Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Sunday 11th October 2015 Today was the day! We left the Port Airlie marina just before 0400hrs the wind only blowing lightly. Everything went smoothly and with Barry at the helm for the first watch, we went back to bed. Rags was soon asleep, the sound of the motors lulling him off. A change in the note of the engines woke him at 0630, Barry having lifted the speed from 10 knots to 15 knots. He joined the other 3 crew and hot coffees were soon on the go. By 0700hrs everyone went about their various tasks. When we left Airlie the boat carried 5600 litres in the boat tanks, 2500 litres in the stern bladder, and 500 litres in the bow bladder. At 10 knots 82 litres/hour was 'burnt' increasing to 270 litres/hr at 15 ... read more

Alright, well haven't posted in a while! I think my last post was my last day in Cairns (feels like forever ago!) After Cairns, I went to Mission Beach. The hostel I started at is called Jackaroo. It felt more like a tropical resort than a hostel. They had a swimming pool, hammocks, a slip and slide, giant outdoor movie screen, games rooms etc. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and felt like a big family. By the time I left, I knew everyone's names, where they're from and a bit about them. There isn't much to do in mission beach. The first day I checked out the beach and "town" (it's like 10 buildings). The beach was pretty nice and there was absolutely no one there. It goes on as far as the eye can see and ... read more

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. ... read more

Aside of being the gateway to the dreamy Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach is also a little town with a beautiful harbour, a nice broadwalk and a relaxing swimming lagoon. We though it would be fun and something else to sleep on a camping, so we experienced this town a bit different by sleeping in a cute tipi tent. What we totally forgot dough, is that kitchens in campings usually are not equipped.. As followed we bought a lot of food, which we discovered couldn't be cooked. Lucky, ressource full as we are, we could manage to borrow some equipments from other backpackers and create ourself some plates from our plastic waste. Despite this little snag, we fancied a lot the tennis court and watching the hunderds of multicolored birds being fed. What we tough was pretty ... read more

Charmante petite ville balnéaire, Airlie Beach est le point de départ de nombreuses excursions touristiques vers les Whitsunday Islands et la Grande Barrière de Corail. A ne pas louper bien évidemment quand on visite l'Australie. D'autres villes plus au Nord proposent les mêmes excursions, mais pour les raisons évoquées au préalable, nous n'irons pas plus au Nord. Qui dit ville touristique et cyclone dans le Nord dit??? Backpackers en masse sur Airlie Beach! C'est la folie!! Du coup bien que l'offre d'excursions soit très large, tu comprends vite que les places sur les bateaux partent comme des petits pains. Notre choix se penche au final sur 2 excursions: une première pour faire du tuba à la Grande Barrière de Corail et une deuxième en voilier dans les Whitsunday Islands :-) En attendant le départ des excursions, ... read more