12th April - Clontarf - Manly Beach - Hamilton Island - Woodwark Bay

Friday 12^th April

Above - the view from Chris and Karen's house in Clontarf, last night just before dusk.

We are anchored in Woodwark Bay, a bit north of Airlie Beach.  It is quite warm but very overcast and…damp.  It has stopped raining so I hope the holidaymakers in the Whitsundays get a bit of sunshiney joy.

This morning I got up at 5.30, with True Harmsen Spirit, and went for a brisk walk from one end of Manly Beach to the other.  Karen and I walked all the way but Chris, ofcourse, broke into a much speedier run.  We met up halfway and went for a swim and watched the sun rise over the ocean – just beautiful.  When I say we went for a swim…that is not quite correct… We all did indeed get wet but only Chris and Karen swam, like dolphins, bodysurfing in on the fierce little waves.  I was more wary; I have been dumped by these very same short sharp little waves and I was quite happy just jumping up and down to avoid getting smacked in the moosh and possibly bowled over

My trip from Clontarf to the airport went like a dream.  Chris dropped me off at North Sydney railway station, where I bought my ticket quick smart and stepped straight onto a train to Central.  At Central there was, yet again, a train just leaving, so I got to the airport in less than half an hour.  Easy peasy!  But…not so easypeasy in the actual airport… There was a long snakey queue winding back and forth and out and about, with a shuffling crowd, laden with large suitcases.  Unfortunately I was one of the large-suitcase brigade so I had to shuffle along with the uncomplaining throng.  It took me one and a quarter hours to get my boarding pass, and then to get through security where – YES! - I was yet again dusted down for explosives… (I get dusted down more often than not…usually I don’t mind; they are just doing their job but this time I was extremely keen NOT to be delayed from my two immediate goals: toilet, then coffee!)