Day 13 – Bron’s birthday! The plan for the day was to drive to Townsville, and also try and spot a wild cassowary (large endangered bird). Google research told us Etty beach was the best place to see them. Bron wasn’t feeling too hopeful as we’d got a later start then planned and they are most active at dawn and dusk. Alas! As we pulled into an available parking spot there was a cassowary trying to steal a lady’s coffee at the picnic table in front of us. What luck! We enjoyed the cassowary from a safe distance, except when it wandered right up to see if we had food. It was great seeing it, but obviously concerning that people are feeding it (just like ‘a fed bear is a dead bear’, this cassowary shouldn’t be that close to people by choice).
We made a short stop at Mission beach for a coffee and saw some skydivers landing. (Bron enjoyed doing it in Hawaii, but neither of us feel the need to do it/again). On the way north we’d seen signs for Wallaman Falls and read it was impressive. What we didn’t realize was it is a pretty substantial detour off the road to Townsville. Oh well! Through cow fields, over grids, and up a VERY steep and winding narrow road…. finally we made it. Wallaman is Australia’s “highest permanent single drop waterfall”. It was pretty impressive. Enough to equal the drive? We’re not totally sure…. In the winter when hiking is more comfortable it would be excellent.
In Townsville we once again went out after dark and had a delicious dinner of Indian food. No spiders or snakes to be seen….
Day 14 – Magnetic Island – because we were drawn to it. Morning found us walking to the ferry terminal and sailing over to Magnetic Island. We chose a bus pass option, although many people rent ‘barbie’ topless cars. We took the bus to the farthest end of the island, had a coffee, and started hiking. Down the beach, up and up and over a ridge, and down to Radical bay. There wasn’t anything there except an out of tune piano. (Yes – I’m serious – middle of nowhere, deserted beach….piano).
We unwisely had only brought 2 liters of water thinking we could refill regularly, and we started to suffer a bit. We kept walking around the track passed Gowrie, Florence, and Arthur bays hoping each might have drinking water. Nope. It was beautiful scenery, but the water situation kind of diminished the enjoyment.
We eventually got back to a trail head/bus stop. There was a trail which is well known for koalas which Bron desperately wanted to do. Things were in our favor, as the trail map showed a water tap a few 100m up the trail. We took the gamble, and luckily the map was correct!! Our hiking paid off with 2 koala sightings – so cute! Our luck continued as the hourly bus showed up a few minutes after we finished the hike. Over 22 thousand steps (for Bron) in 30+ degree weather, but it was all worth it in the end! As a reward we had pizza and tiramisu at the hotel restaurant for dinner.
Day 15 – Morning saw us strolling the esplanade in Townsville with a coffee – a perfect way to kill time before the aquarium opened.
It was fun to learn more about the fish we’d seen snorkelling and see others that had eluded us in nature. Did you know a leopard shark’s eggs look like a coconut husk? Now you do. The rest of the day was driving to Airlie beach and getting settled in there.
Day 16 – We went back and forth about doing a liveaboard sailing trip in the Whitsundays but in the end we decided staying in Airlie beach and doing a day trip was the way to go. We took off for Whitehaven beach on Zigzag tours. They have a super fast boat (4 engines – 1200hp) which was quite fun, especially as they ‘zigzag’ around in the water like a rollercoaster. We did some drivebys of the islands where there are numerous expensive resorts and then landed at Whitehaven beach. This beach was so hyped up as a ‘must see’, I was worried it would be disappointing. It’s just a beach after all…. However – I was totally wrong. The beach is 7km long and made of super fine, pure, silica sand. This stuff is wild! It doesn’t get hot, squeaks as you walk on it with wet feet, and feels amazing. We did a short hike to a look out where we could see the whole thing and spend a couple hours just chilling. We did go for a swim – which was fantastic even though we had to wear stinger suits as it’s jellyfish season.
After our fill of beach, the boat took us to a bay for some snorkelling. This time my ‘big’ thing sighting was a ray, and again so many many awesome fish. There was a lot more algae here, but I’m not sure if that was just the specific location we were in. The last stop of the day was a small resort where we had a drink overlooking the ocean. We made sure to soak in the peacefulness and happiness. A fast boat ride brought us back to Airlie beach where we found some dinner and a sangria, and called it an early night.
Night 16 – Brent goes to the bathroom and upon flushing a
palm size hairy spider runs out of the toilet bowl, and 5 cockroaches skitter
across the bathroom floor. Welcome to
the tropics!!! Bron was woken up to admire
the spider commiserate the horror, and sadly didn’t think to take a
picture. We thought the stories were
exaggerated, but…. NOPE! Googling tells
us it was most likely a Huntsman spider, which are not poisonous, but it still
wasn’t fun. We now are more diligent
about checking toilets before use and zipping bags.
Day 17 – After a couple busy weeks it was time for a slow day. We slept in, lingered over coffee, caught up on some chores, and didn’t get out the door until 11am (shocking!). We had no plans for the day, and just wondered the boardwalk from Cannonvale (suburb we were staying in) to Airlie beach and back. It was quite hot and we took our time. There were stops to look at all kinds of things – views, birds, beaches, rocks, coffee, boats…. We had some lunch (Taiwan street food – amazballs) and Brent had a swim in the ‘lagoon’. Australia seems to be full of these ‘lagoons’ which are huge FREE public pools by the ocean (but without jellyfish, crocs, riptides, and sharks). And that was all we did all day!
Brent And Bron Abroad 