Farleigh

Ok, so a 1 hr 30 min flight by Jet Star to Mackay and we were up on the East Coast of Queensland. We were met at the airport by Barbara, Ken's sister. Once the car was loaded with cases we were taken for a tour of the area that Ken grew up in, with Barbara pointing out where the family lived, cane farms owned by their uncle and stories about family members.
We arrived at their homestead in Farleigh which is up a farm road, over a cane train track and finally up the hill with 2 trees on top via a rough track, keeping an eye out for cows or wildlife. This means that their homestead can be easily spotted from 360 degrees around the hill and when you sit on the veranda you have an amazing view to look at! The Wedge-tailed eagle that Chris described appeared on cue.
Chris had been looking after Stretton and Eden, their grand children (Amanda's children) in the morning, so he was going to show us the area around Mackay after lunch as a reward. Michael dropped in to say 'hello' ( long hair, vegan, hippy) and Neil, Ken's brother joined us for lunch and brought some information on the places that B & C had planned to take us which he thought might be useful to us, plus a bottle of wine to share.
Chris's tour started at a high point in Mackay, very steep road up, which meant we could see a 180 view over the city and surrounding area, including the Pioneer River, and in the far distant the many islands and coral sea. Throughout his tour, Chris gave us info about the area, historical, familial and anecdotal and gave us an insight into his character. Next stop was Lamberts lookout which offered stunning views overlooking Lamberts Beach, the Cumberland Islands and Slade Point. This is also a popular viewing platform to see the migrating whales as they breach and play off the coast of Mackay. However, we did not see whales but a sea turtle and a Kestrel hunting and catching his prey!
Chris has a boat and is a keen fisherman so he just couldn't leave out the marina & harbour which has just been repaired and sea walls renewed and made wider with more large rocks. The marina is next to sandy Harbour Beach and home to the Pine Islet Lighthouse, one of the only working kerosene lighthouses left in the world. The marina itself contains 328 berths, with six Mega Berths of 60-metre capacity and alongside vehicle access, 18 new big boat berths, which can hold boats of up to 38 metres and 32 fishing berths - plus one maintenance berth. We spent some time deciding which boat we were each going to keep! It was now coming to the highlight of the tour which was to head out to the Hibiscus Coast to hopefully see wallabies on the beach at dusk! The highway took us through this ruggedly scenic park which includes rainforest, eucalypt forest, beaches, rocky headlands covered in hoop pines and lovely beaches. We stopped at Seaforth beach front first and then on to Cape Hillsborough Beach which we hoped would provide one of the most iconic Australian photo backdrops, the famous “Roo on the beach.” Unfortunately we only had the beautiful beach and sun-setting over the Pacific - Roos decided not to show. We headed home for dinner on the verandah in the cool and watching the red lines of cane fires glowing in the dark below!Read more