Day 75, Thursday 16 June, Townsville to Cairns
This is cane country and, more importantly, cane train country with rail lines crossing the highway at regular intervals.
Cairns is a great city for tourists with lots to see and do. We are keen to catch up with an old friend Frances from our days in Hong Kong. Frances very kindly takes us out for dinner with family and friends and it is just like 30 years ago.
Day 76, Friday 17 June, Cairns
We’ve been fortunate to visit Cairns several times over the years and really enjoyed our visits to the Reef, Port Douglas and Kuranda. We have not been to nearby Fitzroy Island before and that is our mission for today. The island has a resort, a couple of beaches and a few interesting walks but our priority is a turtle rehabilitation facility. The region has six of the world’s seven species of sea turtles and sea turtles have been around for around 150 million years, from the time of the dinosaurs. This facility is the last stage in their rehabilitation before being released back into the ocean.
Day 77, Saturday 18 June, Cairns to Townsville
From Cairns our route is down the coast to home on the Gold Coast. We have trimmed a couple of days out of our schedule in order to make a Tesla Owners Club of Queensland event on the Sunshine Coast in eight days’ time. Our plan will be to sample a few of the regional towns on our way to spending overnights in a couple of resort towns.
Today we retrace our steps to Townsville and return to the same accommodation of a few nights ago.
Day 78, Sunday, 19 June, Townsville to Airlie Beach
We stop at Bowen for coffee and charge and a visit to a hole-in-the-wall Visitor Information Centre. We drop into Dingo Beach for lunch (with not a dingo in sight).
We have not been to Airlie Beach before and are pleasantly surprised by the town on high ground overlooking a couple of Marinas full of yachts that must spend much of their time around the Whitsundays.
On arrival at Airlie Beach, we again visit the Information Centre. The navigator makes the mistake of asking what tomorrow’s sea conditions will be like and, from that point, our day will be limited to land based activities.
The town has a vibrant nightlife, and we are impressed by Melbourne band Whole Lotta Rosie playing at the local pub.
Day 79, Monday 20 June, Airlie Beach
Airlie Beach reminds us of Noosa but probably more laid back. We try the long walking trail that runs along the shoreline past marinas with millions, perhaps billions, of dollars’ worth of luxury boats.
We take a drive out to Cedar Creek Falls which is underwhelming now that the wet season is well over. We stop by Proserpine to get a feel for the town while we do a quick car charge. We were planning to drop by here tomorrow on our trip south but realise that won’t be necessary.
Back at Airlee we walk the town and beach. In the evening we revisit the nightlife and enjoy the best pizza we’ve had all trip.
Day 80, Tuesday 21 June, Airlie Beach to Yeppoon
Before we leave there is an unfortunate report of a serious vehicle accident close to our destination on the Bruce Highway. We can only hope that all are ok. We have one of our longest drives on the shortest day and we leave just after dawn to maximise our daylight hours. We will need a coffee and charge on route.
Late in the drive we are stopped by emergency services personnel who advise that the road ahead remains blocked because of this morning’s accident. We have the choice to either wait out the delay or backtrack and take a detour down a dirt road. We choose the latter forgetting that traffic from the opposite direction will also be using this road and consequently throwing stones our way. The diversion adds about 80 kms to our trip and we eventually arrive at destination close to sunset.
Our accommodation tonight is at a small, renovated motel right in the middle of the retail strip and across the road from the sea.
Day 81, Wednesday 22 June, Yeppoon
We walk the Yeppoon foreshore early before leaving for our boat trip from Rosslyn Bay. Yeppoon is best known for its access to the southern Great Barrier Reef and the group of 17 Keppel Island, particularly Great Keppel Island. Today’s excursion is a boat trip to Great Keppel plus a glass bottom boat tour of the nearby reef. Back on the island we have plenty of time for the inevitable fish and chip lunch and R&R before returning to Yeppoon late afternoon, in time for a beach walk as the sun is setting.
Day 82, Thursday 23 June, Yeppoon to Bundaberg
On advice from the locals before leaving the local area we drive the coastal route to nearby Emu Park and are not disappointed. There is a singing ship memorial erected in 1970 to commemorate Captain Cook’s visit 200 years earlier. Much of the park is an impressive Anzac memorial.
