The Chofie's Oz Tour: Crusin the Coast of the Whitsundays...

We’ll rewind back to 7^th June where the Mackay shenanigans began!

Again we were very lucky to have Samara and Watty welcome us into their home in a town just out of Mackay called Blacks Beach. Arriving on a Friday was great as they both had the weekend off but then we realised it was a long weekend which they also had off and decided we would save ourselves for a Sunday session. A good catch up over a few cold beverages, a roast dinner, some footy and then off to bed not too late. Saturday was a little overcast but Sam drove us to Eungella National Park 80km west of town. Unfortunately at the lookout we couldn’t see the view back to the coast but did get to see turtles and one platypus playing in the creek. We also over indulged at a cute little café on the way home with lunch and some afternoon tea treats. Then Sunday arrived which saw us start drinking at midday at Eimeo Pub overlooking the Whitsundays on the hill. Some beers and food to line the stomach there and then onto ‘Sails’ where our night really set sail (no pun intended). We smashed a whole lot of beer, danced to live music and embraced this rare Sunday session in the company of Samara and Watty. Drive thru maccas and some hydrolyte topped off the night on the way home (none of us really remembered this part though). Not too dusty the next day we went for a walk along the beach with Mojo, their dog, and were shown around Mackay by car. We stopped for an amazing lunch at ‘Bridges’ overlooking the river and then had a relaxing arvo watching movies and eating fettuccine. The next couple of days saw us do a bit of sand 4WD (nothing reckless trust us, very mild), more beach walks with Mojo, getting Gina serviced, hanging at the Blue Water Lagoon, a bit of shopping and even playing a game of indoor soccer with Samara. We hung round so we could see Samara’s brother Gavin and his girlfriend Claire too. He invited us to come over to see his flatmates 3 week old puppies (which we nearly took home with us) and have a few beers in the backyard. Back to Samara and Watty’s we made some homemade pizzas, played euchre, drank some more and had a nice catch up with everyone. It was goodbye to Mackay and up to Airlie Beach next.

Turtles at Eungella National Park

Tea Cosy's at the Café

Blue Water Lagoon

The puppy's

Not sure whether we were heading over to South Molle Island or not we set up Rhonda for a one nighter, meeting up with Jude and Astrid as well. They had also met some fellow travellers Eli and Dave and we all camped together at Nomads in and amongst all the backpackers. Some afternoon beers by the waterfront watching the sunset eventually turned into a rowdy night in town drinking $8 jugs of beer like they were going out of fashion. This led to a very slow and dusty start to our next day but we came around to enjoy a bbq and chilled day on the beach with the craziest Cold Rock combination we’d ever had (Ice-cream: Double Choc, Cookies and Cream, Choc Mint, Ferrero; Add Ins: Nutella, Cookie Dough, Smarties, Crunchie) and then a date night to Thai for dinner. All six of us made a trip just out of town to Cedar Creek Falls the next day to an amazing waterfall and surroundings. Ash said the water was that cold it made her skin sting the first time but the second time was better, I think she was just numb personally haha. A couple of farewell beers that night as we were all heading separate ways the next day. Us lucky buggers were treating ourselves to a night on Daydream Island.

Panorama of Airlie Beach

Cedar Creek Falls

Dave teaching Poi on the beach at Airlie

We got a nice early ferry across to make the most of two days and one night at the island resort. As we disembarked we got a welcome mocktail and even got ‘leid’. We got our snorkels out for the first time at Lovers Cove and saw some cool fish and coral. Then we found a cosy hammock, had lunch and a dip in the pool. We also got a cocktail from the swim-up bar before trying stand up paddle boarding for the first time with turtles and stingrays. Another stunning sunset, off to a Pizza and Pasta buffet for dinner and seeing the Socceroos qualify for the 2014 world cup ended a perfect day! Buffet breaky, a bit of totem tennis, quoits and reading on the beach, Ash went for a swim and then it was back to the mainland. A short drive up the Bruce Hwy to Home Hill was our next stop just for the night.

