Day 152 Hideaway Bay

The ride from Airlie beach to Dingo beach was hard. It was hot, we were tired and hungover but it only took an hour, so we managed. Dingo beach consisted of a general store and a pub. Thankfully the general store was open and it had supplies for dinner and breakfast. We loaded the food in and head around the bend to the next town called Hideaway Bay.
Riding into town the houses were quite nice, mostly 2 storey, a lot of steel exteriors. We followed the road which turned into a dirt track with a lot of smaller tracks on the right leading straight to the beach. There was one sign at the end that said no camping so we didnt camp there, we camped off one of the smaller, harder tracks with no signs. Rob had to ride my bike in for me. Im not experienced enough with tracks like that yet. Not sure if we were allowed to stay there, but we did.

The veiw was beautiful, light blue water, islands out to the distance, rocks on the beach leading into the ocean. By the time we set up Rob was claiming he must have the flu as he still didnt feel well from our night out. I think it was the remaining hangover that we hadnt addmitted to each other we were still suffering from. Either way, he played the man flu card for the next few days.
We made some dinner and watched the beautiful sunset over the ocean. We had a huge sleep that night, we were exhausted. The next day we woke to the tide being much higher than we anticiated so as we exited our tent it was about 2 metres away.
Not the best idea when your in crocodile territory. We may need to be a bit smarter.

The morning was nice, a little warm but Robs ‘man flu’ had escalated as we woke up in a hot tent. We managed to eat some fruit for breakfast but as we decided to stay an extra night we went for a small walk along the beach hoping to cool down with our feet in the water looking for crocs.

I had a mission and i chose to accept it. Get food. The task wasnt as easy as it sounds. As Rob had to ride my bike down the uneven, rocky road to get to the campsite, it was now my challenge to ride out. He offered to ride it but hadnt yet managed to find the strength to get out of the hot tent. I planned slowly, walking my path first, and happily made it out of there!

I managed to get some sandwiches made and grab some pasta to cook. By the time i got back to our campsight Rob had left the tent and set up shelter underneath a sheet of ours with some sticks and rocks that he had gathered, holding it together. He was fragile, the shelter was fantastic as there was no other shade, im not sure how he managed to make it but i was happy he did.

We had seen a lady picking things off the rocks earlier so naturally i went to investigate what she had been doing. It turns out the rocks were covered in oyster shells. Rob told me if i was going to pick one make sure its close to the water as the tide went out. I did and like an excited child i ate it before thinking if i could. After swollowing it i said to rob can i eat it? Is there a freezing process they go through to get rid of the bacteria that im not aware of? He said google it! So i did and what came back scarred the bagebers out of me, i read ‘Raw oysters contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus can be life threatening, even fatal when eaten by someone with liver disease, diabetes or a weakened immune system.’
Obviously i had no idea how to tell if the oyster i had just eaten was disease ridden or not so i put together an emergency plan in case and told Rob about it. Just in case. Then i waited.
Thankfully I was fine but not game enough to pull another oyester off the rocks and await my destiny.

From Hideaway Bay we rode to Bowen and stopped into a small fish and chip shop called Birds Fish bar. It was located right on the water where all the fishing boats were moored. Lunch was delicious. The chips were so crispy and had a great crunch. The best fish and chips we have had in a long time.

From there we rode to Horseshoe Bay which was incredible. A small little bay with large rocks on either side. Absolutley beautiful spot. Next stop Home Hill.