Daydream Island
Feeding fish, Bruce the lemon shark, coral sand, mermaid and old jetty
On our last day in Airlie Beach we headed to Daydream Island. It's a small island resort about 30 min by boat from the main land. They have a large artificial coral reef around their hotel. We've seen Bruce, the lemon shark and Pancake and Pieklet, the stingrays alongside thousand of smaller fishes. Sarah loved pointing out all the fish to us and playing in the coral sand. We feed some of the wild fish just on the shore and within minutes we had hundreds of small reef fish together with some mullet and parrot fish around our feet.
Bowen
After saying goodbye to Brooke, Melissa and Scott we headed towards Bowen. The clouds disappeared and we had fantastic weather and photo opportunities. After booking into a caravan park for the night we went on a hike around the little bays and outcrops up from Horseshoe bay to a little lookout. What fantastic views and vistas! Sarah was hiking really good, but needed to be carried towards the end of the walk as it was a bit longer and harder than we anticipated.
Bowen is a strange place. The people we met were very friendly and helpful. The scenery was stunning and the town had everything you need. However the coffee shop on top of Flagstaff Hill, one of the advertised look outs, was closed during high season. There is plenty of wonderful parking along the beaches and viewpoints, but the signs not to stay there overnight are very big. So in a strange way we didn't really feel welcome here. Funny how little things can turn you off a place.
Alva Beach
We got a tip from some fellow travellers to head to Alva Beach, a little south of Ayr, to a lovely caravan park. It's a sleepy little town, set on a beautiful beach. We drove trough some Savannah looking country, lots of sugarcane and crossed Burdekin River on the famous Burdekin Steel Bridge.
We setup camp on the local caravan park next to a couple named Jeff and Marianne. We started talking and it turns out they are heading to a private cattle farm north of Townsville tomorrow - to the same people we met about a week ago and we're visiting tomorrow, too. They even knew about us and that they may have to share the private camp site with us. We talked for a while and it further turns out they are from Brisbane, too. In fact they live about 500m away in the same little suburb as us!
Off we went to the beach, but we ended up on the local playground (as usual) - there we met Rebecca and Felix whom we already met on a playground in Mackay. It really is a small world...