COVID escape - QLD road trip

[tgh]

Bb used to have the best coral in the whitsundays… (IMnsHO..nach)

 

[k_sheep]

Nara Inlet

Some concentration required to navigate through the channel between Hook and Haymen islands, but we managed with minimal tears.

Some nice scenery on the trip

Those with polarised sunglasses dispatched to keep a weather eye out for hidden reefs.

There is a little walking track in Nara inlet which takes you to some Indigenous cave drawings.

..... not sure what I was expecting but .... yep this is it.

There's a nice view on the walk up though.

There is also meant to be a waterfall nearby, but alas it was dry. Had a nice explore around in the tender though.

 

[k_sheep]

We made a friend in Nara. He was a little bit demanding however. He stuck around to see what we had left sitting out, but quickly moved on to the next boat when he realised we weren't the soft touches he was hoping for.


We were treated to a somewhat spectacular sunset though.

 

[k_sheep]

Day 4. Awake Nara inlet, into Tongue Bay, attempted mooring at Chalkies, headed to Windy Bay instead.

Ripping south easterly today which made us re-evaluate some plans. We had intended to go to Chance or Turtle bays but that would have been ill-advised. So we headed to Tongue Bay, where there's a nice little walk to some great lookouts over Whitehaven.


Again, on reef watch. Heading past Macona inlet. Map off Tongue bay.

We had all been to Whitehaven on previous trips so didn't feel the urge to join all the day trippers with with instagrammy obnoxiousness. Fantastic views from Hill inlet though.




We headed over to Chalkies beach - but this was an area where the rules regarding mooring time limits were being badly flaunted. There was no movement even after 2 hours, so we headed to Windy Bay on the northern end of Haslewood Island.

Here were were treated to another brilliant sunset.

 

[k_sheep]

Day 5. Awake Windy bay, head to Chalkies, lunch at Border Island, across to Cid harbour.

Windy bay lived up to its name - but our anchor held tight and was actually a pretty comfortable night. We had really been hoping to cross through Solway passage to Chance Bay again, but tides and winds meant we decided discretion was the better part of valor.

Fairly early we ducked around the corner to nab a Chalkies mooring which we had been informed was just about the best snorkeling around.

All hands on deck! We're not letting another chance go by.

Got it!
A hearty morning tea I managed to wrangle up while we were stalking.

Look the snorkeling was okay but not spectacular. I think that maybe it's best for kids and nervous swimmers because it's pretty shallow and easily reached from the shore. But I'm not going to waste time stalking for moorings again!

Next time, we'll spend more time on Border island, moored at Cataran bay. This place is SPECTACULAR.

Amazing scenery on the way to Border island.

 

[k_sheep]

Cateran Bay. Heaps of moorings available. There's a walk on the island which is just amazing, both with the plant life and the views.

Okay so daisies aren't exciting but they had pretty moths. But the golden orchids were stunning!

An amazing field of grass tree spikes as far as the eye could see.

Hundreds and hundreds of golden orchids in flower.

 

[k_sheep]

Did I mention the views? In about 15 seconds of scanning, from the top I saw at least 2 dozen turtles - green, olive and leatherback.

Facing north with our boat in the distance.

Facing west.


Facing south.

On the walk back down to the boat.

Perfect sandy beach for those into that sort of thing.

Nice spot for a throne or bath.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Ah your photos bring back many fond memories.

 

[VPS]

Fantastic photos - I'm green with envy but don't let that stop you

 

[k_sheep]

At Cid harbour, went for a walk from Sawmill beach to Dugong beach for the 'last beers'. Really cool shells.



Treated again to another spectacular sunset.

The fishing here is fantastic - but got any decent sized bait got bitten off by something BIG very quickly!

 

[k_sheep]

Early morning, off to climb Whitsunday peak. We had tried to get a late checkout returning the boat, but no dice, so this was a flying trip.




Until it was time to pack up and head back into harbour ...



First order of business - fresh seafood at Rum bar, with a walk to see a far less fortunate boat ....

