Day 61 Saturday 9/7/2016, Home Hill to Hydeaway Bay, 26 degrees

Wow this new aerial is a beaut, we learn that some poor woman is looking for a playground in Home Hill for her kids and another is going to stop in Airlie Beach for morning tea instead of Bowen. John Laws and your talkback radio try beating that!

As well as sugar and mangoes there are a lot of market gardens on the stretch down to Bowen. We stop for supplies in Proserpine and two older ladies in cardigans move aside for us in the supermarket aisle. As usual we’re wearing T shirts and shorts and one lady taps me on the arm and asks “aren’t you cold?” “No” says Woody “we’re from Melbourne.” That left them giggling.

Hydeaway Bay is about 30kms east of the Bruce Highway and the name couldn’t be more apt. The caravan park is a small family run park bordering bushland. With colourful gardens and shady trees it is neat and tidy as well as homely. One gets the feeling that this is a regular winter haunt for a lot of the ‘residents’ and they are very friendly,

The town, a cluster of modern residential homes perched on the hillside, and beach is about a kilometre further on. The views to the ocean and islands are breathtakingly stunning.

We set off to explore the area and follow a dirt road to Monte’s Reef Resort. The road goes over ‘Oh My God Hill’ (yes, that’s what the locals call it because without being obvious it drops away so sharply you can’t see where you are going, on the return the view to the islands causes you to say ‘Oh My God!’) Monte’s is a relaxed restaurant with beachside cabins. Around the corner is Cape Gloucester Beach Resort, a little neater but still not really qualifying for the term ‘resort’. Both looked like they were in a 1980’s time warp but nonetheless in a stunning location.

• 

• 

• 

Towing Kms: 177kms