Sept 23 ... Cape Hillsborough

We had two more days at Airlie Beach, the first of which was very frustrating. I got up early to catch up on my blogging and I was very pleased with my efforts after about 5 hours. I was putting the last caption on the final photo when I thoughtlessly hit Control instead of Shift on the keyboard ... and deleted the lot! Had I been able to stay calm I may have been able to retrieve it but it is unlikely. Anyway, it was gone and I had learnt a very valuable lesson. To his credit, Garry stayed very quiet and after some hours I began to feel a little better.

So as not to waste the WHOLE day, we walked into the town to have a look around and enjoy an Italian lunch. We were impressed with the redeveloped foreshore area and the public pools were huge and looked really nice. We had a good look around the shops and then had a lunch of home-made pasta. On our return to the van I made another effort and the blog finally got finished.

The following morning we did some organizing and shopping before heading out to Shute Harbour for lunch at the lookout. Today the wind had come up and there were a lot of white horses. Again we realized how lucky we had been with the weather for our trip to Whitehaven. However, the harbour is relatively protected and the water was as blue as ever.

Shute Harbour

Then we parked a bit further on and went for a bush walk to Coral Bay. It was a lovely walk through the bushland and we caught glimpses of some beautiful views as we skirted the headland. Coral Bay is fairly isolated and the “beach” consists entirely of stones and broken coral. Because there is no sand, the water is crystal clear and the stones make a lovely noise as the waves lap in and out. It reminded me very much of Greece. As we walked down we could see a turtle bobbing about and feeding very close to shore. It was an idyllic scene.

Coral Bay

The "Beach"

Coral Bay

Beautiful clear water

We walked to the end of the beach and then another kilometre or so up the headland to a lookout, but the vegetation had grown up in front of it and we could see very little. By now it was late afternoon and we felt we had done a fair amount of exercise so we returned to the Park for a shower and an early night.

The walk to Coral Bay

The view towards the Islands

One of the great pleasures of this park has been the curlews and the other birds. They are all very friendly and are quite content to wander in and out of your site. Most mornings when I look out of the van there will be four or more curlews standing there looking back at me. I have really enjoyed watching and interacting with them.

Leaving Airlie Beach we stopped briefly for some more shopping at Cannonvale before driving on to Conway Beach. Again this was a bit of nostalgia because we came here 18 years ago also and, even though it was very wet with heavy showers then, the kids had a great time on the beach and the rope swing. Amazingly, the swing was still there ... at least A rope swing was there, and so was the beach ...of course!  However, the weather was much better and the beach looked much nicer. We remember that the tide went WAY out and it was similar today, so we stopped and watched other families explore the endless sand flats while we had morning tea.

The rope swing still worked!

Conway Bay

The tide was REALLY out!

From here we drove back to Highway 1 and down through Proserpine to Kuttabul where we turned off for Cape Hillsborough. The Park here is part of a National Park and it is set amongst the trees so that it is virtually invisible from the beach. We got a good site, very secluded and shady and close to everything, the only negative being that it is all dusty dirt. The park is almost full, and mostly with families so it is quite noisy, but we expected that being school holidays.

The Caravan Park!

Our site at Cape Hillsborough

Very comfortable

Once we had set up camp, we walked down to the beach and it was surprisingly beautiful. Firstly it was very scenic but, secondly, the sand looked as if it had been sprinkled with gold glitter. Apparently this is mica and it makes the whole beach shimmer. When the sun is reflecting off it, and the water moves it about, it really sparkles. I thought it  looked wonderful. Unfortunately the photos do not give a true image but it really is something to see.
 

Wedge Island

Golden Sands

The beach actually shone.

Mica in the sand gave it a golden glow

 We walked the full length of the beach and then around to the next bay. There are lots of rocky outcrops in the ocean and islands off shore. This is also a protection zone for dugongs and turtles and, in November, the turtles lay their eggs on the beach here. Just now, whales have been sighted so we will spend some time at the various lookouts in case we get lucky!

Because it is a national park there are a lot of other animals here too, including kangaroos and euros. They are wild but obviously feel secure moving about the park, even to the point of being a hazard when hanging out the washing!

Tonight Garry has gone up to watch Aust Vs USA in the Rugby World Cup on the TV in the Community Room. Unfortunately, we do not get any mobile or internet coverage here, so we could not stream the game, but I am sure he will enjoy it more on the bigger screen anyway.

We have five days booked here and we hope to spend some time on the beach and bushwalking, if we continue to be lucky with the weather. It’s not a bad way to spend the “winter”!