Just a short drive to Rockhampton for coffee and charge and, as we walk the streets, we are immediately impressed by the historic buildings in the city,
Next stop is Bundaberg and we catch the Visitor Information Centre just before closing.
Day 83, Friday 24 June, Bundaberg
Our priorities today are the turtle centre at Mon Repos and the Bert Hinkler Museum. Interestingly, the two are connected in that Bert had his first successful glider flight on the Mon Repos sand hills.
The ideal time to visit the turtle centre is between November and March, with turtles nesting early in that period and hatchlings making a break for the water towards later However, there is an impressive interpretive centre and we are fortunate to spend some time with Parks and Wildlife ranger Dylan who cannot hide his passion for these unusual animals.
As we learned from Fitzroy Island, Queensland has six of the seven species of marine turtles and Mon Repos beach is the prime breeding site for loggerhead turtles. This facility is now well supported by government with the help of volunteers.
Dr Col Limpus OA grew up in the area, became a teacher and used to bring his students to the beach to experience turtles. Over time his passion developed to the point where he is the driving force behind the research that goes on in this facility and elsewhere. All species of marine turtles are either threatened or endangered and, after being around for over 150 million years, it would be an absolute tragedy if any became extinct in our lifetime.
Bert Hinkler’s first glider flight at Mon Repos was at age 19 in a glider he constructed himself and included his mother’s ironing board. The Bert Hinkler Museum traces his life from growing up in Bundaberg to his time in Britain flying during World War I and beyond and his stunning solo flights, England to Australia and across the south Atlantic.
By coincidence I learned to fly at the same airfield where Bert was an engineer and test pilot for AV Roe some decades before. His house from that time was disassembled, shipped to Australia and reconstructed adjacent to the museum.
The Hinkler Museum is in the local Botanical Gardens and includes Fairymead House, also relocated to the site. The House showcases the local history of families involved with sugar cane and includes the story of the Bundaberg sugar cane industry. Eighty percent of Bundaberg raw sugar is exported overseas. Apparently, the rest is consumed in the domestic market to support the dental profession.
Fairymead includes the story of the introduction of 101 cane toads from Hawaii to address the local industry’s problem with cane beetles. Not only did the plan fail spectacularly but cane toads now seem impossible to eradicate and are likely to soon be endemic in the northern half of the country.
We make a late dash to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery which also takes advantage of local sugar cane.
The three tourist facilities in Bundaberg are quite outstanding but our personal impression is that the city is rather modest and certainly not helped by being bisected by an active rail line.
Day 84, Saturday 25 June, Bundaberg to Noosaville
Back on the Bruce Highway early, a road that seems to be under a constant state of renovation. We drive through Childers and first impressions are appealing. We stop at the town of Cooroy, in the Noosa shire just 16 km west of Noosa for the usual coffee and charge and are immediately impressed by the town. In all our visits to Noosa we have never really explored the hinterland.
Our goal today is Noosaville on the Noosa River immediately west of Noosa, an area we know well. Our plan was to spend several days in the area but Queensland school holidays have caught up with us. In response, we are making a one night stop in order to catch up with the Tesla Owners Club of Australia Queensland event tomorrow morning in nearby Pomona.
Day 85, Sunday 26 June, Noosaville to Broadbeach
An early walk in the Noosa National Park before heading west. We have been keen to visit the Majestic Theatre in Pomona since it gained notoriety for showing silent films. The theatre has been in operation for 101 years as a community hall and cinema and is the longest, continually operating movie theatre in Australia. In 1973 Ron West introduced the travelling film festival to Pomona and the festival ran until 1994.
By coincidence the TOCA Queensland have a Tesla event today at this theatre with a silent movie followed by a group lunch nearby. We are fortunate that 89-year-old Ron has agreed to come along to play the pipe organ and, before the movie starts, regales us with delightful stories of the theatre’s history and his involvement.
Today’s movie is Buster Keaton in “The General”, a story set in the south during America’s civil war. The movie lasts around 80 minutes and Ron plays the organ throughout. Afterwards, when questioned, he advises that he has played during a movie lasting over two hours and was shown sequentially three times with only a 10-minute interval between.
The group lunch at the Black Ant Gourmet at Tin Tin general store is an opportunity to swap EV stories but we leave early for the drive home.
After 85 days on the road next stop is Broadbeach when The Electric Circuit will be complete.
