TUESDAY 19 MAY     AIRLIE BEACH

Today was one of driving and exploring some of the Airlie hinterland.

We followed farming country back roads, to the west, almost to the Bruce Highway, then took the Dingo Beach road – unsealed for some of the way – and then the road to Hideaway Bay. The name made it sound like a place worth investigating! On some maps it is written as Hydeaway.

Hideaway Bay is aptly named. A few houses, a caravan park, the only shop is the kiosk at the caravan park. We wanted to see what the park was like, and got talking to the owner. Discovered that he is “Tassie” Sherriff, who for a while in the early 1960’s, boarded across the road from where we lived. We had morning tea with him and his wife.

The beach at Hideaway Bay is nicer than that at Airlie – the latter is more gritty and has more mangrove mud on it. We might bring the van out here for an out-of-the-way stay, sometime.

The road ends a bit further on, up on a bluff behind the houses; there is a padlocked gate and a sign saying  “Private – 4WD only”. My map shows a place called Monte’s Resort at the end of the road, but they obviously do not encourage access by the general public!

Drove back around from Hideaway Bay, and about 5kms distant, we found Dingo Beach, another little coastal village. This has a hotel which doubles (not very successfully) as a shop, as well.

Went for a walk and a bird hunt on a very pretty beach here and ate our lunch, sitting overlooking the bay and islands, near and far. There were a lot of sea birds about, but they were moving too much for easy identification.

Back near the hotel, got talking to a couple of men. One – G – approached us because he wanted to know about the Defender. The other, old,  man had one of those dogs that was constantly looking for us to throw a stick for it. Turned out that G works at Monte’s and he invited us to go out there and have a look around at what he says is “paradise”. So we followed his vehicle, through the locked gate at the end of the road. It really did need 4WD too – over the 5kms, there were some steep and rocky slopes and some creek crossings. One creek was named with a home-made sign saying “Murrells Creek”. We found out later that, a couple of years ago, it was raining heavily and a wall of water came down that creek and picked up the Landcruiser that our new friend is now driving, and carried it 20 metres downstream. Murrell was driving, and nearly drowned.

There is a resort at the end of the track! Right on the beachfront. It has amazing views to nearby Gloucester Island and to others further away. The place was set up by Monte, who is now dead. It is geared mostly to sailing people, who tie up out front and come and spend time on land, at the licensed resort.

As well as the resort, there are several privately owned blocks of land, some with houses, scattered in the bush. Their freehold title goes right to the sea and they all share rights over common land. It is a very exclusive patch – you can buy a vacant block for about $200,000!

Our new-found friend is the caretaker of one of the houses; the owner has a big business down south and spends a few weeks here, each year. Nice for some!

We bought a couple of rounds of drinks at the Monte’s bar – felt we had to repay G’s hospitality. Three beers cost $10!  We were able to have a wander and a look round – it certainly is away from the hordes, and quite idyllic – at least, at this time of the year. But you obviously need to be a “boatie” to access and enjoy the resort.

Then, it was a long drive back to camp. G had left the gate padlock undone – we had to fasten it after we’d gone back through. It was dark towards the end of the trip back. We met a number of cows on the unfenced roads, so it was not a fast trip.

We drove 161kms today.

Tea was frankfurts and mashed potato.

I phoned K about the mail – he is sending it express.