690. Sunday 21st July 2019. Airlie Beach, a long walk and back to Mackay…

PART 2 OF A 2 PART POST FOR THIS WEEK

Saturday 20^th July

Sister Enid and I drove to Airlie Beach for the weekend. We booked into the Mantra Club Crocodile Resort for the night.

Club Croc at night

Club Croc in the morning. Today’s photos will pear washed out and verexposed as the camera was still on hand held night landscape mode and somehow RW2 .

We had a few options to consider but that could be done while we walked from Cannonvale to Airlie Beach along the scenic mix of beachside pathway and boardwalk. (Just a little by the by. Once upon a time when I lived and worked here I would often go on a walk at lunchtime with Maria, my boss. Our office was located just up the road from Club Croc. We would walk along the coast boardwalk as far as Abel Point Marina then up to Shute Harbour Road and the long steep road and equally steep down the other side and back to the office. That was a good heart pumping walk.)

We started at the little park known as Cannonvale Beach Foreshore Reserve at Whisper Bay.

VMR Breakwater and a place for a drink at a wedding.

At the outset we saw a wedding in progress at the small park beside the VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue) Station with a second wedding waiting for the same location.

Wedding photo time.

The walk is made up of a few boardwalks which are built out over the rocks and at high tide is over the water.

Turtle Boardwalk

Cannonvale Beach. Frank & Donnis were married 10 years ago under the big trees where a van is parked.

The boardwalk is called Turtle Boardwalk.

Bench Seat on Turtle Boardwalk looking across Whisper Bay to Peninsular Airle Beach

From Turtle Boardwalk in front of Mirage Whitsunday. This is the view across Whisper Bay.

Whisper Bay from VMR

The concrete pathways pass through an up market residential and exclusive holiday accommodation, Mirage Whitsunday, Marina Shores and the most exclusive of all, Peninsular Airlie Beach.

Peninsular Airlie Beach Apartments. A quiet place on the rocks above the water.

Rental here is around $1,500 per night. The walk continues through the Abel Point Marina complex,

This is a permanent fixture at the marina. A club house for travelling yachties to have a hot shower in a 5 star bathroom and a place for a coffee or cold drink on the top deck.

This boat has my sisiter Enid name name on it.

along Shingley Beach followed by another boardwalk through Coral Sea Point and Resort Hotel,

Coral Sea Point and Jetty and Coral Sea Resort.

Damaged catamaran. Council has placed a notice on the hull giving 2 weeks to remove the “wreck” otherwise they will do so. To get it off this beach they will need to totally dismantle the boat.

This root system from a dying Pandanus reminded us of Mary Queen of Scotts. She was behead for treason.

along the shore of Airlie Beach to The Lagoon

View from Coral Sea Point, across Airle Bay with the hulk of Mandaly Hill looking over the bay. Enlarge and look closely and you can see the mansion at the very top of the hill. Most of that hillside is fenced and a priate gated estate some of which is sub divided into smaller lots. The estate is called Chesapeake. The mansion at the top was built by a wealthy businessman for a cost of around M$4 not including landscaing and roads. Later it was purchased by Don Algie who created the Hogs Breath Cafe empire with his partner, Ginger White.

The Don Algie Mansion at the top of Cheseapeake.

where the path continues along the shoreline and to the Whitsunday Sailing Club and Port of Airlie Marina.

Airlie Beach

The famous walk ends here but a new scenic footpath begins which meanders through the suburb of Jubilee Pocket and ends a few Klms away near the turnoff to Mandalay. The walk was around 4Klm and should have taken about 30 minutes. However we stopped to look at the scenery, take photos, watch weddings and look at the menu at every eatery along the way. We pretty much decided on the food selection and prices at the Breeze Bar as they had similar food options as the famous Fish D’Vine on the next corner but at a lesser price.

The return walk seeing everything in reverse and the time taken for an almost 10 Klm walk was just on three hours. Time for a shower and change and drive back into Airlie for dinner at the Breeze Bar.

Sunday 21^st July

Woke to an overcast and damp morning with a 39 knot stiff southeasterly wind dashing any plans for a boat trip up the Proserpine River to look for Crocodiles. Enid’s son was in Airlie for a few days and had his boat and had planned a Crocodile adventure today but conditions were not favourable. Instead we played mini golf at the Big Frog Caravan ark where he is staying with friends and their children. The men have to keep the children busy as the wives have all gone to Bali for a week.

Enid then opted to do one of the Whitsunday Great Walks while I went on a photo excursion to Mandalay Bay and Funnel Bay.

Outdoor Mandalay Chappel

This boat was once a popular bareboat charter boat in the Whitsunday Escape Fleet.

In among the mangroves at Mandalay.

Flimsey jetty at Mandalay

Funnel Bay. I photographed from this area about 10 years ago when the area was a challenging dirt road where very few people visited. Now it is a gated community and one house is spread over at least 4 blocks which prevented me from photographing from the same location.

After a quick coffee and sandwich we were on our way home but stopped at the turnoff to Cathu State Forest to photograph an abandoned house I saw on the drive to Airlie yesterday.

Abandoned house at the turnoff to Cathu.

Cane bins being filed with cut cane are then put on trucks and taken to a full rail head enroute to the nearest mill. Hills behind Yabarooin te background.

Arriving home I downloaded and reviewed all my photos from the weekend – all 174 of them.

What The!!!

Something is not the same with half my photo’s. I normally shoot only in a .JPEG format and usually photos are bright and sharp but today they are not. I recalled changing the camera settings last night to photograph the pool area at Club Croc. I set the camera to night time hand held mode. I now realise I had left the camera on settings and not changed back to shooting mode. For some reason the camera is now shooting in .RAW2 format. The first thing I realised is the file size. Normally each photo would be about 4Mb. RAW2 photos are about 14Mb. Just a quick look at the photos they look a bit washed out and although each file has more digital information to work with when editing, it seems the quality is missing. Actually on reflection because the camera was set to night mode, it seems my photos are over exposed.

Starting on Friday I have had a decadent food weekend. Friday I had fish and chips. Potatoes are a no no at the moment. Saturday I had a toasted sandwich, mashed potato and crackers. Sunday another toasted sandwich. When I weighed myself tonight I am still 75 Kg so have not put back on any weight.

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