Airlie Beach Triathlon

As a regular bike rider and swimmer, I thought I would enter the Enticer Airlie Beach Triathlon. My only concern was the run leg - it's not something I am particularly good at, except when I have a tennis racquet in hand.

I was able to convince my husband to be my support crew, which actually really only meant him getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning with me instead of lying in bed. Registration was the day before, so the various stickers were already placed on the relevant paraphernalia that's required for identification: number 177 was stuck on my bike helmet and bicycle, pinned to my running top and tattoed on my arm.  The pink wristband was adorned to enter the transition area, and the GPS tracker ready to be strapped to my ankle before the starting gun.

Transition area

The weather was superb with a light breeze, 17 degrees Celsius and clear skies - perfect conditions for a 300 metre swim beside Airlie Beach lagoon, a 10 kilometre loop bike ride to Cannonvale and 2.5 kilometre return run along the boardwalk.

Ready for the swim

I didn't break any records, but I put in a solid midfield performance (14 out of 22) and completed the course in just under an hour at 00:59:29. Swim time was 00:09:12, ride 00:32:35 and run 00:17:41.

Start of the 10km bike leg

The overall winner of the Sprint Triathlon, which is twice the distance for each enticer leg, finished in the same time as me. It's amazing how fit some people are.

Finished!

Thanks to my husband for the encouraging clapping and cheering (and photos), as well as to all the volunteers from the Whitsunday TriClub and the emergency service personnel who gave up their time to help make it a fun, smoothly run event.

Bring on the Bowen triathlon next month!

Spring blooms

Colours were abalze at the 73rd annual Proserpine Uniting Church Flower Show on Saturday. It would have been hard work for the judges to select the prize winning bloom for each category as there were so many beautiful entries.

Surprisingly, there were a number of cooler climate flowers such as the rose, alyssum, petunias and phlox, in amongst the tropical favourites of bouganivillea, desert rose, orchids and bromeliads. There was also a native flower category with lovely bottlebrush and grevillea on display.

Orchids are the main attraction of the show - their colour and bilateral symmetry are what makes them so desirable. There are more than 25 000 documented species and these masters of deception grow naturally all over the world. The reproductive parts of many orchid flowers are coloured and shaped to look like the insect they are trying to attract, so once the pollen sticks the insect flies off to find another 'mate'!

A timely segment of Gardening Australia on Saturday evening showcases one gardner's passion for the orchid family.

The local school choirs provided some entertainment while we sipped a cup of tea and munched on homemade biscuits and scones, and we bought some unusal plants on sale on our way out the door.

Flying to Innisfail

It literally was a flying visit to Innisfail, but we did also have the intention to fly once we arrived there!

Departing the Whitsundays on Friday afternoon, we were both looking forward to another Delvy adventure. Heading north on the Bruce Highway, the dusty, tree-stunted landscape, interspersed with fields of sugarcane between Proserpine and the north of Townsville, finally gave way to some tropical vegetation just south of Ingham - our stop for the night. It was as far as we could manage to drive, and we were still only halfway to our destination. We squeezed Delvy in amongst all the other highway travellers at the roadside camp of Frances Creek. The only sounds were those of passing traffic, and as the night wore on it was less frequent.

Awake early and on the road by 6.30am - we had another three hours driving to get to Innisfail on the Cassowary Coast!

The vegetation was becoming more dense and the air thicker with humidity. A stop off at the Hinchinbrook Island lookout was hard to go past. The largest island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, I have always wanted to walk the Thorsborne Trail since my Queensland Travel consultancy days. However, it may remain on the wish list as the resort has just been destroyed by fire.

Hinchinbrook Island

We continued along The Great Green Way, driving adjacent to the Hinchinbrook Channel, through the waterside town of Cardwell. There was no time to explore the hinterland and National Parks - we'll have to have a few more days for sightseeing next trip.

Banana plantations were becoming as common as sugarcane as we passed through Tully, and then finally into Innisfail. It was 9.30am and it was time to learn to fly!

Learning to fly a gyrocopter

Gary had a couple of hours in the air with Rob, the instructor, before convincing me to get in the chair and see what it's like. Terrified at first, I soon eased into it and the wonder of feeling the warm air pass over me as I soaked up the views. Rob flew me over Etty Bay and the caravan park we were booked into that borders the Moresby Range National Park. Our friends who travelled from Cairns to meet us waved enthusiastically - we were only about 500 metres up in the air. Stunning coastline, lush rainforest and Johnstone River views were just mesmerising. The cultivated symmetrical patterns in the red dirt were striking from the air: a beautiful contrast to the lush green ordered rows of papaya, bananas and cane, all neatly contained in square fields. No photos from the air unfortunately, as to have a camera on board was a little precarious.

Cassowary on the beach at Etty Bay

Coming back down to earth I was buzzing. Nearly as much as Gary was - he has always wanted to fly and he was loving it. The gyrocopter is a fascinating machine - it's grass roots flying, completely open to the elements. That's the attraction I think - Amelia Earhart style. Whilst the weather was very favourable on Saturday, Sunday morning was looking less so. Still, we both managed a turn in the air before the showers became too heavy. This time I took control of the stick - only for a short stint though as it's quite daunting!

