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Published: November 4th 2009
DAY 361
I woke up my usual way after what can only be described as a poor nights sleep, I sat out side in the morning sun just watching the world go by and doing a bit of blog. It was 7.15 and Caroline hadn’t surfaced yet, there were Comedy Zzzzzzzzz still coming out of the door of the Wendy House. I don’t know if we are staying here another day or not we haven’t discussed it, I would like to push on again and probably hit Mckay.
Caroline appeared from the trailer and we sat and discussed the issue of the day, do you want to push on or do you want to stay another day?
Caroline said as we were here, in the Whitsunday’s then we might as well stick around and have a look at the area, it is the gateway to the 74 Whitsunday Islands. It would be a shame not to see Airlie Beach this is just another tropical paradise.
OK that’s settled, if that’s what you want to do then we will pay for another night and move on tomorrow. The day was starting to come up hot, and chairs
and tables were being pushed under tree’s to give us shade.
We had a leisurely breakfast, and had to prise our bums out of our seats as we had got comfy reading and whilst I was playing on the DSi.
Eventually you just have to move or nothing will get done, so with teeth sparkling and all washed and coiffed, we jumped in the truck and headed out to go and discover Airlie Beach.
Just before we left the campsite Caroline shot in and paid for another night so that was all ok, we knew it would not be a problem to keep our site as it is mid season and thus not very busy.
We headed out through the little town and down to the Abel Point Marina where all the boats were moored, and there we some fine examples of opulence, just waiting for their crews to take them out. This seems to be where all the boats pick up their tourist passengers for touring the Islands, we even see a notice posted up on one of the entrances to the pontoons a couple of experienced sailors advertising their skills in a bid to
Airlie Beach
In the Marinafind work.
We walked around having a look, it was just a beautiful setting, there is a boardwalk that runs about a kilometre and we just amble along enjoying the sunshine, the magnificent coast line, and the beautiful turquoise waters of the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef that stretched out ahead of us.
Wandering along a few people cycle past and the odd person pushing a push chair whilst roller blading behind but generally it is quite quiet. Apart from the number of people walking up with their wine boxes (bagpipes), crates of beer and generally everything needed for a day out on a boat.
We have found it is Melbourne Gold Cup Day apparently the busiest day in Australia and we have been told that it is also a big day in Airlie beach, with a lot of the local bars having ticketed events for people to dress up in their finery to come and watch the Gold Cup, for those of you that may not know, the Melbourne Gold Cup is a Horse Racing event.
A couple ask us if we would take their photograph and they give us their camera, as
Airlie Beach
Buries at Sea, God rest his soul it is the same as Caroline’s, she does the honours, and fires off a couple of frames. We start talking to them and the come from Cornwall, they are not Cornish but have lived down in Newquay for the last few years.
We stand and chat to Sally and Rod for a while and find out that they are now living in Adelaide, they are over here on a 4 year work permit and in the meantime are exploring during a weeks holiday, sadly though they fly back to Adelaide tonight ready to go back to work tomorrow.
It is hot, we are not in any shade and we have chatted for a while, so we say our goodbyes and wish each other luck and head in different directions.
Back in the truck we head back into town, in search of the man made Lagoon. We grabbed our swimming togs and walked around the sea front, stopping briefly to see a line of Seagulls all standing just on the sand letting the tide just wash over their feet, they must have been hot.
We carried on walking through the nice park area, plenty of people were
sat around picnicking, however the choice of picnic seemed to be a healthy portion of fish and chips, and eventually got to the lagoon on this hot afternoon it looked more than inviting.
We both set our towels down under a shady spot and hit the water, man it was just what was needed, languishing in the water it was just stupendous, the lagoon is huge and also quite empty considering there are so many people sitting around it.
We spent well over an hour and a half swimming around, and just people watching really the afternoon was so excellent, it was a joy to be in such a beautiful place. We overhear the conversation of some backpackers talking about their excellent and some not so excellent accommodation.
We get back to camp and finish what is left of the afternoon reading and me playing on the DSi, the afternoon had started to disappear and dusk was on its way, we have been having some bother with our fridge, it doesn’t seem to want to keep things really cold so we are going to have to get it sorted, I had phoned Camping Country today, trying to
Airlie Beach
The Board Walk speak to Jarrod, but he is not back in until tomorrow, so all I can do at the moment is try to defrost it and clean it out and repack it to see if it makes any kind of difference.
Thoughts of dinner started to creep into our minds, tonight was cheap Tuesday (pizza night) and as we were in town we could not resist a Pizza, so Caroline got on the internet and placed the electronic order with Dominoes, then we jumped straight in to the truck and drove into town to collect it.
I pulled the truck up on to the street and Caroline got out, the Pizza place was packed with back packers all equally looking for their dinner, fortunately Caroline walked in, paid and walk out with our dinner, we could hardly wait.
Whilst parked, I noticed on the other side of the road was a drive in bottle shop and we both fancied a beer, when Caroline got back in the truck I said shall we get a 6 pack and she agreed, so we did a Uey in the road and went straight in, we didn’t even have to get out
Airlie Beach
The Board Walk we just gave them the order they brought it to us and we paid and drove off what could be simpler, Pizza and Beer and it seems just to prove a point that Australia is getting too much like the U.S.
We get back to camp and Caroline opens two bottles Carlton Dry Fusion then we both dive in to our Pizza’s it was like a plague of locusts.
Since Cairns we have been following a series called Flash Forward on Network 7 so we got onto the Internet and found the episode from Monday night and sat and watched it.
It was after 10.00 by now and it was time for bed we are moving on tomorrow and have a fair bit of packing away to do so we need our sleep.
Hope you enjoyed our blog today, 4 days left before the end of our year.
KJ.
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Slaz
TravelMan
Australia is on my list! :)
Your blog caught my eye because i was planning on going to Australia next year. It looks absolutely gorgeous. I like your writing style. http://jetsetandgo.blogspot.com