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Published: October 25th 2005
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Sea Kayaks at Little Fitzroy Island
A rough sea makes for interesting kayaking but crappy snorkeling. Hey All! We have just spent our first night in Airlie Beach, having made our way down from Cairns with a Greyhound hop-on, hop-off bus pass. The pass allows us to take our time down the coast and get off anywhere as long as we're always going south and book our seats a day in advance. A great way to see the coast on our own time!
Before we left the backpacker party city of Cairns, we made our first attempt at seeing the Reef---a day sea kayaking and snorkeling adventure to nearby Fitzroy Island. This trip has earned the reef the name "Pretty Good Barrier Reef"...no greatness was experienced as a result of the windy conditions and rough seas. Oh yes, and we've discovered that we DO NOT like kayaking in a double kayak. Each of us likes our independence and likes to be in control of our own craft. Teamwork was non-existent here. There were almost some paddle fights. A woman on our trip commented that she'd done this before and the water was so calm they snorkeled in the glass-like bay, as well as from their kayaks along the way, and it was magnificent. Not this day,
however. We had what the weather people like to call a "one metre chop" pounding our kayak on the windward and leeward sides of the island. When we stopped for "snorkeling", the force of the waves and current made the conditions cloudy and required us to kick with all our might just to stay in one place. Oh well, only the first attempt at the reef. At least we got some exercise. Oh yeah and we forgot to put sunscreen on our legs, not thinking that we'd be in a sitting position in a kayak for a few hours....we both paid the price (see photo).
Departing from Cairns, we picked Mission Beach as our first stop. Travelling "by instinct", we are stopping at towns and cities whose names we've seen or heard about many times. So after two hours on the bus, we rolled to a stop in Mission Beach...our instinct really stink'd on this one! Three or four hostel minibuses were waiting for us, ready to whisk us away to their respective accommodations. (It reminded Nick of that game Hungry Hungry Hippos) We chose the first bus that advertised the cheapest accommodation...which rapidly took us the ONE block
O is for Ozone
Thanks little microwave in the sky! to the residence. Really, if they had just pointed the way, we could have saved them some gas and walked the 50 metres. Anyways, the hostal staff (bus driver and front desk) were friendly and informative, though the place looked a touch on the rough side. Typical backpacker budget joint. Our room (entered via sliding glass door) instantly bombarded us with an unnervingly strange smell, which suspiciously vanished once we had been inside for 5 minutes. This occurred every time we entered. Hmmm. With the heat and humidity, we were glad to see the room had a fan....unfortunately, the two nights we stayed there the fan was no match for the temperature.
Mission Beach. Mission: Drink more water than you sweat out. Seriously, rivers of sweat (in quantities experienced during the break of a fever) bathed us all night long. Catch-22...in order to sleep, we needed to lie on the bed, but every body part on the bed began to trap the heat and cause us to sweat profusely. AHHHH! We began to worry a bit about our trip to SE Asia.
As you might have guessed, Mission Beach hosts a wide, soft and wonderful beach that stretches
for miles. We did enjoy a few hours on the beach, where Sarah found a shady spot to read and where we both enjoyed a bit of a swim, tackling the rather substantial waves coming in. We even managed to avoid the "marine stingers" that signs everywhere caution us against at this time of year. Despite this rather idyllic setting, we began to get itchy to leave after one day. The sleepy town is one short stretch of road dotted with a few shops/cafes. Nothing special, really. We did find one interesting little, local art shop in which we spent a good 20 minutes (a good 15 minutes longer as a result of the air conditioning inside).
Cool things we saw in Mission Beach: first, walking the 4 km from the town to our hostel we came upon a roadside winery (rare in these parts we think). Paradise Winery is owned by a couple who previously ran a banana orchard, but began the fruit wine business as a response to the appalling waste of unsold fruit generated by orchards and supermarkets. My, my, the fruit wines they now produce are delicious. We think that Andrea would love the pina
Real Cassowary Crossing Here
I think the cassowaries can read this...maybe they're not as dumb as they look. colada-styled white wines they sell. After tasting their chilled whites, we bought one and are waiting for a good restaurant to consume it (they have BYO alcohol at restaurants here). Another interesting thing that occurred was when a wild cassowary (remember the emu-type thing from last entry?) crossed the highway right in front of a "Cassowary Crossing" sign. We were too far away to get a good photo, but the stupid thing crossed the road like a drunk at 3 AM and managed to avoid the Land Rovers. People normally have to go bushwalking on the nature trails here to get lucky enough to spot these creatures, and one almost got hit by a car in front of us. Magnificent! (the animal, not its peril)
Yesterday we hopped back on the Greyhound and, a little more wary, picked another beach town: Airlie Beach. The nine hour ride literally flew by as we drove through a thoroughly entertaining lightning storm that left Nick feeling a little homesick for the storms in Southern Ontario. After the storm, a beautiful rainbow appeared and stretched its full length like a bridge over the highway. We got a good shot but it's too bad
After the Storm
Beautiful rainbow near Townsville, en route to Airlie Beach. we couldn't get out and take a shot of the whole thing. Thankfully when we arrived at Airlie Beach we found that this one is a keeper! A great little resort town built around the fact that it is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands (beautiful Great Barrier Reef islands).
And, thanks to a turn of luck, we are preparing to go on a 3 day, 2 night sailing trip around the Whitsundays....on a large sailboat!! Exciting stuff. We literally fell into this trip --- the morning started a little funky when Sarah, BADLY needing a shower after holding off for a few days, hopped into the shared, leaky shower at our hostel, only to be interrupted right in the middle of it by a frantic woman shouting "You must turn the water off as soon as possible!! The shower is leaking into the foyer!". Nick's next view was of a dripping Sarah calmly striding into the room, closing the door, and with a redheaded fire in her eyes stating that we were "LEAVING now." And so we walked up and down the street looking for another hostel, and on the second try found one with a double room
available. The lady inquired as to whether we would like to peruse the various sailing adventures and we ended up choosing one for a great stand-by price, getting a free night's stay at that hostel in the process!
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Andrea
non-member comment
Ouch!
I can feel those burnt knees from here. I hope you have some aloe vera!! Drink some of that wine for me! ;)