1971 - Part 2

We stayed our first night as a married couple at the Park Royal Hotel, beside the Botanic Gardens in the city.  As we were both too nervous to eat at the reception, we were starving when we arrived and ordered burgers from room service.  We were preparing for bed when I realised that I had left my birth control pills at home and quickly phoned my parents' number, hoping to speak to my sister.  She assured me that she would bring them to the airport in the morning.  We slept well and arrived at the airport early to find only Dad waiting for us.  He told us Twin had fallen down the stairs and twisted her ankle making it impossible for her to see us off, but he reassured me that she was OK.  As our departure time drew nearer, I timidly asked Dad if Twin had given him anything to give to me.  He said "Oh yes" and started patting his pockets, then produced a sealed envelope.  You can't imagine my relief as I felt the blister pack of pills through that envelope.

Our flight to Mackay was uneventful and we booked into a Motel for a couple of nights, because our cruise didn't depart until Tuesday.  We wandered around Mackay a bit, but there really wasn't anything much to see.  At the harbour, we boarded one of Roylen Cruises' five converted PT boats.  Each boat slept only eight guests and our cabin didn't have a solid door: there was a gap at the top and the bottom.  It had never occurred to us that we would have to sleep in double bunks attached to the wall. Apart from our wardrobe, the only other item of interest was a wash basin in the corner.  The bathroom and toilet were at the end of the corridor.  The toilet (the correct nautical term was "the head") was more like a throne because you had to walk up a couple of steps to perch on it. ☺

My husband immediately spotted an acquaintance among the crew of another boat, RG.  I was less than impressed to see him because he had spent most of one night at P's parents' house trying to convince P not to marry me.  I knew this because I had stayed the night and instead of sleeping peacefully in P's bedroom, I spent most of the night listening to RG and P's increasingly drunken discussions about our upcoming nuptials.  He finally convinced P that it was a really bad idea so P sneaked into my room and started hunting around looking for my engagement ring.  Knowing this would happen from the tone of their conversation, I had already slipped it off my finger and hidden it inside the pillow case.  He tried to wake me, but as I was playing sound asleep he eventually gave up his search and staggered back out into the dining room to rejoin RG in another drink.  It never occurred to me at the time to worry about the enormous influence P's friends had over him, but I learnt over time that I came a poor second in relation to his mates, while his children were hardly a blip on his radar.

On our boat one of the deckhands was tall, tanned and blond so P immediately regarded him as a threat, telling me he didn't like the way this guy was looking at me.  I told P that I hadn't even noticed the man until he pointed him out, but of course P didn't believe me.  The rest of the guests were older married couples who quickly deduced we were on our honeymoon, so every morning and each time we went to our cabin for any reason we suffered good-natured jibes on our return above deck.

Our boat took off into the Whitsunday Passage and it was very rough!  We made the fateful mistake of sitting in the bar and it took only a few minutes of watching the alcohol in the bottles sloshing from side to side for us to become horribly sea sick.  P followed me downstairs to the toilet where I was violently sick, then he promptly followed my example.  After cleaning ourselves up, we took to our bunks and fell asleep.  When we awoke, there was no motion from the waves and we quickly realised we were tied up at the wharf at Lindeman Island.  To our horror, everyone else had gone ashore and the boat was about to pull away to allow another boat to dock.  We scrambled ashore as quickly as possible and swore we would never set foot on that boat again ... I nearly kissed the ground!  However, after a few hours of wandering around that beautiful island among the tropical flowers and plants, we decided to persevere with our holiday.  When we boarded again, the crew told us the only way to avoid seasickness was to stand at the bow and never to go inside.  If only we had know this trick earlier!

We visited Lindeman, Hook, Hayman, Brampton and Daydream Islands.  Some nights all the boats would tie up side by side at a wharf, using planks to get from one boat to the other, then we would all go ashore to enjoy dinner and dancing at one of the resorts.  We were having a lovely night at Daydream Island when RG asked me to dance.  I didn't really want to but felt I should remain civil.  He behaved himself and seemed quite nice, but suddenly P jumped up and stormed out.  When we all returned to our boats, I found him propped up at the bar.  When I suggested it was bedtime he pointedly ignored me so I went downstairs to our cabin alone.  Apparently the bar stayed open as long as someone wanted to drink so I didn't see him again until morning.  We never discussed that incident.

The rest of our trip was marvellous.  We caught fish in crystal clear water ... it seemed like cheating to me because I could see the fish open its mouth to take my bait and only had to yank on the line to catch it.  Our fresh catch was cooked superbly by our on-board Chef and I fell in love with Red Emperor and Sand Snapper. 

One day we boarded a Dingy to spend some time on Whitehaven Beach.  Remember this was the middle of winter but between the snow white sand and crystal clear water, we were sunburnt within 30 minutes.  Worse still, the outboard motor on the Dingy broke down so we were stranded there for a couple of hours.  We sat in the water with soaking wet towels over our heads to try to save our skin from burning any more, but I was horribly blistered by the time they picked us up.

We eventually returned to Mackay where we were scheduled to board the Sunlander to return to Brisbane.  To our dismay, there had been a problem on the rail line somewhere south of us and we were told we wouldn't be leaving until midnight.  We explained our predicament and begged the nearest hotel's desk clerk for a room for just the day.  It wasn't too expensive and we rested until it was time to return to the station.  We left just after midnight and were very comfortable in our private two-bed sleeper.  When we woke up we were travelling slowly past workmen rearranging gravel at the side of the track.  I asked P to close the blinds so I could get out of bed but he told me it was one-way glass and they couldn't see me.  I disagreed saying "I'm sure that man is looking straight at me!" but P just said I was imagining things, so I got out of bed and got dressed.  As we left the train in Brisbane I looked with horror into every sleeping berth as we walked along the platform.  I glared at P and said in an icy voice "One-way glass?  Really?"  At least he apologised, but it didn't make me feel any better ... I've never been an exhibitionist and those men had gotten an eye full!

We arrived at his parents' house where we would stay until we could rent ourselves a flat and after one night, we were prepared to rent anything just to get out of there.  We ended up with a one-bedroom, fully furnished flat at Nundah ... one room was a combined kitchen/dining/lounge room with a front door, the other room had a back door and was a decent sized bedroom with a small bathroom/toilet off that, all for $24 per week including electricity.

_____________________________________________