Coral, boats, and flooded roads
Wow! What a busy last three days! This will be a long post because it covers three days! After my last post on Magnetic Island, I got the manager (even though the reception was closed for the night) and explained that some creature was freaking us out, for the second night in a row. I showed her where I could see something outside our bedroom and it was a possum. First she shone her flashlight on it, then yelled and got up close to it, finally had to use a large stick to push it out of the eave. A better nights sleep was had.
The next day, back on the ferry and we drove to Ainslie Beach where we were to meet our boat (after checking in at the next town and having a picnic on the beach). We had to pay a lot to leave our car for two days (the machine only took coins--16 one dollar coins). Then we waited and got some ice cream from the little convenience store at the marina. Before we could board the boat, we all had to put our shoes in a bag--bare feet only on the boat to improve traction. Then we saw our cabins--very small. We were on a catamaran and the cabins were in the hulls. Randy and I had one with a double bed--you enter the bed from the head of the bed--it angled in and the walls were on both sides. We had an ensuite bathroom. The children had a room with a double bed against the wall and a bunk above and across the feet of the double--also with ensuite. The captain’s cabin was ahead of ours and accessible from a hatch on the deck. The other two cabins on the other side we taken by an Irish couple in their 20s on in Australia on one year work visas, the other by an English couple in their 30s (?). The boat provided meals and the tap water was drinkable. Anything else you had to bring (especially alcohol). They sold soft drinks for $2 a can and chocolate bars for $1 each. The food was good--all made on the boat with fresh ingredients. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to try the vegemite on our bread (it’s dark brown and made from yeast extract). We stuck with butter, peanut butter, and nutella. They had music provided from an iPod attached to a speaker system. The first night (we left at 4:00) we just motored then sailed to a spot for the evening. Early the next morning (before breakfast) we were taken in the dingy to an island where we took a short hike up to a lookout over White Haven beach--the most famous beach in the Whitsunday Islands. The we went around the island to an area near the beach where we could moor and were taken in the dingy to the beach. The Irish guy (an Irish spelling of Kieran) swam and Annie, Shelby, and the English man (Noel) took paddle boards out. We wore wetsuits to keep us warm and protect from anything we might come up across in the ocean (even though it isn’t jellyfish season--they’re only out in the summer). Joshua spent the entire time playing in the sand. The sand isn’t ordinary sand. It is white and feels like flour. It is so soft. It has a ton of silica in it (from long ago volcanoes). It is against the law to remove sand, but they did allow some to be taken to make the Hubble telescope (!). We spent several hours laying on the beach, using the paddleboards, and the girls and Kieran tried to learn the windsurfer. The paddleboards are boogie boards (wider than surf boards) that you use a paddle with. You start on your knees and the goal is to stand up. I stood once for a bit, till a large wave knocked me off--my chest hit the board (oooof!) and I went face-first into the salt water--not one of my more graceful moments! But I never lost my sunglasses! We stopped later at a coral reef (this is all part of the great barrier reef. But Joshua got scared in the water, so he and I went in the clear canoe and looked at the coral that way. We stopped again in the late afternoon, but I was napping so Randy took Joshua out in the canoe. The girls went snorkeling both times! Evidently that reef was beautiful. The next morning we stopped again and a few people went snorkeling and out in the canoe. A few of us stayed back--being very tired. Annie and Kieran snorkeled together for awhile using the seadoo blower thing and found sea turtles! The girls together found a large ray. For three days we sat in the deck in the sun, sometimes inside when it got too cold. The only sunburn casualty (thanks I’m sure to the wetsuits) were the tops of my feet--which was pretty minor. We were all very relaxed on the boat which was nice (and tired from all of the activity).
The boat docked at 11:00 sharp. I shared some fun conversation with the English couple (Helen and Noel) and the crew (Jesse, Sam, and Mike) before that. Then we got our car and drove to Finch Hatton Gorge. When we left the highway (a two-lane road with narrow shoulders), we drove on a very small road that hadn’t been patched for awhile. That road eventually became one lane with soft shoulders, then even narrower between cane fields. Randy had to get our once to read one of the road signs that had been bent in half. We then reached dirt roads with numerous potholes, then--it gets better!--we got to roads covered in water from streams! Three of them. They were paved at the creek beds so that they did not wash away. Eventually we got to our cabins. Three of them--and the sign for the office was an area with some picnic tables and a barbecue. The sign said to honk and a man crossed the stream walking on rocks to check us in. Bizarre situations and an adventurous route to get there!
Our cabin had a double bed, and a double bed bunked over with a single bed, a kitchen, and bathroom with a huge shower (about seven feet long by four feet deep!). The table was a patio table on the porch. While Randy drove to the town to get groceries, the children and I took a short walk around, down the road and along the creek). Then dinner, showers, and bed.
The next morning (the 14th here) we drove the potholed dirt road to Finch Hatton Gorge--a national park--and hiked to the Araluen Cascades--a waterfall. Then we braved the roads the other way to drive to Carnarvon National Park which is where we are driving as I write this (I’m writing in the car while Randy takes his turn driving). A few adventurous days.
Hopefully we will have wifi soon to post this and photos. Randy wrote a post every day an is saving them up to post. If we get a good connection, I’ll go back and add my photos to the previous blogs from Palm Cove. I am definitely looking forward to our wifi when we get back!
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