If we put it off for twenty-four hours, we mightn’t have gone at all.
When Madam looked up from her perusal of the morning’s junk mail and asked whether I felt like a jaunt to Airlie Beach, the answer was, predictably, in the affirmative, though there was nothing on the shopping front that couldn’t have been postponed should circumstances arise. For a start, a trip to Airlie means lunch somewhere, and while the old tapas option at Capers was no longer operational, there are other options. Wood-fired pizza at Mangrove Jack’s for one, and you’d expect a stroll around the downtown area would reveal other possibilities. Madam wanted to go to Cedar Creek Falls along the way. People with new photographic gear are like that....
So it looked like we were in for a welcome change of routine. Had something intervened we could have put the trip off, but the dust haze that delivered spectacular results in the south on Wednesday had reached Bowen and Townsville by this morning, and it isn’t really a day for going anywhere....
A trip along the highway also provides the chance to give the iPod a little workout en route, and we spent fifty-odd minutes with the Latin playlist in the background as we discussed various subjects along the way.
If you’re travelling south and aiming for Cedar Creek Falls the best option is to sail past the first turnoff (the one that’s sign-posted with Dingo Beach and Hideaway Bay as options) and head almost into Proserpine before taking the Airlie Beach/Cannonvale turnoff just before the Proserpine River. As the road doglegs towards the ranges there’s a right-hand turn to Conway Beach, and a pleasantly winding drive before you get to the Cedar Creek Falls turnoff, which puts you on a bit more than one vehicle stretch of bitumen as you wend your way into the foothills and the track that takes you into the falls is gravel. Looking back I found myself wondering how we managed to take a bus load of students that way on the 1985 Year Five Camp. It’s not the sort of road you tend to associate with buses. Madam was bemused by the lack of traffic, and the absence of parked vehicles when we arrived at our destination, but it transpired the Falls weren’t falling. Hughesy took a couple of quick snaps and then removed himself from the vicinity to give her a clear run at whatever she felt like focussing on...

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