A more apt title than Whitsunday Wanderings would probably be Whitsunday Wondering What Happened to the Weather. That beautiful sunshine of our first two weeks here has been very intermittent between blustery squalls and niggley showers. Consequently our walks have been close to home. A plan to complete the Great Whitsunday Walk had to be postponed, but hopefully this weekend we might just make it. Luckily though, there is a lot more to do here than walk. The past two weeks have been a real cultural feast The Proserpine Entertainment Centre runs an excellent program of events. During the last fortnight we have been to The Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow; an impressive local High School production of the musical, Oliver; and the classic Australian play, The One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour. Then I decided to step right outside my comfort zone and signed up to attend two writers' workshops presented by the author, Melaina Faranda. I had a fantastic two days. Melaina, the author of Young Adult and Children's books, was a brilliant presenter, and the local council is to be commended on providing these workshops free of charge. The first day's workshop was 'Unleash Your Creativity' and the second, 'Making it Good Enough to Publish'. Now I am better prepared to write that novel. The highlight of my time here, however, has been hearing Tim Winton speak at a 'Save our Reef' function. He is one of my favourite authors, but not only is he a brilliant writer, he is also a passionate conservationist. Winton is a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society and was in town to celebrate 50 years of protecting Australia's oceans with the AMCS. The man is a legend. His 26 works have been printed in 28 languages and he has been declared a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia. This week we spent a couple of days in Mackay, which is only 120 kilometres to the south of Proserpine. As well as searching cemeteries for my ancestors (family history research is still big on my agenda), we enjoyed some sight-seeing of the local beaches and surrounding countryside. All in all, despite the poor weather, we have had a pretty exciting and eventful time. And the local restaurants and coffee shops are not bad places to hang out either, when the sun forgets to shine.
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