Ed.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Unfortunately we never made it to the Daintree, Mossman Gorge or the Atherton tableland, that might be scheduled for another trip in the future. Went out on the "Dragon Lady" and despite being bricked on the Coral with a couple of huge hits, I managed to only get a legal sized Fingermark bream (Moses perch) and a semi decent Gold Spot Trevally up on board, both ended up on the plate for 6 meals. I had booked to go on the Norseman 2 days later but they notified me that they didn't have the numbers to go out, so missed out as every other boat was booked out whilst I was there.
Next day went for a sail to Mackay reef on a 25mft cat, it's a huge boat and only had about 18 people on it for the day, water was quite clean (10-15m visibility) and nice snorkeling, water was cooler than I would have liked but still quite good. They required us to snorkel together so that they could keep an eye on us, which wasn't ideal but probably done for insurance requirements to ensure they didn't lose anyone.
By the time we got down to Cairns, the reef closure was in place so no more fishing for me. Did the Kuranda rail trip whilst in Cairns and then started to head back home after 4 days, caught up with Misha (aka Sylvathorn)  on the way back at Bowen, got back home and the missus 2 days later decided we should go to go to the Gold Coast to see daughter No 1 and bub, so more driving, all up we did about 4000+ km. The car kept throwing up several more error codes on the way back from Port Douglas, but with a quick jiggle of the sensors they all disappeared, will have to get them checked out now that I am back home.
For some reason, I can't seem to post up any pics!

Unfortunately we never made it to the Daintree, Mossman Gorge or the Atherton tableland, that might be scheduled for another trip in the future. Went out on the "Dragon Lady" and despite being bricked on the Coral with a couple of huge hits, I managed to only get a legal sized Fingermark bream (Moses perch) and a semi decent Gold Spot Trevally up on board, both ended up on the plate for 6 meals. I had booked to go on the Norseman 2 days later but they notified me that they didn't have the numbers to go out, so missed out as every other boat was booked out whilst I was there.
Next day went for a sail to Mackay reef on a 25mft cat, it's a huge boat and only had about 18 people on it for the day, water was quite clean (10-15m visibility) and nice snorkeling, water was cooler than I would have liked but still quite good. They required us to snorkel together so that they could keep an eye on us, which wasn't ideal but probably done for insurance requirements to ensure they didn't lose anyone.
By the time we got down to Cairns, the reef closure was in place so no more fishing for me. Did the Kuranda rail trip whilst in Cairns and then started to head back home after 4 days, caught up with Misha (aka Sylvathorn)  on the way back at Bowen, got back home and the missus 2 days later decided we should go to go to the Gold Coast to see daughter No 1 and bub, so more driving, all up we did about 4000+ km. The car kept throwing up several more error codes on the way back from Port Douglas, but with a quick jiggle of the sensors they all disappeared, will have to get them checked out now that I am back home.
For some reason, I can't seem to post up any pics!

Unfortunately we never made it to the Daintree, Mossman Gorge or the Atherton tableland, that might be scheduled for another trip in the future. Went out on the "Dragon Lady" and despite being bricked on the Coral with a couple of huge hits, I managed to only get a legal sized Fingermark bream (Moses perch) and a semi decent Gold Spot Trevally up on board, both ended up on the plate for 6 meals. I had booked to go on the Norseman 2 days later but they notified me that they didn't have the numbers to go out, so missed out as every other boat was booked out whilst I was there.
Next day went for a sail to Mackay reef on a 25mft cat, it's a huge boat and only had about 18 people on it for the day, water was quite clean (10-15m visibility) and nice snorkeling, water was cooler than I would have liked but still quite good. They required us to snorkel together so that they could keep an eye on us, which wasn't ideal but probably done for insurance requirements to ensure they didn't lose anyone.
By the time we got down to Cairns, the reef closure was in place so no more fishing for me. Did the Kuranda rail trip whilst in Cairns and then started to head back home after 4 days, caught up with Misha (aka Sylvathorn)  on the way back at Bowen, got back home and the missus 2 days later decided we should go to go to the Gold Coast to see daughter No 1 and bub, so more driving, all up we did about 4000+ km. The car kept throwing up several more error codes on the way back from Port Douglas, but with a quick jiggle of the sensors they all disappeared, will have to get them checked out now that I am back home.
For some reason, I can't seem to post up any pics!

