Tide Hiker Adventures: 2023

Monday September 18, 2023 - Charleston SC to Muswellbrook NSW.

I find that flying from Charleston to the West Coast is more tiring and stressful than the long flight over the Pacific. Nevertheless, our first flight left Charleston reasonably on time (for United) at about 4 PM on Monday and we arrived in Sydney a little early at about 7 AM on Wednesday, Sept 20..

Once we were through Immigration and Customs in Sydney we found our rental car and headed north out of Sydney traffic. I was a bit disappointed in the rental car - it had already done 175,000 kms, and performed accordingly.

We made it the 260 kms to our hotel in Muswellbrook, NSW right on schedule when the room was available at 2 PM. We enjoyed a couple of hours snooze, then headed out for dinner, struggled to watch a bit of TV until about 9 PM and then crashed. It had been a "long day".

No photos today - too tired

Thursday September 21, 2023 - Muswellbrook to Armidale, NSW

Apparently it has not rained in this part of Australia for the last 6 months and the drought conditions were rather obvious. This time of year (spring) the countryside should look pretty green, and that sure was not the case.

We arrived at Robyn and Rick's (the bride and groom, my niece and her soon to be husband) at about 3 PM. We chatted and drank tea for an hour or so and watched the kangaroos accumulate in their yard as dusk arrived.

That night was Rick's buck's turn ("bachelor party") at a local pub.

Friday September 22, 2023 - Armidale.

Friday morning the girls went for coffee and got their nails done. After, we had a look around the area.

Results of the drought?

Because of the lack of grass, the cattle are allowed to eat the grass alongside the highway.

Saturday September 23, 2023

Deidre and I headed out of town along the Waterfall Highway. Because of the drought the waterfalls were a bit disappointing. Not being familiar with Australian driving protocol, we almost ran out of gas, but we made it back in time for the wedding at 4 PM.

Quite an impressive gorge, but only a dribble of water.

Nice looking falls, but also a bit dry.

The wedding was a wonderful family event.

Sunday September 24, 2023

Family "goodbye breakfast" at Rick and Robyn's farm. We exited at about 11:00 AM and headed towards Brisbane. It was only about 465 kms (290 miles) but its not like the USA, and we did not arrive at our B&B until about 7 PM and I was pretty tired.

Monday September 25, 2023

Walking friends Julie and Ken Mann picked us up at about 8:30 AM for breakfast and a tour of Brisbane City. Dallas and Vickey - also walking friends - joined us for breakfast.

The six of us wandered around the south shore, checked out some very impressive gardens and took a ferry ride on the Brisbane River. The city has grown a huge amount since we were there in the 70s. They are hosting the Olympic Games in 2032 and this is also driving a infrastructure building frenzy. Needless to say, we were very impressed with the public facilities.

Tuesday September 26, 2023

We went to bed at about 8 PM last night and slept thru to about 6 AM - not bad! Ken and Julie picked us up at 9 AM as planned and we headed to the Sunshine Coast via "the mountains".

Wednesday September 27, 2023

Today we headed north from Brisbane to Bundaberg, about 360 kms. We were on our way by about 8:30 AM and settled in a new B&B in Burnett Heads, on the coast about 10 kms from central Bundaberg, at about 5:30 PM. We were planning a walk on the beach, but wasted an hour or so hunting for my wallet that I thought I had lost - but had not! Now planned for tomorrow.

The first hour or so of our drive was a bit busy, but once we got into the countryside it all settled down on a typical 2-lane Australian country road. In the USA this length drive would only take maybe 4 hours, but it took us a total of about 9 hours, deducting maybe an hour or so for morning tea and lunch.

Our lunch target was Maryborough on the Mary River, one of the original Queensland settlements.

P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins story, was born in Maryborough.

Deidre, down by the Mary River. The river tends to flood severely, hence the very tall floating dock pilons.

Lunch was good, but they charged $22 for a margarita. Never again!

Got a great deal on our B&B

After Maryborough we started running into sugar cane territory. It is also "on the way" to coal country and when the road was following the railway we saw 100 car coal trains about every 20 minutes. Yah, global heating!

