DAY 48: Leaving the mountain for the Whitsunday Islands Coast

The start of a new week with more sunshine and bright blue skies, though quite recently there had been six weeks of heavy rain so again we are being very fortunate with the weather. Diane is very relaxed about when one leaves the campsite, "when you are ready," she told me when I asked what time we had to be off site.
We took our time over breakfast, sitting in the shade of a pergola perched on the edge of the campsite overlooking that fabulous view of Pioneer Valley. We readied ourselves and the van and finally left about 1100 saying our farewells to Diane who had been an unusually warm and welcoming campsite manager.
The journey down the mountain necessitated use of the manual override to ensure we remained in very low gears as we negotiated the tight bends that zig zagged their way down to the valley floor. Finally we reached the bottom and passed through Pinnacle and several other small homesteads on our way back to the coast.
The countryside is very beautiful with green valleys, tree covered low mountains and numerous creeks nearly all with water, bubbling along towards the sea. The roads were generally narrow and almost without any traffic in either direction till we got back onto the Bruce Highway. We made our way to Proserpine to take on diesel and provisions. Despite the size and weight of this van, even with air con in use, it is proving surprisingly frugal doing about 9km per litre of fuel on average. With fuel prices just over half what we pay in the UK, it makes touring very economical.
We encountered a health food shop and cafe in Proserpine, called Coconol, and both enjoyed a coconut oil based fruit smoothie. The owner extolled the virtues of coconut oil and products including flour and sugar which I do not believe we have ever seen elsewhere. It is ironic to see another form of sugar being promoted within a region where sugar cane abounds and is probably one of the largest forms of employment in the area but apparently at least one farmer has spoken in support of coconut sugar saying it is healthier!
We considered travelling to and staying in Airlie Beach but the camp site descriptions and that in the Rough Guide did not inspire us and as we are not intending to go out to the Reef from there, but later at Port Douglas, we travelled onto Bowen where one of the residents at Halcyon Waters had assured us of spectacular sunsets.

We arrived at the Harbour Lights Caravan Park, checked into an almost empty touring site and set up under the shade of a very large tree, it having become very hot as the day wore on. We enjoyed afternoon tea in the shade, I marinaded some chicken ready for a bbq at some point and then we went out intending to walk to Flagstaff Hill for a view of the sunset.

However, seeing that there were marsh like areas on either side of the road which after dark were quite likely to reveal a quantity of biting things, we chose instead to walk alongside the marina and small beach opposite the campsite and were rewarded with an excellent sunset and lots of sea bird activity and large, but unidentified, jumping fish!
We dined, watched the news on the van tv for the first time, a bit depressing with a documentary of Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders policy in operation and indications that the aircraft missing for a week has probably been hijacked.
Tidying after dinner, we readied ourselves and I went to bed, my summer cold having re asserted itself as the evening wore on.

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