Abbott Point

We decided to decelerate our trip for the last three weeks and make it more of a relax holiday. So the night before leaving Townsville, we were debating whether we should spend a week or two on the Whitsundays. Checking out Whitsundays’ hotel rates quickly rendered that thought into wishful-thinking.

So we adapted our plans. I once more checked satellite pictures of the coast line and found two spots, which looked specifically interesting – yet, the contrast couldn’t have been stronger.

We left Townsville and our first way-point was Abbott Point. On satellite pics you can see it’s a huge port specifically built for coal shipments. I thought I could get some interesting ‘industrial’ shots with my camera. Ha! We approached Abbott Point driving alongside the train tracks. When we reached the end of the street, everything was fenced off and security gated. No view whatsoever on the piles of coal.

Well, that didn’t go to well. So we fed our little one in our car parked on the employee parking lot. Then we drove on to our second stop.

Hideaway Bay

The second spot was a cape. We picked it because it looked very pretty ‘from above’ – Cape Gloucester at Hideaway Bay. After driving a couple of hours through an ever changing landscape, we left Bruce Highway and took a right onto Collinvale Road, then Dingo Beach Road.

We didn’t spend much time in Dingo Beach but headed on to Hideaway Bay. Behind Hideaway Bay a gravel road started and we where adventurous enough to drive around Cape Gloucester and check out one of the two beach resorts hiding away from the mainstream tourists. We loved it and decided to stay for a few nights and just hang loose.

We made some friends with Australian families staying there. And  one of them asked pretty astonished as we explained where we are from: “How did you find this place? Only Aussies usually come here.”

It was a very relaxing stay indeed.