This was not a coal train, but I love them all

Sugar cane, new and established

There is a grid of 24" gauge sugar train tracks running thru the sugar cane fields. It does not seem to be cutting season, so we are still waiting to see one.

Most Australian towns have memorials to their servicemen. Unlike those I have seen around the world, in Australia they are typically focused on the regular soldiers and sailors and airmen, and not the Generals. This memorial was in front of the town hall in Bundaberg.

Thursday September 28, 2023 - Burnette Heads to Yeppoon

The direct drive from Burnette Heads to Yeppoon is only about 350 kms, but we diverted off the highway to have a look at Agnes Water and the Town of 1770, and that added 120 kms.

I wanted to have a peek at 1770 because that is the first place in Queensland that Captain Cook came ashore for water and etc. It was a nice beach, but that was about it.

Initially we were in serious sugar cane country, but that faded away as we headed towards the beach.

DEIDRE: "How about this one Robert?"
ROBERT: "Nah, too crowded!"

So we did not arrive at our B&B in until about 6 PM. Getting the keys was a bit of a pain, finding a parking spot was also a bit of a hassle, and once we got all that organized and had our cases out of the car the building fire alarm sounded and the Fire Department arrived. So we gave up, reloaded the car and headed to Iron Pot to "drop in" on Sharon Wilson (a friend from my hiking trips) for a cuppa. In fact, she gave us dinner.

Friday September 29, 2023 - Yeppoon Day 1

The view from our room in Yeppoon was pretty good.

When the tide was "out"

Sharon picked us up about 9AM and we headed out for breakfast.

Saturday Sept 30, 2023 - Yeppoon Day 2

Sunday October 1, 2023 - Yeppoon to Mackay (via Lotus Creek)

A long time ago, when I was 19 and just finished 2nd year Uni, a mate and I (David Night) hitchhiked from Melbourne to Cairns and back during the summer break. This was a 7,000 km round trip and took quite a few weeks to complete. We had plenty of experiences on the trip, but the most memorable was in a place called Lotus Creek, Queensland. There was not much at Lotus Creek in those days - a beat up gas station with a country sort of cafe - but all of it was washed away in the 1971 floods. I took some photos and sent them on to David.

The countryside was rather dry and bare. Deidre lost interest in my Lotus Creek stories rather quickly and fell asleep. The road we were on was once the main highway, but that is now East of us. We only saw a few vehicles in 100 miles. The road was sealed, but quite rough. (We hit three bumps so hard that each time the car turned on the wipers unassisted!)

After some time we spotted a large wind mill being installed, and then came across a large temporary camp for at least 100 workers absolutely in the middle of no-where.

After about 300 kms the road turned east and headed back thru the coastal ranges. Soon thereafter we were in dark sky and soon the rain started to pour down. Back on the coastal plain green grass and sugar cane reappeared.

We were parked outside our hotel in Airlie by about 2:30AM. The hotel was right down town, and close to the beach. We had a good walk around. Mexican for dinner.

Monday October 2, 2023 - Mackay to Airlie Beach

It rained a fair bit last night, and we could really hear it on the motel tin roof. For breakfast we had coffee, cereal and raison bread toast in the motel room. The room was a bit shabby, but clean and well equipped. We were not too impressed with Mackay and set off north by about 9:45 AM. It started to rain again. We were definitely back into sugar cane country.

We decided to head for Airlie Beach. It was a bit off the highway, but we had plenty of time and Airlie Beach was well recommended. We stopped in Proserpine at a "PIE FACE" gas station for a meat pie (for me) and a sausage roll (for Deidre) and latte at McDonalds. We decided upon our hotel for the night while enjoying the coffee. Today was the last day of the school holidays so we were able to get a new hotel room right downtown at a decent price. (Our budget is $US100.)

Tuesday October 3, 2023 - Airlie Beach to Townsville

Our room was nice, but no toaster and no cereal bowls, so we headed of the McD's.

