Our caravan park is between the two villages and right next to the light plane and helicopter airport so the occasional plane takes off over the park and the helicopters do their thing a bit further away. They don’t fly at night and seem not to be going much before 7.30. However there is some really noisy vehicle that goes by on the road to Shute Harbour at about 5.00am that we got used to in a couple of days. Book-in times here are quite early as some vans are coming in at 10.00am and the book out can be quite flexible from 4.00am to mid-day. The local water is heavy in Calcium and perhaps some oily deposit that reminded me of the gummy residue that was in the Blue Mountains water in the drought of the mid 60’s when dam levels were low enough for the old trees to be at the surface. We broke out the bottled water we carry for just this reason. I washed the car later in the week and let some light showers take care of the white residue that would otherwise have stayed on it as the water dried. Park bookings for more than 2 days were a bit tight.
We went into Arlie Beach on Sunday to book the Knuckle Reef trip. The village was busy with lots of young people booking tours etc and just chilling in the coffee bars and pubs. The stinger problem (May to September) means there are swimming enclosures or pools near the beaches up this way. Arlie is no exception except that its pool is large and inviting. After the look round at Arlie we went down to Shute Harbour for a look. There is very nice scenery all around this area, lots of blues and greens of ocean and land, islands and high headlands with islands fading into the distance. It really is very picturesque and the real estate clinging to the hills is varied from the spectacular to the renovator’s dream (with a few Developer’s Dreams for good measure). Anne had picked out her site within minutes.
The view I wanted from my future house in Shute Harbour
(double click images to enlarge them)
And here is the house I want... Ah well I suppose 70 squares is a bit much and all that window cleaning
This one would do at a pinch
Or this one with about 270 degree views of Shute Harbour
The trip out to the reef on Monday was a bit rough as the wind was picking up a scattered swell that even in a large and very comfortable boat had the galley closed early and lots of people enjoying the view from the back deck (bits of burley too I’m told). Knuckle Reef has a large pontoon anchored in the reef where we had free options of a glass bottom boat trip over the top of the bommies(you see most with this option), a trip in a semi submersible (you are sitting below the waterline looking out through glass panes at the corals) and a very low lower-deck viewing area where the fish come over to feed from a slow release feeder hung in the water outside the window plus room for sunbaking and taking the water-slide. Paid activities include, gear supplied, snorkelling, scuba diving and joy flights in a helicopter (10 minutes over the reef or fly back to the big island). We, and most of the other guests, decided that the chop, even in the reef, put snorkelling way outside our level of skill and interest. I noticed that very few of the more practiced snorkelers stayed in the water more than 15 minutes and one of the team who would otherwise have been accompanying/guiding snorkelers told me he was pleased to do other things.
The Flametree Caravan park is home to a number of the Bush Thick Knees (formerly called Stone Curlews) that make a rather disagreeable noise at night until you get used to them. The bird feeding, held each afternoon, calls up the Rainbow Lorikeets, the Blue-faced Honeyeater and the occasional Sulphur Crested Cockatoo but does not attract the Thick Knees, Black Butcher Bird, the numerous Wattlebirds or the pretty little Yellow-bellied Sunbird. A usual the many plovers are about their own business. Did I mention that we bought a new camera in Mackay?
Puffed up Thick Kneed Stone Curlew tries to intimidate Jim
Another pix of the Thick Kneed Stone Curlew resting
Blue faced honey eater
Yellow-bellied sunbird
Close-up of the yellow-bellied sunbird
(Anne here... This caravan park looks like it was originally developed in the 70s and the owners spent not another penny until they sold it to current owners who are now stuck with cleaning the pipes and putting in a new septic system, in addition to replacing the very old on-site vans with modern cabins)
Tuesday started as a rest-day but when the washing was done we went for a shop at the big Woollies complex at the residential town of Arlie Beach called Cannonvale on road to Proserpine where the locals shop. I decided to get both my watches fixed. (Yes there has been some relaxation – one watch just ran out of energy and the other decided to retire by ripping through its band). Prouds, the only real jeweller in the area, has an assistant who had never put on a watch band – and still hasn’t. No one else in the shop could solve the problem of getting a band onto my watch either. The battery watch would have had to go ‘into Town’ and take 2 weeks. I decided to relax..... Took a look at Eimeo Beach round the corner from Airlie and found its warning sign for stingers, submerged rocks and strong currents.
We filled in most of Wednesday on a trip to Hydeaway Bay and Dingo Beach. The latter is a nice beach with a stinger enclosure and lots of Collared Kingfishers flying about. I also saw a Sea Eagle being escorted off a Kite’s patch. Both would have happily caused the other a grave injury. Dingo Beach gave way to a small area of beach scrub that is being conserved by a local group as that sort of scrub does not have the appeal of a rain forest and is quickly disappearing. We liked the Dingo Beach end of this long bay (Anne: houses reminiscent of 70’s beach houses, not pretentious) but were not so keen on the Hydeaway Bay end despite the houses being a bit more up-market. Perhaps the high stony hill immediately at the back of those houses and the evidence of recent landslips were influencing factors...
We found an Eastern Reef Egret grey morph at Dingo Beach
The usual suspect on Dingo Beach with Pelican Rocks in the background
It rained (pretty sure I have not said that before in the Blog). So I washed the car and we did some planning and made some bookings and appointments. The future is starting to close in again...
As Friday was fine again we did some more washing and the pre-departure pack up for our big trip (80km) to Bowen on Saturday. In the afternoon went for a drive to Proserpine. It was a short Town Tour as there is a Sugar Mill with the attendant odour of Molasses which neither of us likes. On the way back we called in to Conway’s Beach and Cedar Creek Falls. We found Conway’s beach very quiet especially a low tide and the Caravan park crowded and a long way in on a very narrow road.
Cedar Creek Falls was down to a trickle in the Dry Season but looked like a very nice spot. In the wet it would be quite spectacular(found evidence in nice postcard). From the foot of the falls it looks like there is a large plunge pool about half way up. We did not have time before dark to explore and the other people there looked much too laid back to have explored.
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