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Published: July 11th 2015
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The drive from Yeppoon to Mackay is through rather sameness cattle country, but further north, driving to Sarina where we spent the night, the country once more opens out to cane fields with tall ragged mountains in the distance. We stayed overnight at Sarina, a busy place now, not only because of the sugar mill in town, but also because a big railway terminus has been built here, no doubt for the coal mines in the area.
It's the busy time in the cane fields, there are machines cutting and the big trucks next to them being filled as are the carriages of the little but long cane trains. Rail lines criss cross fields and towns as the trains take the cane to the mills, and there are quite a few mills on the way north. We stopped at Proserpine, a favourite with us because they have Epicure, a wonderful kitchen shop, quite a surprise to find such a great shop in this smallish town. It's an Alladin's cave for those of us who love kitchen gear, we always come out with a parcel of something we didn't
really need.
From Proserpine, we turned off towards the coast, first
stopping at Cannonvale, the little shopping centre near our caravan park, to do a food shop and have a look around. We booked into the caravan park but didn't set up, instead we drove on to Airlie Beach. Airlie is the stepping off place for the 74 islands in the Whitsundays, although, annoyingly, most of the cruises available are to visit just three of them plus the beautiful Whitehaven beach with its white, silica sand. We've done these cruises twice and though now there is an on/off ferry service, it's still expensive to do yet again.
We had lunch at Airlie Beach by the water, which is a quite turquoise, and then drove around the area - the waterfront, the main streets etc. It's a very pretty place, dominated by tall hills, tropical vegetation and the island-dotted sea. We set up at the caravan park for a lazy afternoon.
Today there are the Airlie Beach markets. We caught the bus outside the caravan park which took us into the main shopping centre and walked along the waterfront where the markets are set up. There are the usual things, not as good as Eumundi but quite a nice way
to spend a morning, though we didn't buy. There are camel rides along the beach too, but we've had enough of camel rides and don't think of venturing.
Lunch was at Shipwrecked, a seafood restaurant we've eaten at before. It has very good food - I had oysters and calamari - with views over the park and the waterfront. It's a shame it was low tide, I don't think we've seen it quite so low here before, usually it's just a beautiful blue ocean with a stretch of sand. After lunch we wandered over to the man-made pool, always popular, with shady trees and well grassed areas, where we found a shady spot to relax and watch the swimmers before finally walking to the bus stop to get the bus back 'home'.
There's a wedding in the grounds and conference centre that are on the edge of the caravan park this afternoon, and several campers are here for the wedding. Doug's job this morning was to show one of them just how to tie his tie in a Windsor knot. It's a lovely day for a wedding.
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