island, next major tour is sailing the Whitsundays.

Cannot WAIT!

Chrissie out.