The first leg of our epic Greyhound bus tour from Cairns to Sydney, which would cover over 2,500 Km in about 4 weeks. We had discovered the incredible value Greyhound East Coast Whimit Pass, which gave unlimited coach travel for 30 days between Cairns and Melbourne, with fully flexible tickets that can be changed up to 15 minutes before departure, for a bargain A$475 (less than £240) each. Online booking was incredibly simple but we worried that it seemed just too easy as we didn’t have any confirmation numbers or emails – but the first few trips we’d booked were showing against our travel pass accounts so fingers crossed. Yes, it really was that simple! When the coach arrived at Cairns Station, the driver had an iPad with the names and seat numbers of booked passengers – very efficient and a little remisinscent of the real-time ‘Digital India’ that surprised us on our first train ride there. Why do the UK still have such archaic ticket systems? The Greyhound bus to Townsville (5.5 hours, 350 km) would’ve been fine if there had been any room for hand luggage overhead, but the tiny compartments struggled to take our carrier bag of travel snacks, so our quite large day sacks had no chance – meaning they had to take up the valuable space under the seat in front and thus restricting our leg room – and a pretty full bus meant there was no room to spread out. But the journey was fine and before we knew it we’d arrived in Townsville, conveniently right at the door of the Sealink ferry terminal and in good time to catch the 17.25 fast catamaran crossing to our destination for the next 3 nights.

Magnetic Island

A beautiful triangular granite core, most of which is National Park, 12km off Townsville was named by Captain Cook in 1770 after his compass played up as he sailed past. That 12km sea crossing, despite only taking 20 minutes, was rather uncomfortable on a breezy evening despite a slight sea state – but probably not helped by us sitting at the bouncy front end of the boat. Steve commented that he’d hate to see what it’d be like in less benign conditions (hold that thought!).

We’d only booked our accommodation the previous evening, once we were confident that the weather would allow us to get to Magnetic Island, and had chosen Peppers Blue on Blue Resort as it was literally 20m from the ferry terminal in Nelly Bay. What a good choice – a huge studio apartment and within budget at £100/night. We didn’t get the marina view that we would have with a cheaper ‘hotel room’, but we valued the option to cook for ourselves (and do our laundry) more than the outlook, and after nipping to the supermarket and bottle shop across the road we were all set for a pasta and wine evening.

With the luxury of 2 days on the island we decided to spend the first doing a bit of fact finding using the bus to look around. The island’s infrastructure is incredibly visitor-friendly with buses aligning with ferry arrival/departure timings, electric sit-on scooters dotted around and open top cars available for hire. Debbie’s brother Ian asked whether we’d rented a Mini Moke as he did when visiting 20 or so years ago -no Ian, we are poor pensioners! The bus from Nelly Bay to Horseshoe Bay was ‘free’ as the on-board ticket machine wasn’t working – result. On the 12 minute journey we passed through Arcadia, past Geoffrey Bay, spotted the departure point for the famed Forts Walk before arriving at the most gorgeous sheltered sandy bay. The wind was blowing a hooley a few miles away but Horseshoe Bay was perfectly calm and we regretted not bringing our swimmers. Oh well, there was always tomorrow, and instead we had an unexpected and delicious curry lunch before catching the bus to Picnic Bay. The ticket machine WAS working on that bus and the driver suggested we should purchase a day pass – for the princely sum of A$1 (50p) each! Beside a pier, and a snorkelling trail (the sea was far too rough for that), there wasn’t much at Picnic Bay so we got back on the bus and got some sun by our resort’s huge pool.

For our 2nd day, the Forts Walk was a must do and wow it was worth it – not so much for the WWII structures built to protect Townsville from Japanese attack, but more for the 1.5km track which climbs gently through gum trees and granite boulders. What do you associate with gum trees? Yes, KOALAS, and we had the absolute privilege of spotting 5 of them in the wild – a lone male and 2 mother/baby pairings. Oh my word, probably one of the best things we’ve ever seen and we could’ve stood and watched them forever.

But it was lunchtime, it was Princess Deborah’s birthday and she wanted fish & chips on the beach – so we caught the bus back to Horseshoe Bay, got said fish & chips (bizarrely vinegar was an extra charge and you got a tub full of the stuff), lay under a tree watching the colourful parakeets above and swimming in tropical warm waters inside a stinger net on the beach.

And in the evening we popped across the road to SOS Stuffed on Seafood and sat on a picnic bench in howling winds scoffing a seafood platter. Just a really lovely day.

Debbie had become a bit of a meteorological nerd whilst in Queensland and she had her eye on the weather for our departure, mindful that it’d been an uncomfortable crossing in far less windy conditions. The winds were increasing further and she was worried, so suggested that we bring our bus departure forward from 13.00 to 08.00, and insisted that we should get the 06.00 ferry from Magnetic Island rather than the 07.00 ‘just in case’. Steve tutted but agreed – it was her birthday after all. Departure morning was VERY windy, and we’d be travelling upwind to get back to Townsville, so we took a preventative Stugeron fully expecting the crossing to be as rough as ****. We sat at the back of the ferry this time, and surprisingly it wasn’t as bad as on the way out – probably a more favourable wave/swell direction. On exiting the ferry, out of curiosity Debbie asked how bad the weather needed to get to cancel the crossing – ‘only if the harbourmaster closes the port, probably 3 years since it last happened’ was the reply. Remember that, it’s important later! Of course we could’ve got the 07.00 as it arrived bang on time, but at least we got the opportunity for breakfast pies in the terminal.