Unfortunately we never made it to the Daintree, Mossman Gorge or the Atherton tableland, that might be scheduled for another trip in the future. Went out on the "Dragon Lady" and despite being bricked on the Coral with a couple of huge hits, I managed to only get a legal sized Fingermark bream (Moses perch) and a semi decent Gold Spot Trevally up on board, both ended up on the plate for 6 meals. I had booked to go on the Norseman 2 days later but they notified me that they didn't have the numbers to go out, so missed out as every other boat was booked out whilst I was there.
Next day went for a sail to Mackay reef on a 25mft cat, it's a huge boat and only had about 18 people on it for the day, water was quite clean (10-15m visibility) and nice snorkeling, water was cooler than I would have liked but still quite good. They required us to snorkel together so that they could keep an eye on us, which wasn't ideal but probably done for insurance requirements to ensure they didn't lose anyone.
By the time we got down to Cairns, the reef closure was in place so no more fishing for me. Did the Kuranda rail trip whilst in Cairns and then started to head back home after 4 days, caught up with Misha (aka Sylvathorn)  on the way back at Bowen, got back home and the missus 2 days later decided we should go to go to the Gold Coast to see daughter No 1 and bub, so more driving, all up we did about 4000+ km. The car kept throwing up several more error codes on the way back from Port Douglas, but with a quick jiggle of the sensors they all disappeared, will have to get them checked out now that I am back home.
For some reason, I can't seem to post up any pics!

Unfortunately we never made it to the Daintree, Mossman Gorge or the Atherton tableland, that might be scheduled for another trip in the future. Went out on the "Dragon Lady" and despite being bricked on the Coral with a couple of huge hits, I managed to only get a legal sized Fingermark bream (Moses perch) and a semi decent Gold Spot Trevally up on board, both ended up on the plate for 6 meals. I had booked to go on the Norseman 2 days later but they notified me that they didn't have the numbers to go out, so missed out as every other boat was booked out whilst I was there.
Next day went for a sail to Mackay reef on a 25mft cat, it's a huge boat and only had about 18 people on it for the day, water was quite clean (10-15m visibility) and nice snorkeling, water was cooler than I would have liked but still quite good. They required us to snorkel together so that they could keep an eye on us, which wasn't ideal but probably done for insurance requirements to ensure they didn't lose anyone.
By the time we got down to Cairns, the reef closure was in place so no more fishing for me. Did the Kuranda rail trip whilst in Cairns and then started to head back home after 4 days, caught up with Misha (aka Sylvathorn)  on the way back at Bowen, got back home and the missus 2 days later decided we should go to go to the Gold Coast to see daughter No 1 and bub, so more driving, all up we did about 4000+ km. The car kept throwing up several more error codes on the way back from Port Douglas, but with a quick jiggle of the sensors they all disappeared, will have to get them checked out now that I am back home.
For some reason, I can't seem to post up any pics!

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

my late border collie dragon was very into science.  he tried to clone a turkey one day by splitting it into many many many small pieces and sat waiting for them to grow into new turkeys.  unfortunately he didn't get the growth hormone solution at the right ratio so i had to spend 20 minutes raking up all the feathers...
 
the rest of the turkeys apparently got the message - haven't seen on in mine or any of the neighbours yard since.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Well the missus and I finally headed North on our way to Port Douglas, this is our second attempt at it, as the first trip last year  was terminated early when we blew a coolant hose just near Sarina. Our first overnight stop was at the Denison Hotel (Rockhampton)  after leaving Hervey Bay. It's an old Qld railway headquarters building which has been converted into a hotel, with 4 poster king sized bed and a spar bath, the large rooms have 14-16ft ceilings.
Left next morning towards Airlie Beach, almost no smoke from the fires on the way up, but when we got there the wind was blowing quite strongly (20-25knots). Went out on the 85ft sailing cat "Camira" for a snorkelling trip to Dumbell Island, the snorkelling was fairly abysmal as the wind the night before got to 30 knots so the water was churned up and high tide to boot. Visibilty was about 1-1.5m and unfortunately afterwards they only took us to Hills Inlet and not Whitehaven beach as we were hoping for. However the trip out and back was really good with as much food as you wanted, and as much free wine, beer and alcoholic cider as you could consume.
I broke a heel strap on my flippers and the boat didn't have a size to fit me (I have large flat feet) so just snorkelled without. I bought another pair of flippers and diving socks at Tackle World in Cannonvale.
The night before our next leg to Mission Beach, the Jeep threw a hissy fit and the computer displayed a heap of major error codes. We became stressed and were worried that it would be the end of the trip again, managed to get UltraTune in Cannonvale  squeeze the Jeep in and to do a scan on it, they were very helpful  and apart from one minor voltage issue with the MAP sensor which a clean fixed, we were good to go and left at 10:00am. Had a few more error messages pop up during the drive up, it looks like one or two of the sensors might have a loose connection as after jiggling the connections the errors disappeared and everything was back to normal.
After breakfast our next stop was 2 nights at Mission Beach at a B&B, where we saw the local Cassowary's walk around the gardens outside which was nice, dropped into the local winery for wine tastings and picked up 6 bottles of liquors/ports to take back with us. They were a nice drop!.
Arrived at Port Douglas and staying at the Ramada, today we visited the "Australian Chocolate Farm".  If you like Chocolate, then I highly recommend this place. It's 15 minutes out of town at Shannonvale and the Chocolate deserts are to die for! The chocolate is grown and processed on the farm and the deserts are made by the owner who is a Master Pastry Chef. Unbelievably good!
Tomorrow we are heading out on another large sailing Cat out to Mackay Reef for more snorkelling, the wind has died down so should be a great day. The first fishing trip is on Tuesday out on the Dragon Lady followed by another fishing trip on the Norseman on Thursday, they are both large vessels so a bit of wind won't bother them if it picks up. I tore a muscle badly in my lower back just before we left home on this trip and it's only just started to feel better now, I am taking my stand up harness with me fishing so I don't aggravate my back should I hook up on something big, it might look a bit wanky and overkill for bottom bashing but better to be safe than in pain for another 10 days.
Will do an update afterwards and looking forward to fishing as it has been a very, very long time since I have been fishing.

