Rockhampton to Airlie Beach

The next place to go was Mackay. The north of Queensland is much less developed than the rest of the coast and on this particular 400km of the main road there is NOTHING. I counted 4 petrol stations/stores and that was it. Not a stretch of road you'd wanna break down on! Managed to make it without falling asleep though and arrived in Mackay at about 4pm.

As usual, it was a ridiculously hot day and, even though you can't go in the water, I wanted to go to the beach. When I got to the beach the tide seemed to be miles out and the sand was all brown and muddy. There were two islands on the horizon and it looked like you might be able to walk over to them so I walked out in that direction. You couldn't walk over to them but the water was really shallow and there were loads of fish jumping out of the water, I've never seen anything like it! I stood watching the fish for about 5 minutes and then suddenly realised I was ankle-deep in water. The tide was coming in faster than I could ever imagine. I looked back to see the path I had taken being closed off by the fast moving tide. It was so quick that the water didn't wash up and down it just kept advancing in one go. I was joined by a load of local kids who would run out to high sand points and let the tide chase them into the shore, was good fun!

The next day I went to Blacks Beach, on the north side of Mackay. The beach was beautiful and it was hard to resist the temptation to go in the water, so I decided to drive to the next destination, Cape Hillsborough National Park. This tiny national park includes a bay, a small mountain and two islands just off the shore. When I got there the tide was going out and, as it got further out, a rocky path appeared to the two islands! As I walked over to the path, I noticed the sand was all bumpy with lots of holes. Probably a few crabs, I thought. Then about 50 meters later I happened to look at the beach in front of me......the whole beach was moving! It was actually millions of these little blue crabs all marching about in a formation covering about 10 square meters! As I walked through them they parted like the red sea, it was quite spectacular. I got a video of them which I'll try to upload when I get the chance! The Islands were beautiful, as was the whole bay and I was the only one there for most of the time......

After that it was about 90km to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands :)