Dunk Island

Sunday 19 November

Today was another “free day” to explore Dunk Island or take part in the many varied activities offered at this resort, such as archery, sea kayaking, snorkeling, or just plain swimming in either of the two pools. When we woke up the skies were grey and overcast, and just as we arrived at breakfast it began to rain heavily – we had left the umbrella back in our room, of course – not the sort of weather we were expecting on a paradise island. But by the time we finished eating – several courses later – the rain had stopped and the skies were beginning to clear.

We decided to take advantage of the “free washing” facilities here and I blogged whilst it was tumbling around in the machines. The sun was now shining, although the temperature was a little cooler than recently due to the influence of the sea breezes - around the top twenties. Having collected the washing it was time for some exercise, so we picked up a leaflet from the activity centre and set out for a stroll. We walked across the first tee of the golf course – not St Andrews, but coarse grass fairways leading to greens they are currently improving, with no shortage of sandy bunkers. The track continued around the airstrip - the light aircraft attached to the resort was just landing as we passed – and through the rainforest, close to the coastline, all the way to Coconut Beach (about 3 kms) - a long sandy cove, backed by palm trees, with lots of large granite boulders at either end. It was very quiet and peaceful, with the turquoise sea lapping the beach, only disturbed by the odd walker. The track was under the canopy of a large variety of tall trees, all fighting for sunlight, vines and lianas – some of which were covered with small sharp barbs that caught on your clothes, if not your skin, as you passed. Unfortunately there were also lots of fallen trees, the result of Cyclone Larry which blew through this area last year, and caused major devastation. But already there were signs of new trees growing up through the dusty soil.

We were on the lookout for the Ulysses butterfly, but although we saw many other varieties in all colours, patterns, and sizes, we did not see this famous blue. One was pale yellow and black striped across the wings, which looked like a mini zebra crossing flying through the air, another was almost transparent - when flying all you could see was the black lacy pattern of veins on the wings - and there were clusters of weeny butterflies, white, blue and yellow, and smaller than my little finger nail. We did spy a couple of huge, huge spiders – with their legs spread out they were approaching twelve inches across, and their webs were about three feet wide by two feet long – in fact other small spiders were making their own webs on the edges of the big webs. We also saw male and female turkeys scrabbling around in the undergrowth, a very inquisitive brown turtle in a small stream, and several different species of birds – especially lots of small black finch-size birds with a bright canary yellow breasts, which had a cheeky call. Although I am sure there is a lot of wildlife in these forests, it is definitely not easily visible to a visitor.

By the time we returned to the hotel, several hours later, and were suitably refreshed in the bar, the skies were clouding over again, so we returned to our room and spent some time downloading piccys and finished posting the blogs for the past couple of days. As darkness fell, we had another short shower of rain, but when we left for the bar and dinner, all was dry again. Dinner was another tasty meal, including New Zealand rack of lamb – with all the sheep in Australia, we did wonder why we were eating meat from New Zealand. We tasted another Australian cheese for our dessert – a Windloek cheddar, slightly soft texture, very creamy with a bit of a bite. All in all, the food here has been the best we have had on this tour so far, so things are looking up. On going to and from the restaurant, last night and tonight, we have seen a brown and white python draped over a rock beside a pool, and we could hear a particularly vociferous frog croaking nearby. Tonight as we went to dinner, the snake was slowly sliding over the rock toward some nearby water plants. When we came out the snake had disappeared, but the frog had also stopped croaking! We wondered if he had enjoyed his meal as much as us.

Dunk Island – as I said yesterday – is a bit like a tropical Centre Parcs – and I was disappointed not to have tried the pools – doing nothing takes a lot of time. It was too windy today for many of the watersports such as sea kayaking or taking a snorkel tour around the island’s coasts, or indeed sky-diving. Archery was taking place as we returned from our walk, but the winds were frustrating those taking part by carrying the arrows off course. We enjoyed our time here, and could happily have spent a few extra days relaxing. But we are off tomorrow to another island, Hamilton Island, further south in the Whitsunday Islands.