It was a long drive back home on Sunday, but we were both on a high (pardon the pun) from our flying adventures. Stay tuned for some more gyrocopter action - we are hooked!

Cardwell jetty

Classical music in the Whitsundays

It’s not often we are treated to world class classical music in the Whitsundays, so when the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne was advertising a concert in our local church we were keen to attend.

St. Martin of Tours Church was abuzz with the cognoscenti of Airlie Beach, interspersed with visiting grey nomads, and the likes of us. With front row seats, we were looking forward to the program of popular works from well-known composers Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Bach.

The mesmerizing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons featured two different soloists, and took us to the interval nearly one hour later. The second half of the program featured Tchaikovsky’s somber Pezzo capriccioso (Dmitri Gornovsky was entrancing on the Violoncello); Mozart’s Divertimento in F major followed by soprano Sabine Könner and her magnificent rendition of the Eucharistic Latin hymn of Ave verum corpus; and Bach’s Suite No.2 in B Minor with flutist and composer Michal Rosiak.

The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne tours the world over with the objective of inspiring as many people across all generations to enjoy classical music. Playing 300 concerts annually, you are sure to catch them somewhere near you. Don’t miss it!

Electric power in the Whitsundays

I was lucky enough to have a ride in a visiting new Telsa MS85 around Airlie Beach and Cannonvale in the Whitsundays. Thanks to Marc Talloen and his enthusiasm for electric powered vehicles, I too am now hooked. Not that we can afford this model car - we'll have to wait for the cheaper version to be released in Australia in a few years time - but it certainly looked great parked in our driveway!

Tesla Motors is an American automotive and energy storage company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, electric vehicle powertrain components, and battery products. They are taking the world by storm - well the U.S and Europe at least - and are starting to make a presence here in Australia.

The electric vehicle will be a perfect complement to the solar farm we have on our house roof. It will cost us nothing but the power from the sun to charge, or a minimal amount if charging from the grid. There is very little maintenance required on electric vehicles, and best of all they produce no emissions. Here is the car of the very near future!

Charging at the local sports ground with 3-phase power

Art Whitsunday Exhibition

The 28th Annual Art Whitsunday Exhibition was on last weekend at the Whitsunday Arts and Cultural Centre (WACC), coinciding with the Whitsunday Reef Festival.

Judged by Chris Saines, Director of GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) in Queensland's state capital of Brisbane, he had his work cut out for him determining a winner for each of the 12 categories, which included the theme climate change.

The WACC is a spacious and newly renovated venue; perfect for an exhibition. Well done to all the entrants. I am inspired to get creative myself!

The inaugural Whitsundays annual regional art show is coming up in October. Unlike the Art Whitsunday exhibition, anyone can enter, so it's time to whip out the paintbrushes and paint pots.

These would look good in our garden - company for the chickens too!

28th annual art exhibition

Art friends

My favourite medium - watercolour

Belinda Curry's take on climate change

Textiles

Wendy Eriksson's infamous boats and fish

People's choice - and the only one sold!

Shark Bay revisted

Flicking through the July issue of The Wanderer, I came across a very familiar motor home. "That's Delvy!", I announced proudly, "and that's my photo!".

Disappointed I didn't make Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia calendar again this year, I was pretty happy my photo, unexpectedly, still got into print. Although, using it to advertise insurance wouldn't have been my first choice. But, hey, what does it matter - they gave me credit for it, and it's a great photo worth sharing. So much so that it's in the August edition too.

Advertisement in The Wanderer - July & August

The photo was taken at Shark Bay, Western Australia in June last year. I tossed and turned all night as the glow of the full moon was so bright. When colour began to emerge in the dawn sky it was time to get the camera out.

Here's what I wrote about that camp and the area the night before the photo was taken....

Shark Bay –13.6.14 

                                     

I am writing this on the shoreline of Henri Freycinet Harbour at Fowlers Camp in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The shadows are lengthening, there is just a ripple across the clear water and a lone Caspian tern is relaxing on the sand spit: sunset is not far away.

Another big day driving, but then this is big country and one has to drive a long way to see the sights. Once we turned off the North West Coastal Highway, surviving the many road trains that overtook us, and once again waving to fellow travellers (now the caravans are coming thick and fast!), it was a bit of a drive between the tourist spots. Hamelin Pools boast the best example of stromatolites in the country, with scientists visiting from all over the world to study these ancient living organisms.

A loop walk in the area takes you through a shell block quarry. Fragum Cockle shells washed with rain water cement together to form a solid structure (called coquina shell) which can be used for building blocks. They came in handy when there was no timber or stone around. Shell Beach up the road (in WA terms this means at least 50kms) lives up to its name as the cockle shells are up to ten metres thick and stretches for 120kms.

The Eagle Bluff boardwalk is a good vantage point to spot marine life in the shallows. We saw a ray of some kind as we were taking in the view of a disused guano island and the stark coastline.

Off to see the dolphins at Monkey Mia tomorrow, before we drive back out of here and head for Carnarvon.

Original photo - Full moon at dawn, Shark Bay