Lots of sugar cane, sugar cane trains and a couple of sugar mills

Wednesday October 4, 2023 - Magnetic Island

These ladies are from Tonga. They were trying to use the telescope on the mountain, but looking through the wrong end. I approached them to explain, but when I took the first photo they immediately noticed and immediately posed for a new photo.

Thursday October 5, 2023 - Drive to Cairns

A very enjoyable drive. The country was now quite tropical, everything was green. We started coming across banana plantations. And a lot more sugar cane was being harvested. We popped into the Curry sugar mill and took some photos.'

We arrived in Cairns about 4 PM and checked into our hotel looking to make some reservations and get some dinner. There was an aboriginal "concert" in the shore line park at dusk that was quite interesting. Not sure how the photos will turn out.

I am amazed at how Cairns has changed in only 57 years. Its enormous (150,000 people now) and quite modern. I have a photo from 1966 of three aboriginal people sharing a bottle of beer on the dirt embankment next to the river. That embankment now looks like Miami Beach (but nicer!)

We found a travel shop and booked:

a. Flight over the reef on Friday

b. Visit to Green Island for glass bottom boat and snorkeling on Saturday

c. Train to Karanda and back by cable car on Sunday

Friday October 6, 2023 - Cairns Day 1

Green Island

The black dot on the island is a helicopter

Saturday October 7, 2023 - Cairns Day 2

Up early and took the boat to Green Island. Deidre selected the glass bottom boat for her "activity" and I selected the snorkel boat trip.

I found the snorkel trip a bit lame. The boat only took us a couple of 100 yards from the island. I commented to the Captain that I could have swam out from the beach and saved the $50. The coral I saw was pretty old and beaten up - but I did see a "giant clam" about 30" long and plenty of fish.

We were back in Cairns by 5 PM so decided to drive to Port Douglas for dinner. Port Douglas is only about 40 miles north of Cairns and so I assumed it would be an hour up and an hour back. But the soon discovered that the road followed a very mountainous road right along the coast which was quite a challenge.

I don't think PD probably existed 50 years ago, but today it appears to be a quite sophisticated and very busy tourist town with a very fancy marina loaded with expensive boats. There were plenty of "open air" Queensland style pubs and restaurants, so finding dinner was easy.

I was a bit dismayed when I saw the extent of commerce in the heart of the island.

All very tastefully done, and hidden under the trees. But not like it was 60 years ago.

But the beach looked about the same. No-one swim here because of the "nasties" in the water. Back in 1965 Dave and I spent a lot of time in the water.

A pathway to the beach.

Sunday October 8, 2023 - Cairns Day 3

Up early again and drove to the cable car base in Smithfield. The plan was to park at the base, catch a bus to the railway station at Freshwater, take the train up to Kuranda and then ride back on the cable car. I had made this reservation a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately I messed up the reservation and made it for the following Sunday. But the ticket office sorted this out for us, just the "other way around". So we rode the cable car to Kuranda, had a walk around and lunch, and rode the train back down.

Cable car over the forest to Kuranda

Definitely lots of trees

There is a few "stops" on the cable car as we covered the several miles over the forest. At each stop there was a guide that pointed out some of the types of foliage.

Lots of water falls

We spotted the train we would take back down to the coast

We crossed some rivers

We saw some very interesting plants

Jungle Turkey!

Another Jungle Turkey enjoying morning tea

Aboriginal mural

The old train loco

More waterfalls on the way down

Tree Kangaroo nests

That turkey again

This time a waterfall and rail bridge

It was a long train

Monday October 9, 2023 - Cairns Day 4

Daintree national park is about 50 miles north of Cairns, and is one of the oldest tropical forests in the world, and is locally described as "where the forest reaches the beach".

"Where the forest reaches the beach"

We were on the road early (about 9:00AM!) as we expected a full day. Breakfast at MacDonalds. The road was good and we soon found ourselves winding through very dense forest. But first we had to cross a crock infested river on a punt.

We read that if we kept our eyes open we might be lucky and see a cassowary. Cassowaries are direct descendants of dinosaurs and the largest bird in the world. They are shire but quite dangerous if cornered. We lucked out and came across a mother and offspring :