Author: Mr A
Location: Airlie Beach, Queensland
Friday: Airlie Beach has been spending a bit of money on its foreshore. A pathway now runs along from Cannonvale, where we were staying all the way though into town, around 6km with spectacular classic Airlie views on the way.
As you reach town, there is a beautiful lagoon with a combination of deep swimming lanes and shallow areas for children, all free for anyone to use. We continued our cycle along the coastline as far as Boat Haven, imagining the lives of people who owned the spectacular boats moored there.
We enjoyed a Vietnamese salad for lunch, and a beer on the way back was called for, well it is Friday.
We had a bit of a false start with dinner – missing having Uber operating in the area and instead spending 45 minutes trying to get a cab. Then we arrived at the restaurant rated number 3 on TripAdvisor and walked in to be shown a scruffy, sticky table and handed a drinks menu with a choice of two red wines on it – both dreadful. So we provided some feedback and left! A bit of walk and we ended up in a lovely family run Italian. Nothing was too much trouble in catering for Catherine’s dairy allergy, even though the word “Creamy” was used 9 times on the menu. No wonder this country is suffering an obesity crisis! 
Saturday morning there was a market on, so we headed off on the bikes to find quite an extensive range of stalls with some great local fruit and veg.
A lady considering buying some turmeric watched us buy some so picked our brains about how to use it. She recommended this very odd looking fruit she had brought and said we must try it – in fact she brought us the last one for the princely sum of $3. What a sweetie. Its called a monstera deliciosa and in fact comes from a cheese plant that is often seen as a house plant in the UK. 
Bizarre…tastes very sweet – a combination of banana and pineapple…I think I will be having the lion’s share of this one.
In the afternoon we headed out to Conway National Park for a short walk to Coral Beach overlooking the Molle Islands. Every direction you look is another amazing view, which changes so quickly in this changeable autumnal weather. We even caught ourselves a rainbow. 
What a beautiful pathway. The light was incredible late in the day, the sun now setting around 5.35pm, so casting fabulous shadows and a golden aura over everything.
We struggled to find anything we recognised from 16 years ago, it seems there has been quite a bit of investment in hotels and infrastructure here, and it all looks quite unfamiliar, but in a good way.
So eating done we decided the rain had cleared enough to go out for a hike along the beach and then up to the headland to a stunning lookout over Ball Bay, Halliday Bay and around to the next suburb of Seaforth.
Mr A and I jumped on our bikes for an explore, our favoured method of getting to know where we’re staying. We rode around the handful of quiet streets that make up Halliday Bay and continued around to the next settlement of Ball Bay, equally quiet and sleepy. The two areas are surrounded by Cape Hillsborough National Park, meaning there is plenty of wildlife, particularly of the feathered and furry kind.
It certainly delivered on the views, first of all looking over the nearby Wedge Island, and then looking down across the undeveloped coastline north of Mackay.
A key feature of the hike were the butterflies – apparently over 150 different species make this little national park their home, and they were out in their hundreds – incredibly hard to photograph, but I snapped a few (with a little patience!).
We had worked up a good appetite on this walk, so called into The Old Station Tea House on our way back. We were surprised to see how many cars were parked in the field outside.
We ordered a couple of home made pizzas baked in their outside oven – simply delicious. We decided to take away a slice of cake each (dairy-free cake for me!) to eat back at camp so we could check on Tassie.
We spent the latter part of the afternoon doing a little planning for our upcoming few weeks, with plenty of interesting locations coming up for us. We were invited for pre dinner drinks with our next door neighbours who hail from Newcastle (NSW, not UK), and have previously enjoyed travelling up to Cape York. They shared a few tips and favourite locations with us, helping with our planning process.
The whip bird was right down on the forest floor as we came round a corner of the path, most unusual to see them that close – though he didn’t hang around for a photo, unlike the Grey Fantail, which put on a lovely show for us, and the fruit bats which do little else than hang around (ha ha)…
The crisp air made the whole walk so refreshing. We ambled though this rich diversity of plants and animals and felt so relaxed and alive. It’s the simplest things that give us pleasure. As long as Mrs A has her camera and I have my binocs and there’s a bit of wildlife around, all is good with the world. When we first got married and came here 16 years ago, we dreamed of doing longer trips and seeing more of Australia. Well here we are – converting those dreams to memories.
Thanks to the people of the Pioneer Valley for making us so welcome and providing such a well kept campground at the Finch Hatton showground. Would thoroughly recommend other travellers come and see for themselves.
It was just a short 9km ride, concluding with a wade across the knee deep and quickly flowing Cattle Creek behind the showground, returning us to Finch Hatton for breakfast.
After she’d had her exercise and adventure, it was our turn again, jumping into the car for a short 20 minute drive up into Finch Hatton Gorge itself.
It was an uphill hike, and so we were quite warm by the time we arrived (though Mr A’s feet were cool after having slipped into the creek rather than balance over the stepping stones!). We decided to jump in for a swim – whew! It was icy cold – you certainly knew you were alive!
We hiked back down and finished off with a diversion to Araluen Falls, recognising them from a hike on our honeymoon. Still warming up after our initial swim we decided not to jump into these.
We drove back via a local organic cafe for a late lunch – delicious food, if very slow service…we were ready to eat our own arms off by the time it arrived – just over 5km under our belts, but 25 floors of climbing!
We drove back the scenic route, returning to camp for a relaxing afternoon, fresh tagliatelle with bolognaise and a couple of glasses of Shiraz. A fine end to a great day. 
We headed back and Miss Tassie was ready to come out for an explore – she took us on a stroll around the cattle sheds, tractors and hay bales, all apparently full of irresistible smells.
We decided to go to the pub for dinner. Not bad…always some interesting characters about in these country pubs, and plenty of local knowledge to tap into. It feels like a very friendly little community.
We had a couple of delicious dishes – a Chilli Chicken and a Lamb Balti, accompanied by little pappadoms and some cumin and pea basmati rice. The wine we selected was an Italian Sangiovese from Tuscany. A great night. We decided to stay in Mackay tomorrow night too, feeling the need for a day off travelling.
Then it was a short drive and a scramble up the next lookout which had views right across the plains to the north and east. You are constantly reminded of what a vast country we live in at moments like this.
The final lookout was another window to a vast landscape, one we would be heading through tomorrow.
We decided a slower pace all round was required for today, and set off to do a 7km walk down in the gorge. We started with a trail called the Nature Walk, an easy stroll along Carnarvon Creek, occasionally crossing via stepping stones, and tagged on another walk to the Rock Pool, a large natural swimming hole further along.
The Pied Currawongs were plentiful, and sat in their dozens up in the canopy gorging on tree fruit and whooping and whistling their delight. If you have never heard this sound, I would check out the little snippet of video I recorded while we were walking along, purely to capture it (Click here: 
Little red backed fairy wrens were often seen hopping around the trees, their feathers glowing in the sunlight. It was a stunning afternoon’s walk, with barely another soul seen.
After seeing someone jump into the waters at the Rock Pool, we decided against going for a dip…we’d heard enough profanities for one day!
Instead, we returned to camp for a relax and read before an early dinner. We had more walking ahead.
Down at the creek it was seconds before we spotted a Platypus swimming along, hunting for larvae under the water. Just magical, and I gave up trying to capture an image! Across in the gorge, it was a Greater Glider’s eye-shine which captured our attention, sitting on the side of an old gum tree letting his diet of eucalyptus leaves digest.