All At Sea

Innisfail, Mission Beach, Townsville, Bowen

and The Whitsunday Islands

August 19 to September 7, 2016

We have just returned from six days cruising the Whitsunday Islands. The photo above - of Hill Inlet at the northern end of Whitehaven Beach - is a wee taste of what is to come in this blog. Back to the beginning .... 

We descended from the Atherton Tablelands and stopped in Innisfail, a charming art deco town. Some examples of the beautifully restored buildings follow.

Johnston Shire Hall, restored after Cyclone Larry in 2006

Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church

Where's Wally?

This area is also known as the Cassowary Coast. It lived up to its name.

A mature chick

Dad wasn't far away

These photos were taken at Etty Bay, south of Innisfail

I believe this is a Little Curlew which flies from Siberia to Australia's north eastern coast each year. Amazing.

Our favourites, the Bush Stone Curlews, abound on the Cassowary Coast.

Next stop was Paronella Park, a castle built by hand by Spanish immigrant Jose Paronella and his wife Margarita in the 1930s. Over the years, the park has been ravaged by floods, fires and cyclones but each time it has been rebuilt and Jose's dream survives.   

The Tea Gardens.
All the structures are made from concrete reinforced with old railway tracks. They are crumbling fast as the wet tropics take their toll. It's a race against time to preserve them.

Mena Creek waterfall.
Jose installed Queensland's first hydro electric power plant here in 1933;  the plant continues to power the park today.

Masses of fish and turtles in Mena Creek.

This is the reason. Everyone is given a bag of food.

These two turtles had different appetites ....

A night tour of the park and gardens was quite beautiful

On to Mission Beach where we scored a camp site four metres from the beach. Stunning spot.

Lots of beautiful rainforest walks and blue water swimming.

Looking south to Dunk Island

Garry wanted to get the lowdown on growing bananas so we booked a tour of a banana farm, a new project for Mike and Rene Gaia. We were only the second tour so received star treatment topped off with tea and coffee, banana cake and sandwiches, and a huge hand of naturally ripened bananas. Great stuff. 

Mike explaining the art of growing bananas and, below, the production and packaging. 

It's also sugar cane crushing season. Fascinating to watch the harvesting, loading and transporting of the cane. All the mills were pumping. 

Tully Mill works up a head of steam.

Tully, home of the big gum boot. Where's Wally?
Tully claims to be the wettest place in Australia. In 1950 it recorded 7.9m of rain! 

Tully Gorge was beautiful but there are saltwater crocodile warning signs everywhere. These crocs spoil all the fun for a girl who likes to take a plunge. 

Beautiful butterflies attracted to the bottlebrush flower.

This is the Ulysses Butterfly which has the most iridescent blue wings. It moves so fast and is very hard to photograph. This is as good as it gets  for this amateur photographer. 

Murray Falls, south of Tully. Curiously, it is closer to the coast than the gorge but croc free and swimming is permitted.

Moving south. The view across to Hinchinbrook Island National Park.

At almost 6km, Lucinda Jetty is the longest service jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. It is from here much of north Queensland's sugar is exported.

Our very special on-road buddies, the Hannay clan, have had to stop rolling and set up camp in a house in Townsville. We had a fabulous few days catching up with them.  

On the boat to Magnetic Island.

Raylene, Paul, Mikayla and Ethan. Where's Wally peeking.

Picnic lunch at Maggie

Curious mum and bub 

View from Castle Hill, Townsville, across to Magnetic Island.

Thumbs up Ray and Mikayla 

A brief stop at charming Ayr, where we took this photo for special friend and former AFR colleague Tom Phelan. Ayr is his home town.

On to Bowen. A lovely town full of murals and pretty beaches.

Horseshoe Bay just after dawn

Garry made friends with the resident peacocks and was rewarded with a beautiful display

Former Greenwell Point oyster farmers John and Anne Collison retired to Bowen several years ago. Not one to stand still for long, John decided to experiment growing oysters in the Don River north of Bowen. He's growing Black Lip and Milky oysters with considerable success. He was keen to catch up and show his project to Garry. 

John, Garry and Anne with oyster cylinders at the depot site

The wide, open sea of the Whitsunday Islands was beckoning. A bit of background to this adventure. Eleven years ago I decided I would take Garry sailing in the Whitsundays for a week for his fiftieth birthday. He had lots of experience in motor boats and I had sailed 14ft Hobie Cats for years so figured we would be able to sail a 32ft yacht without too much trouble. A bit naive. All was fine until a gale (50km winds, 5m swells) set in on day three. We put our tails between our legs and fled back to Airlie Beach. Abashed, we always thought we would return one day and try again. The time had come - the weather looked good, the last-minute discount suited the budget. Whitsundays make or break. 

Meet Little Jeannie, a 35ft Catalina, home for the next six days

Skipper Jen while the sails were up. Love that slow motion.

Captain Garry while motoring. Vroom vroom.

 Quenching that hard earned thirst in Nara Inlet after the first day .

We sailed, snorkelled, swam and fished. We saw whales, dolphins, turtles and sting rays, plus all the colourful reef fish. It was brilliant. Our favourite anchorage was Tongue Bay at the northern end of Whitehaven Beach. A glorious view from the lookout across Hill Inlet to Whitehaven, white sand beaches and turtles everywhere. 

Little Jeannie happily moored

Swimming with the turtles in Tongue Bay.

It was difficult to capture a turtle on camera as they surface for a quick breath then disappear again. There are lots of them but they are fast. This pic is as good as it gets from me.  

Sadly, the fish failed to bite again.

The Whitsundays turned on a special sunset for our final night at sea. Aaaaaahhhhh ....

Here's cheers to the Whitsunday Islands. A vastly improved experience second time round.

We're back to being landlubbers; the adventure continues.