Airlie Beach for The Whitsundays

The 4.5 hour journey covering over 250km was totally different to our previous Greyhound experience – large overhead spaces for luggage and only 8 people on board so loads of room to spread out and relax. The journey was good, passing through farmland, banana plantations and coastal roads. On arrival into Airlie Beach we excitedly disembarked the coach looking for ways to get to our hotel – then suddenly Debbie sickeningly realised she didn’t have her daypack. The most important bag she was carrying and containing passport, laptop, credit cards and hair straighteners. OK, maybe the straighteners weren’t that important! Because she’d found space in overhead lockers she’d totally forgotten about it. Luckily the bus was still there so panic over, but days later she still felt a bit sick at the thought of ‘what if?’.

Again, we’d only booked our hotel 1 day prior – and only for 3 nights instead of the planned 4 as another weather system was forming so we may opt to head further south more quickly. Mantra Club Croc was a relative bargain in a rather expensive destination – about a mile out of town but the bus stopped right outside so still convenient and ‘only’ £100/night. On arrival, on the bus from the port (cost 50p), Debbie initially thought that the place looked a bit old and decrepit but had benefited from some good photography for websites – but the room was good.

The weather system was showing low-moderate chance of developing into a tropical cyclone (or a hurricane as we call them in the Western Hemisphere) but the models were suggesting that it was most likely to hit around Townsville or further North. As the winds were already too high for any excursions out the The Whitsundays, and that was the reason we were here, we decided to extend our stay to the planned 4 nights – that would give us chance to explore once the weather system had passed. But then everything changed, and it was too late for us to leave – Tropical Cyclone Koji did indeed form and was projected to make landfall just north of us as a Category 2 cyclone, and with the Whitsundays bearing the brunt of the worst weather. The online weather forecasts were ominous and hilarious in equal measure – we’d discovered Perth Weather live in Western Australia and their comedy approach to weather forecasts is seriously funny. They thought this was a half-baked cyclone and Western Australia would’ve cooked a much better one!

Debbie has now learned that cyclones push out their worst weather to the South of the eye, and that’s where we were, so we’d best prepare to have a hairy 12 hours – we had supplies and plenty of wine, and Debbie insisted that we prepare grab bags in case we needed to evacuate. Steve did some piss-taking with reference to Dad’s Army but better to be safe than sorry. Our hotel were fairly confident that we’d be OK but a couple of hotels near the marina had already moved their guests to a more secure location. The cyclone hit early morning on 11 January as a Category 1 – it rained a lot, and the wind howled, but from the relative safety of our hotel room we didn’t see too much devastation. Remember that Magnetic Island ferry that hadn’t been cancelled for 3 years? It was that day!

Once the weather cleared a bit we ventured out – we had no choice as our hotel had closed the bar and restaurant – and found that boats had probably sustained the most damage (pictures from Facebook), the shops were closed, there was lots of foliage on the ground, but the pub was open and life continued in Airlie Beach. It was inland that had the most severe flooding impact. As the roads out were likely to be flooded, we decided to extend our stay to give the chaos time to clear and hopefully give us the opportunity to actually see The Whitsundays. And then despite the roads being clear, our scheduled overnight bus was cancelled for some reason, so we ended up spending 6 nights in Airlie Beach instead of the planned 4, but no big deal as we had plenty of time, the hotel could accommodate us and it was easy to book another bus.

So let’s try to get to The Whitsundays then! Firstly a scenic flight on a 6 seater plane – we nearly made it but it was cancelled just as we were about to board. The incoming flight had been hit by a severe rainstorm, with some ‘illegal’ flying required to dodge the worst, and the pilots considered it unsafe to go back out. Disappointing but we could reschedule for 2 days later as we were now staying in Airlie Beach for another night. On that morning our meteorological expert considered that there would be no chance of a flight, but the airline hadn’t cancelled so we set off to the meeting point, and just as we’d got on the bus Debbie received the cancellation call. No opportunity to reschedule again as we were leaving that night, so sadly we didn’t get to see the glorious views from the air. Perhaps a good thing as the briefing had focussed on the sick bags, and those we saw getting off the plane did look a little green and flustered.

But we did get to The Whitsundays by sea – on a baby tall-ship sailing vessel Providence V. She’s a classic 62 foot gaff-rigged schooner who starred in the 1992 Hollywood movie Survive The Savage Seas. For our trip the seas were far from savage, and in the morning conditions were very calm as we headed by motor about 20 miles to Whitehaven Beach on the main Whitsunday Island. The scenery was gorgeous, there was very little cloud and turquoise blue seas, but by the time we arrived 3 hours later thick clouds had arrived and rain was threatening. Despite that, the view from the lookout down to the famous Mill Inlet and white silica beaches was gorgeous, and snorkelling at Dumbell Island was good but the cyclone had reduced the visibility a little. The journey back was less calm – the wind and waves had picked up and the rain set in for the afternoon, but at least it was warm rain. The only disappointment was that the sailing boat didn’t actually sail – if we’d know that we’d have taken a fast boat instead.

This was the boat under sail from their advertising…

On the way back into the marina we spotted the Clipper Round The World fleet – a nice change from where we used to see them in Gosport!

The Whitsundays are stunning but rainy season is hit and miss. Mainly miss for us but we were glad we gave it a go rather than abandoning our stay and heading South early, or even flying straight from Cairns or Townsville to Brisbane and missing them entirely. Ideally we’d have done a 2 or 3 night trip on a catarmaran – Debbie had found the one she wanted and convinced Steve that we should spend the remainder of our indulgences budget on a luxury trip. Thank god we didn’t book it though as we heard tales of refunds being refused due to ‘act of god’.

Not quite the 6 days we’d hoped for but we survived a tropical cyclone and did get to see some of what we came for – it was beautiful and quite relaxing in a strange way.

Now for 13.5 hours on an overnight bus for the 860 Km trek down to Hervey Bay and South Eastern Queensland – supposedly less impacted by a tropical wet climate than the North…..