Note: Click on pictures to enlarge.
Each year, as winter arrives in South East Queensland, I start to make comments about moving to Cairns. At least for the remainder of the Winter. But it is in jest. To do so is not practically achievable. But we can visit.
Since our retirement in 2009, we have tried to spend as much of Winter as possible travelling in warmer climes, even if that created the need to travel through colder areas coming from or going to the warmer parts of the country.
For the last few years, at least since we sold our caravan, we have travelled North, usually during August. By the start of August, the colder weather has usually got to me to the extent that a chance to start Spring early is very persuasive. We missed last year, as our daughter who works in India, was back in Australia, but this year we put plans in place.
Originally the plans were to go to Cairns by train, with a sleeper berth on the Spirit of Queensland but we ultimately recognised that Ruth’s balance and mobility issues made that a poor choice. That arrangement would have had us returning home by air but we recognised that air travel out of a regional airport also had its problems. So, we decided that I would drive, but that we would take it in easy stages. We sort of did that, but necessity did dictate some variations.
We left home on 16th August with Hervey Bay our first destination. We left home after morning coffee and made Gympie by lunch time. The new bypass is not yet open, but beyond barriers we could see the new dual carriageway stretching ahead of us. We came into town for lunch and departed in the direction of Rainbow Beach until we reached the road to Maryborough, which we followed to that town and proceeded to Urangan.
While looking at maps before departure I had noticed the Matthew Flinders Lookout that is located between Urangan Harbor and the Urangan Pier. The lookout provided photographic opportunities, a parking space and toilets. Afterwards we moved the short distance to the base of the pier. Ruth remained in the car but I took more photos as I added to my daily step count along the famous Pier.
Our motel was at Pialba. After settling in I took my camera on a walk to acquire supplies for the evening. Perched on a power line just behind the motel I spied some birds, which I photographed. They were new to me and when compared to my bird identification book turned out to be a Black-face Cuckoo-shrike and a small group of White-breasted Swallow.
Rockhampton was our next destination. Just a little under 400 km for the day, we added about another 50 km by doing a detour to Turkey Beach, a town that most motorists just pass by. Turkey Beach is one of the few, perhaps the only, outpost of civilisation between Seventeen Seventy and Tannum Sands. It is a fishing village on one of the many inlets from the ocean that extend among the peninsulas and Mangrove swamps of the area.
A good picnic area with amenities and a general store are its main amenities along with a launching ramp and stinger free swimming enclosure. A couple of women, enjoying the playground facilities with their children, assured us that it was a magic place to live.
A short drive, during which we stopped to examine a couple of American Brahmin bulls, brought is to the regional city of Rockhampton, situated as it is beside the broad waters of the Fitzroy River, with its many moored boats and hidden crocodiles.
