Once out of Townsville we quickly get on Flinders Highway and once past Charters Towers the A6 becomes a long long long straight road ....

We have lunch at the White Mountains National Park +/- 600 m above sea level and i t is bloody hot ...43°

The landscape changes from green fields and bushes with cattle to a complete dried out desert and it only starts.

We stop at Richmond for the night, it's most famous for its marine fossils and its world renowed museum Kronosaurus Korner.

It has a man made lake known as the Lake Fred Tritton named after the former mayor Fred Tritton, we wanted to take a dive to cool down after a very hot day but there's so much weed into the lake that it is not possible to swim so our eyes fall upon a kid's water fall center and that's just fine for us....

Tomorrow our goal is Mount Isa....

Malcolm is Jamie's brother , husband of my niece Tanja...

On our road we have a stop at the Big Mango in Bowman, and at lookout Mt Inkerman.

Around 12h00 we have lunch at the Billabong Sanctuary near to Townsville for a crocodile feeding, very interesting , especially what to espect with crocodiles in wildlife...it's better to stay far away from them...they're so fast!!!!!!

We find a lovely camparea at Rowes Bay  and after a refreshing shower we drive to the Marina Yachtclub where we meet Malcolm, Sylvie and the crew ....for a social race.

It was a lovely sail during sunset , thanks Malcolm and Sylvie....Back in the yachtclub we had a nice dinner all together ...

I discussed with them about the cyclone and all of them advised to stop our journey up North and we'd better go West, so exactly what we're going to do tomorrow,Mt Isa here we come...

There's no limit to the wonder of the Whitsundays, lying in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef in the warm water of the Coral Sea.

74 tropical islands all together, a true paradise where you can expect the unexpected and feel the freedom we're all searching at, whether it's about relaxation, action or  adventure...you got it all in one place.

Most of the islands are deserted islands, but 8 of them have holiday resorts with coral reefs and the Great Barrier Reef at their doorstep...some of them Hamilton Island, the one and only one Hayman Island, Daydream Island...what a name !!!!!, Long Island etc.....

We sailed away from Abel Point Harbour at Airlie Beach with Ocean Rafting's "Thunderstorm" to Hook Island's Maureen's Cove rafting with high speed on the big waves...awesome!!!! arrivin at Maureen's Cove we get things organised , put a stingersuit ,masks and paddles and off we go for our first snorkel in the coral reef...what can I say, hard to find words to describe this feeling....45 minutes in a big aquarium.

We move on to Mantaray Bay for another snorkel....this is paradise or very close to it.

Time for another waverafting experience to the Hill inlet of Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, where we get off the boat for a bushwalk to a lookout point over the inlet...no comment....and around the corner I find heaven , Whitehaven Beach, sand as white and pure never seen it before....

I'm confused by it's beauty and it doesn't take very long before I start daydreaming...what  a lovely spot and even better we had lunch on that virgin sand....Our most friendly guides Brooke and Tim have most difficulties to get everybody back on board to sail back to Abel Point ...

This was as Aussies would say an awesome day!!!! some time left to dream on....

Do some stretching on the beach, a last view at Clairview beach and off we go further North...

Latest news about Cyclone Nathan he  probably can make  a turn and hit the coast around Townsville on thursday... Nathan is classified as a category 3...so when we spoke about it with local people where and how we can find shelter for the motorhome, bikes and ourselves they advise us to turn around and drive as far South as we can or inland...Tomorrow we will take a final decision.

We follow the A1 Highway to Mackay, quite boring and all we get to see is fields of sugar canne,sugar canne and sugar canne...

Mackay is Whitsundays region largest city and one of the fastest growing population center of Queensland.

Just to the west are massive mining ventures that export minerals worldwide, further there is a lot of agriculture(sugar canne) and beef .

It's also a jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands that lie just offshore.

We have a look at Dolphin Heads and Sunset Bay before driving to our end destination Airlie Beach... where all different kinds of cruises, watertaxi's etc... start at the Whitsunday Islands.

We start looking for a camping and get ourselves organised to find the right cruise for tomorrow...once this is all done , some time left for a game of tennis...a lovely swim in the pool  and a good shower...Looking forwards at the excursion tomorrow....