Day 245 Hydeaway Bay, Qld

What an appropriate name for this little gem of a place - Hydeaway Bay.  It is almost 40km off the Bruce Highway and the turnoff is just after Proserpine.  I guess most people wouldn't detour this far off the highway but if you don't, you really miss out.  You get the feeling that everyone knows everybody in this little place and when you walk along the streets you get big waves from passing cars, mainly checking you out I feel.....

On advice from the owners of the Hydeaway Caravan Park we drove out to Cape Gloucester, around 5km,  where there is a resort right on the beach.  We didn't go inside the resort but there is a restaurant/bar/coffee shop attached to the resort that is open to the public.  I imagine it would be a great locals hangout and probably a beautiful spot to sit and watch the sun go down.

Dingo Beach is on the southern side of Hydeaway Bay and is within walking distance if you walk along the beach and did a bit of rock scrambling.  We chose to drive.  It's strange that there is not a road that would take you directly to Dingo Beach from Hydeaway but instead you have to do rather a large loop.  It is another lovely place and by the age of the houses here we would say that it was established before Hydeaway Bay.  Both Hydeway Bay and Dingo Beach are on the northern end of the stunning Whitsundays. 

I love the "stinger net" that the locals have erected.  It works, and that is all that matters.

When we arrived back at the van we put on our joggers and walked the short distance to Hydeaway Bay Beach.  It looked more inviting to walk south along the beach and even though we had to scramble over a few rocks it was a good choice.  Once we rounded the point, Dingo Beach was just a short distance further to the south and although we couldn't see it, Bowen is just to our north.

This is a place that we will return to and definitely stay a couple of days.  You need that time to explore the area in a little more detail.  The caravan park is lovely and green and the new owners are doing a fantastic job of bringing it up to date. There is a brand new swimming pool that has just been installed and the owners invited us to take a dip but we declined as the water was quite cold, party due to the large shade sail that they have installed over the top of the pool!  Unnecessary I think......

Tomorrow we don't really have a destination in mind.  We were thinking of Townsville but Philip said that he would like to go a little further. We will be winging it.