Photos From The Road – #40

This Photos From The Road series has been going for a while now!

My irregular photographic series from around the world was at first an attempt to improve my photography and to show you guys, my readers, some of the most photogenic and beautiful spots from my travels. Looking back through the series, if I’d numbered them, this would actually be #40.

Over the last two years it’s proven to be popular, my photography has most definitely improved and my travels have become more and more far flung and still have no end in sight.

But it’s never really had any direction or regularity as a series on this website, and it has remained incredibly irregular, despite the regularity of my travels – I mean, I travel and I photograph somewhere or something almost every day!

All of you readers also have to follow me on Facebook or Instagram to actually know where I am too, and what I’m doing. It’s hard work, and very time consuming to give real time updates and articles on the website itself, so I resort to using Social Media instead, reserving the website for the best content, content that I can produce to a high quality and in my own time, to make sure it is the best that I can create.

But now I want to find a way to combine these pursuits, and to give regular updates on this website alongside the social media and the more detailed destination articles and the social media.

This is where my Photos From The Road series comes in!

I’m turning this series into a weekly thread. I’m committed to taking this blog to the next level, and for that I need more regularity and more consistency. I’m producing more content than ever before, and more of you are reading each day, but the whole website needs just a little more consistency to hold it all together.

Every Sunday- as long as the internet allows it!- as a commitment to producing more content, to keeping you all updated on my travels and to continuously produce better photography for you I’ll be publishing a new Photos From The Road article.

I’ll update you on the last week of travels, plans for the next week and accompany it all with that week’s best photography.

Think of it as a weekly photographic news update.

And to kick things off and to get us all up to speed, here are my Photos From The Road as I travel up the East Coast of Australia, and so far I’ve made it as far as the Whitsundays in Queensland.

Photos From The Road – East Coast Australia To The Whitsundays!

I’m in Australia! On the East Coast, travelling North towards my ultimate stop in the tropics- Cairns.

I left Sydney at the start of March, travelling to the Blue Mountains, then carrying on up the coast and calling in at small coastal towns in New South Wales- Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay- and crossing the state border to Queensland, and the big smoke of Brisbane.

The Glass House Mountains

From Brisbane I travelled inland to the Glass House Mountains.

This mountain range is a real hidden gem, an unexpected find that I literally drove into on my way along the East Coast. Heading up the highway, I saw tourist signs for the mountains, and intrigued by the name I headed into the hinterland.

I found the Glass House Mountains protruding in jagged shape and form from the ground into the Blue Australian sky.

These unusual mountains are Volcanic Plugs, formed by molten lava cooling.

The European name for the range was given by explorer Captain Cook, who believed the mountains looked like the glass furnaces from his homeland of Yorkshire, England. The local Aboriginal people of the region had their own legends though, going back thousands of years.

Local stories say the mountain range is a family looking out to see. Legend has it that as the sea rose around them, a family fled from the coast into the interior- where the mountains are found.

With water rising, the father asked his eldest son to help his pregnant mother to safety, but the son ran off in fear instead.

The father chased his son and clubbed him down. He was never forgiven by his father, who now looks out to sea.

The mountains are said to represent the family of this tale.

Fraser Island 

I then travelled along the Sunshine Coast, before calling in at Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. It’s a lot of sand. And the beaches are pure white and beautiful.

The only way to get around is by four by four, and I explored the beaches and rainforest for the day as well as getting airborne in a light aircraft.

Fraser Island is home to a large population of ‘wild’ dingos, although with so many tourists around they are hardly wild animals…

I also explored the rusting hulk of the SS Maheno, an old cruise liner which met its fate on the white sands of Fraser Island.

Hervey Bay

After a day on the white sand beaches of Fraser Island it was back to the mainland and north to the town of Hervey Bay, a small port city on the coast surrounded by tidal mud flats and home to a kilometre long wooden jetty.

Locals were out on the tidal flats and along the jetty fishing and searching for mud crabs, and far out to sea was Fraser Island.

Bundaberg

The agricultural town of Bundaberg was the next stop.

I’d never heard good things about Bundaberg, it’s mainly an agricultural, farming hub, where backpackers try to find work. Or so I’d heard on my travels around Australia.

I was stopping in for the famous Bundaberg soft drink factory. They make a cracking Ginger Beer, as well a variety of other fruity brews- all non alcoholic.

I was pleasantly surprised by the place though, especially after all I’d heard, and I found the coastline to be brilliant, with awesome sandy beaches and a huge turtle nesting reserve. And there was almost no one around- probably because no one gives the city a chance. In fact, as I found, there are a lot of things to do in Bundaberg.

Mackay

Ever further North I travelled, and this time I took a detour inland, away from the coast and into the higher realms of the misty mountains of Mackay in search of Platypus.

Early in the morning I headed to a Platypus Reserve, where these shy creature could swim and hunt at their own slow pace.

I was lucky enough to spot several of these small, aquatic creatures ducking and diving around in the water.

Whitsundays

The last stop this week was Airlie Beach, the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands.

I was expecting big things from the Whitsundays, they are one of the most popular places to visit along the East Coast, for the pure white sand and beautiful waters.

Unfortunately, it was raining. Hard.

I set sail on a catamaran from Airlie, and the rain hit.

It stopped long enough to snorkel on the reef, an then just long enough for the clouds to clear over Whitehaven Beach, for the spectacular views of the Hill Inlet and the awesome white sand and tuqoiuse ocean.

Then it rained again on the return journey. Hard. But luckily the boat I’d chosen to go on included unlimited beer in the ticket price…

North To Cairns!

Now it’s north, to Cairns!

Weather permitting…

There are a few cyclones brewing in the tropical North, and the tail end of these destructive weather systems is putting rain down everywhere, although they should pass within the next few days.

The next stop is Townsville, a casual 300 kilometre drive from the Whitsundays, then it’s onto Cairns and the Daintree Rain Forest, to explore forest and reef.

All Photographs Property Of Richard Collett

I hope you enjoyed this travel update!

Any feedback you guys have would be great, and rest assured there will be a new instalment next Sunday as well as new articles on the website too.