Crashed the hotel of our friends to do our clothes washing, then booked a last minute motel at Colonial Palms motel for $165. Decided we could splurge for a good shower

 

[k_sheep]

Now, time to head north.

Quick stop at Bowen for coffee and a climb to check out the view ....

Then up to Alva ... probably not worth the long trip out from the highway but hey had to stop somewhere.

 

[k_sheep]

Now onto part 2 of the holiday - hiking the Thorsborne trail.

Day -1. Arrived at Lucinda and went to our motel. For once, I had phoned them directly to make a booking, rather than online, hoping they would enjoy the extra commission rather than giving it to Agoda. Alas, when we arrived, no record of booking, back and forth between the motel and the attached bar / restaurant with much insistence from the manager that we must have the wrong place. I went through my phone log and showed them their number, nope no good. And they were full. So we started calling around other places, when the manager suddenly remembered our phone call yesterday, and finally found our booking. Sigh. To add insult to injury they charged $18 more than the online price - suspect because they sold the cheaper room we had booked so we had to pay for a 2 bedroom room. This ended up working out well however, because the rest of our walking party didn't arrive until nearly 11pm (after getting in at 8pm to TSV).

We decided to give the benefit of the doubt and had dinner at the attached restaurant anyway. Turned up at booked time, yes they had our booking but we were assigned a table number that apparently didn't exist (39). So we were stuck at the bar. The manager saw us about 10 min later and asked why we weren't at our assigned table 46. Sigh. Moved over there, and of course clearly saw table 39 empty a few spots over. Double sigh. Dinner (fish and chips and a chicken schnitzel) took 55 minutes. Triple sigh.

Lucinda boat ramp.

 

[k_sheep]

So, Thorsborne trail; rated one of the best walks in Australia. 32km walking the length of the island, either north to south or vise versa. Most people do it in 3 or 4 nights; we had booked up 5 because why not.

Day 1. Dropped our keys off at 6am, waiting eagerly at the boat ramp for our 6:30 pickup. This was a bit painful after the 11pm bedtime the night before! About 6:50 a boat rocked up but it wasn't the one we were expecting. Turns out John at Absolute North had misplaced our booking made months ago and he was no longer available. So instead of a comfortable transfer with someone who knew the island well, we had his mate with no idea and a very bouncy boat which quickly drenched our gear before we even started.

Boat ride through the estuary

After a 2 hour boat ride (meant to be about an hour) we were dropped off at Ramsey bay. Amusingly there were covid safe plans on a noticeboard at the start as well as sanitiser - for an island where only 40 people are allowed at a time! It was a quick 15 min walk through the mangroves to hit the beach, where I pulled out breakfast of bacon with leftover schnitzel - how's that for an epic hiking snack?



Less than 1 hour later we dropped our bags off the track and headed up to Nina peak. Lovely outlook about a 18-20 min walk uphill. Some of our party continued to the summit for a further 30 min but honestly the view wasn't really any better so I wouldn't bother next time. From there it was an easy 30 min stroll to Nina bay campsite.

Contrary to several recent reports on the internet there was plenty of drinking water both North and South of the camp, you just had to head like 30m upstream to find it. Lovely pools of fresh water, with jungle perch and freshwater prawns hanging about. Had a refreshing bath, filled up the water bladders and rinsed the clothes out. Then settled in for many hours of daydreaming, reading, wandering and snacking! We had the campsite to ourselves - 2 other groups of 2 started same day as us, but they both went into little Ramsey bay

The campsite is very nice, lots of well separated sites to choose from, several with hanging poles to keep packs out of the reach of sneaky white tail melomys! There was a clean toilet, and a lovely little estuary that curled around the camp. But man the mozzies and midges were fierce! Got many bites despite long sleeves and DEET.

 

[k_sheep]

From the first lookout on Nina peak. The 2 beach inlets there are the north and south ends of Nina bay, we camped at the north.

View from the summit proper.