Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

---

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays- a group of islands in the lower Great Barrier Reef Region. Advertisements of white sand and crystal blue water are selling points on their own which brings heaps and heaps of tourists to the area.

There are a lot of sailing options to cruise around the reefs. Josh did some research into the most recommended boats and some hard-core bargaining with the travel agent to get us a good price on a 3 day/3 night sailing course with the option of snorkeling and scuba diving once we got out there. We booked this trip while we were in Byron Bay, so this was about the only definite plans we had for the trip. We were making good time in between towns and were even able to bump our trip up a few days.

A day before the trip is when most of the flooding started, but luckily we made it in to town with hours to spare. It was only when we called to check in that we learned the trip had been canceled. Earlier that day a similar vessel to what we’d be on had capsized in the turbulent waters and all the passengers had to be rescued. We were more than a little disappointed when no one had notified us, but the travel agent and the boat agents just played the blame game and the issue was never resolved.

We found a really great caravan park to pass the time until our next trip. It was very tropical with lots of fresh flowers, incredible landscaping around the pool, and great amenities (big showers!, tennis, and spacious camp kitchen). This was fair consolation to not being on the water.

The town of Airlie Beach didn’t have much to offer- there were soo many travel agent shops (not much room for anything else!). Most of the internet cafes were very over priced, but we had time to kill so we finally got to catch up on some emails. We also started going through the stuff we plan to send home. Where did all of it come from? I’m sure we’ll downsize once again when we find out how much it will cost. There was a small lagoon/swimming pool in the center of town that we hung out at for a few hours and did some people watching.

Valentines day fell during this part of our trip. Despite our lack of resources (aka money), Josh still treated me like a princess. He handpicked a fresh assortment of my favorite flowers, gave me the sweetest most thoughtful card (it was a postcard of Heart Reef - one of the islands in the Great Barrier Reef), and treated me to my favorite breakfast. I feel like my gift didn’t measure up, but he seemed to enjoy it just the same. We spent the day just hanging out- you can’t buy this kind of quality time. We shared great candle-lit dinner followed by dancing in the rain.

We waited out the storm for 3 days until the next sailing trip was set to go out. Just by chance I called the office in the morning of departure (I think it was to arrange long term parking)- that’s when we found out it had been canceled again! Turns out the storm which had just passed through was shifting directions and set to hit the area again. This combined with a front moving down the coast meant they would be hit from both directions.

We decided to cut our losses with the sailing trip and get out while we still could. We are both still really bummed about not getting to experience the Whitsundays. The travel guide gave us a free postcard with a picture of what we would have seen- not quite the same though. Guess we’ll have to make another trip over some time (maybe not in the rainy season though)

We made it up to Cairns that same day and plan on using the money from sailing to upgrading our diving trip.

---

Photos

Airlie Beach
The waters appeared calm while we were there

Washed up
Clearly the waters were not so calm the day before- this was just one of many boats that had been washed up on the rocks and sands

strolling along the beach
Everything I need

Bridge to eden
This bridge led to the pool and tennis courts at the caravan park

Private pool
Most of the time we were the only ones there, so it really was quite private

Winner's salute
This time Josh dominated the court

Splash
I forgot how much fun water slides can be!

Accessible swing
This was soo cool- you can transfer to a bench and buckle in, or lift the seat out of the way and lock your chair in place.

Fresh Flowers
There are so many beautiful petals all around us, but these took my breath away. Josh remembered that I love orchids (these had a little twist to them!), I'm fascinated by frangipanis, the little red guys were just too cute, and he found the big red ones on his own. I'm trying to press and dry them to add to our scrapbook :)