Tuesday 2 April 2013

26 March – 28 March 2013 – Hydeaway Bay and Gloucester Island



We left Airlie Beach and drove a short way north to a hidden gem called Hydeaway Bay.  It is not a very big town but again the views are spectacular.  After booking into Hydeaway Bay Caravan Park for 3 nights, we went for our drive to see what is around.  We found a great little resort called “Montes” right on the beach and it looks across at the most northern of the Whitsunday Islands, Gloucester Island.  After having a few drinks at Montes we walked out of there and booked a night via National Parks to camp at Gloucester Island for the night.  Being a deserted island, we would have to take all our supplies over there via our tinny.  The nearest public boat ramp is quite a way away at Dingo Beach so while at Montes, Josh arranged to come back for dinner that night if we could use their boat ramp – and it worked, true Josh style.  Upon coming back to the van, we met another couple also travelling Australia, same way as us!  Mark and Sharon are doing it in true style, by Harley Davidson and towing their supplies in a small trailer.  We are hoping to catch up with them again at Bowen horse races this Saturday.  Back at Montes we witnessed an absolutely stunning sunset and then enjoyed a fantastic seafood platter for two… living the unemployed high life!!

The following morning Josh was in full swing and on a mission.  He was in packing mode for our journey across the seas.  We were travelling via our little tin boat which meant we had to try and pack light.  It’s a bit hard to do when you need to take shelter, food and water, not to mention the snorkelling gear and stinger suits.  Once everything was packed into the car we headed to Montes to get it all on the water.  The boat was off, the motor attached, and all our other gear was piled in.  We even had room for the kids!  Across we went to the island and it was a relatively smooth ride.  We got across to Bona Bay on the island and unpacked everything and carried it up from the beach and set up our little home for the night.  The kids were a bit on edge to start but that was probably from the fear we had instilled about crocodiles and even worse, the stingers.  We got back in the boat and headed around the bend to go snorkelling as there was nothing along the beach where we were camping.  Josh did a bit of snorkelling on his own and was hoping to get some use out of his spear gun (but no luck and no fish for dinner) and the kids and I spent quite a while trying skip small rocks across the water before having a bit of a snorkel ourselves.  After having lunch back at the campsite we thought about having a game of cards but the wind would have just blown them about so instead we tried our hand at fishing off the beach.  The one thing left behind in the car though was the tackle box so we didn’t have any luck with that.  Later in the afternoon, we saw a lovely big old sailing boat come into our bay (of course it was “our” bay as we were the only people on the island) and anchor.  Back in the boat, we were headed out for another snorkel, but Josh first went up alongside  the sailing boat, “Escapee”, to see if there were pirates on board.  A lovely couple came out on the deck and we had a quick chat.  They offered for us to come on board for a drink so we took them up on their offer after going for our last snorkel for the day.  On board their boat, Eileen and Ralph showed us around their second home and made the kids and us feel right at home.  We enjoyed a lovely chat, a glass of home-made whiskey and another glorious sunset with them before heading back to the beach before it got too dark.  Upon cooking up a storm (well ok, it was just a quick pasta) we scoffed down some food and then decided to go fishing in the dark hoping for better luck - especially seeing as though Eileen and Ralph had supplied us with some more fishing supplies.  It took a little while but we all caught at least one fish except for Sami and she wasn’t happy about it, in particular as she was the one always nagging to do some fishing.  We had packed up and thrown all our remaining bait into the sea and Sami had her line still dangling in the water and yippee…  she pulled in her first fish.  We have no idea what fish we caught but they were all relatively small so we didn’t keep any of them.  It was a great end to the night!

Thankfully it was nearly midnight that we got to bed as we didn’t have any home comforts sleeping on a few mats.  Zoe and I in one tent and Sami and Josh in the other – right next to us!  Josh cooked us all bacon rolls as we each woke up and it was a nice few relaxing hours.  Instead of going snorkelling and then going back to the mainland, the wind was picking up and we decided to skip the snorkelling and make tracks.  After loading everything back in the tinny, we hit the waves, and boy did we hit them.  It was pretty rough out there and I was glad to be back safely on the mainland… not that we were in any trouble, it was just an extremely rough ride and our supplies were bouncing around the boat.  We loaded everything back into and onto the car and came back to the caravan park to unload and wash up.  It certainly was good to have a hot shower and get the salt out of our hair and clothes.





































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