Ash and the mermaid statues at Mermaid Beach on Daydream Island

Got our snorkels out for the first time at Lovers Cove

Just lazin about in a hammock

We packed up nice and early to get to a national park campground called Alligator Creek just south of Townsville. With crappy phone reception and a few texts to Jude and Astrid they said they may get to the same campground by late afternoon and sure enough at 4pm after doing 100km on bike they rolled into the campsite and we all set up together for a bbq dinner, a swim in the creek/ lady spa and cuppas by candlelight. Might I add we were highly excited about assembling a very taught tarp to cover us from the drizzle forecasted (the simple things that excite us these days haha). A day trip all together into Townsville so the girls didn’t have to ride 50km return saw us have some indian, gelatos, visit a microbrewery and do some errands like post office and stocking up with food and necessities for our next leg of travels. Astrid introduced us to a Latvian tradition that night too, Jáņi (roughly pronounced: yarnyeah), and was celebrated by making a head wreath out of leaves and vines, eating lots of cheeses and drinking plenty of beer. Astrid even played some traditional music and we played them some guitar under the stars into the night. A sad farewell to the girls the next morning as they were taking their big left turn at Townsville to head towards Normanton and onto Darwin diagonally and we were heading north to Cape York.

Alligator Creek lookout

Townsville Microbrewery tasting paddle

Celebrating Jani with Astrid and Jude

Ash serenading us on guitar

The girls off for their big awaited left turn

A free campsite in our Camps book looked nice 20km east of Charters Towers, so it was out there next. Right on the Burdekin River where a beautiful railway bridge crossed and 50 other grey nomads had pulled up. We got to Skype the Chaffey family who were all together on the coast that night which was lovely to see all their faces and then cooked up a ripper chicken risotto. We made our way into Charters Towers the next day to be a bit touristy. A nice drive up Towers Hill to see some old WWII ammunition bunkers, a visit to the local markets where we picked up some yummy homemade jams and a walk through the old Stock Exchange Building which was built in 1888 when gold was discovered out there. Resting and relaxing back at camp whilst watching the sunset, eating some nibblies and an early night, it was back to Townsville the next day.

One of the 29 bunkers from WWII on Towers Hill

A flood sign next to the Burdekin River of flood levels over the years, at the top 1946, 21.79m

The restored 1888 Stock Exchange Building

We found a cute caravan park just out of town and spent the afternoon strolling along the ‘Strand’ and watching the sunset on top of Castle Hill (over 180 degrees views including Magnetic Island). The next day we decided to do a day trip over to Magnetic Island and hired a little topless car we nicknamed ‘Titty Girl’. We did two snorkel trails on the reefs nearby, had a nice lunch at Horseshoe Bay and in the afternoon did a steep 3km walk to a secluded nudist beach. The swimmers would have been off only for a seedy old man walking around staring at everyone and making them feel awkward and uncomfortable haha. We reluctantly returned ‘Titty Girl’ and caught the ferry back into Townsville. We couldn’t resist a visit to Sizzlers for dinner that night and we weren’t let down!

Panorama from on top of Castle Hill, Townsville

Balding Bay, the nudist beach!

Selfie in Titty Girl

Our next little drive up the coast brought us to Kurrimine, near Innisfail. We got some nice Barra Burgers at Cardwell on the way up for lunch and drove through Mission Beach where we saw the Rainforest meet the Beach, literally (a world heritage site). We settled into a camp ground right on the beach in town and watched the Origin match at a little local motel which was really fun except for the fact NSW lost, that’s why there’s a 3^rd game but right? A relaxing day on the beach pretty much doing nothing at all (except finding out we swam in crocodile water later that night haha) and a Skype session early this morning with the Cartwrights, even lil Rubz made an appearance with a smile. We've now made it to Atherton after a beautiful drive through what some call the Cairns Hinterland and set up camp to finish this blog!