Exactly how big is this "little pond" to sustain fish that size?🤔
 

Thanks Hamish.

The wifey and I arrived in Airlie Beach last night and it was blowing a gale, probably up to 30knots. it eased up a bit this morning to 20-25knots. We went out on a 85ft sailing cat and went over to Dumbell island for a snorkel first, but the water was mucky due to the strong winds and big tides, then went to Hills inlet for a swim. On the way over I had white caps in my coffee mug!🤔 All in all it was still a good trip.
We are here till Wednesday before making our way to Mission Beach and after that to Port Douglas  where I have 2 Fishing trips and a sailing cat booked, then back to Cairns. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit but keeping an eye on it.
At least the 4WD hasn't broken down...yet, touch wood.😀
 

The wifey and I arrived in Airlie Beach last night and it was blowing a gale, probably up to 30knots. it eased up a bit this morning to 20-25knots. We went out on a 85ft sailing cat and went over to Dumbell island for a snorkel first, but the water was mucky due to the strong winds and big tides, then went to Hills inlet for a swim. On the way over I had white caps in my coffee mug!🤔 All in all it was still a good trip.
We are here till Wednesday before making our way to Mission Beach and after that to Port Douglas  where I have 2 Fishing trips and a sailing cat booked, then back to Cairns. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit but keeping an eye on it.
At least the 4WD hasn't broken down...yet, touch wood.😀
 

Thanks Hamish.

The wifey and I arrived in Airlie Beach last night and it was blowing a gale, probably up to 30knots. it eased up a bit this morning to 20-25knots. We went out on a 85ft sailing cat and went over to Dumbell island for a snorkel first, but the water was mucky due to the strong winds and big tides, then went to Hills inlet for a swim. On the way over I had white caps in my coffee mug!🤔 All in all it was still a good trip.
We are here till Wednesday before making our way to Mission Beach and after that to Port Douglas  where I have 2 Fishing trips and a sailing cat booked, then back to Cairns. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit but keeping an eye on it.
At least the 4WD hasn't broken down...yet, touch wood.😀
 

Thanks Hamish.

The wifey and I arrived in Airlie Beach last night and it was blowing a gale, probably up to 30knots. it eased up a bit this morning to 20-25knots. We went out on a 85ft sailing cat and went over to Dumbell island for a snorkel first, but the water was mucky due to the strong winds and big tides, then went to Hills inlet for a swim. On the way over I had white caps in my coffee mug!🤔 All in all it was still a good trip.
We are here till Wednesday before making our way to Mission Beach and after that to Port Douglas  where I have 2 Fishing trips and a sailing cat booked, then back to Cairns. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit but keeping an eye on it.
At least the 4WD hasn't broken down...yet, touch wood.😀
 

The wifey and I arrived in Airlie Beach last night and it was blowing a gale, probably up to 30knots. it eased up a bit this morning to 20-25knots. We went out on a 85ft sailing cat and went over to Dumbell island for a snorkel first, but the water was mucky due to the strong winds and big tides, then went to Hills inlet for a swim. On the way over I had white caps in my coffee mug!🤔 All in all it was still a good trip.
We are here till Wednesday before making our way to Mission Beach and after that to Port Douglas  where I have 2 Fishing trips and a sailing cat booked, then back to Cairns. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit but keeping an eye on it.
At least the 4WD hasn't broken down...yet, touch wood.😀
 

The issue that I see is, that mzaakir  has already bought a Spartan 20-30lb PE2/3 rod (which is not a cheap rod) but which will probably be too stiff for a light setup using light line, and putting a light reel on it may make it feel a bit unbalanced especially for casting, off the side of a boat might not be an issue though There are few 2500 sized reel that will have sufficient drag and line capacity to handle his target species but might feel "not quite right " on a 20-30lb rod. I have said it a few times on here, go to a tackle store and see if there is a reel you can put on it to see how that rod will feel.