Days 8-20

We arrived at our favourite place, Airlie Beach,  on a cloudy day in late April. The weather gods played with us. Rain overnight and in the mornings, sunny afternoons and cool nights for the first ten days.

We spent some of the 2 weeks  helping our dear friend Lea getting her five acres under control. Ian slashed and chopped and dug and replanted and whipper snipped and mowed and her property was a picture when we left in early May. 

I was supposed to write while Ian did the work, but I spent most of the time walking around with my camera, chatting to Lea, and playing with rag doll Molly, and Ruby dog.

Lea's wonderful garden overlooking the Whitsundays

RUBY

The back view overlooing Proserpine

There were fabulous photo opportunities, pink moon, sunbird on the clothes line,  catching up with locals,  Danielle and her sweet Roman, Brian and Linda, and David R Garms, author (if you haven't read his book, make sure you do... an excellent read)

https://www.amazon.com.au/Hades-Double-David-R-Garms-ebook/dp/B01B2UP934

Pink Moon

 

Gypsy and Ian

Sunbird nest on the clothes line

More Ruby

On other days we went touring... up to the scenic Hydeaway Bay, and Ian went on a few fishing charters. We ate coral trout five nights in a row!

Cape Gloucester

We caught up with our friends, the Mudgee Smiths', daughter, Felicity and her partner, Lochlan, who became her fiance during their visit to Airlie Beach. A romantic proposal at Cedar Creek Falls!

The night we caght up with them to say goodbye, Airlie Beach put on an incredible sunset.

Airlie Beach, always spectacular

The boys went fishing and caught lots of fish!

Some of the restaurants up here will cook your catch.

Lea took us to Northerlies... superb!

Another fish night at Anchor Bar with Felicity and Lochlan

The soon to be engaged Felicity with me at Paradiso. I might have to write a romance about the proposal.

Coral Sea Marina (This appears n my next book in October... Osprey Reef)

A few more dinners out and then it was time to head north again.

Next instalment: Rollingstone Beach, and Mission Beach on the way to Cooktown.

Oh, and I didn't get my book finished. I was having too much fun!

That means more work at the next destination!

 Day 7

We left Tannum Sands bright and early and  headed 403 km up the highway to break the long journey at a much loved spot at Cape Palmerston. The road from Rockhampton to Mackay is long, and always brings back memories of our non-event honeymoon up there. We had booked a beachside bure at Eimeo Beach (which coincidentally features in my November release, Osprey Reef, in the 1930s)

Two months before our wedding, there was a particularly nasty double murder on that lonely stretch of road.

 Due to the high frequency of crime, the highway also earned the nickname "The Badlands". The highway between Marlborough and Sarina was realigned in 1982, and the sealed road which had served as the Bruce Highway at the time of the Weckert murders is now known as Marlborough-Sarina Road.

A couple of hundred kilometres south of that stretch of road, we witnessed a man carry from the bush what looked like a body in a sack. We, in our 1970 HT stationwagon, and several other cars, turned around and went back to Howard Police Station to report what we had seen.

Needless to say, we did not make our bure at Eimeo Beach! We spent our honeymoon at Hervey Bay, the Gold Coast and Nambucca Heads, where we moved to fifteen years later.

Back to Cape Palmerston. A very quiet and peaceful night ... the photos tell it all! The two things to mention about Cape Palmerston are the fresh prawns from their prawn farm and the Taj Mahal of amenities blocks!

We departed bright and early for our next stop ... two weeks at our favourite Airlie Beach.

Heading to the tropics: Days 2-6

 It’s almost a week since we left home and at the end of today we will have travelled 1300 kms.

On Day 2 we left Iluka and crossed the border into Queensland. I was born in the sunshine state and even though I have lived in NSW for most of my life it  still feels like home.

The traffic through the Gold Coast and Brisbane was heavy as usual and after a long hot trip, we were pleased to arrive at Maroochydore for a 4 night stay on the river at Cotton Tree.

We were nicely positioned three sites from the river and spent our first three days chilling by the water, reading and walking. An unexpected bonus was the National Surf Life saving titles being held a few hundred metres from us. We walked around each day and watched some events.

Friday was spent at Mooloolaba Surf Club for dinner catching up with longtime friend, Sharyn. Beautiful sunset views over the sea and a bonus was the Beach Flag race finals on the sand beneath the restaurant.

Wherever we go we are sure to find an author friend, and I caught up with historical author, Suzi Love for a quick coffee.The ninth book in my Pentecost Island series was released on Saturday and I spent much of the day watching the charts. A celebratory wine was had that night when TESS reached #1 in an Amazon category and hit the top 20 charts on Apple Australia.

Catching up with Suzi.

Saturday was spent with Sharyn  and her two sweet granddaughters, and another friend, Di. A fish and chip picnic on the sand at Cotton Tree and then a magnificent sunset completed a relaxing four days.

Despite the socialising and relaxation and reading. I did manage to write 4000 words of my Christmas novella during our stay on the Sunshine Coast.

Ian is reading Breaker Morant and I’ve.been

reading Kristin Hannah’s Four Winds. A fabulous read and highly recommended.

We were up with the bush turkeys before sunrise on Anzac Day and on the road to Tannum Sands by 6.30 am.

 A pleasant six hour drive to this small seaside town enabled us to arrive in time for a long walk along the beautiful foreshore (6 kilometres) after sitting in the car all day.

It’s a long slow trip today to Cape Palmerston (long weekend and road works)

Until next post ....

Annie and Ian