An Airlie Tea

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DAY 360


We both slept well, the weekend events seem to have caught up with us, except that Andy was still out of bed in his usual early way, I looked at my watch, it was 6.30am and Andy was on Skype talking to the Truman family in Victoria, except that it is 7.30 in Victoria, they are now in Daylight Saving, which Queensland does not have.

I stay in bed for that coveted extra half hour, as I knew as soon as I got up it would be busy, busy, busy packing up to head off. Sadly we leave Townsville today, we have not seen everything here, but we have done something far more valuable, and that is spending the time with friends, we have seen a side of Townsville that we may otherwise have not seen or enjoyed so much, The Strand is an excellent place for families and friends to gather on a Sunday, for swimming, barbecuing, playing ball games etc. The rest of Townsville is just about deserted.

Anyway, the kettle is boiling and as soon as I am out of bed, I tidy it up, do up the inner flaps and start taking things out to the truck ready for the tent to be folded, today it will take us longer to pack up as we have to take the awning down (yawn!), while Andy does the washing up, I burn a DVD of photos so that we can pop it round to Heather on our way round to Rogers.

Toast is done, the packing up is well under way and Andy starts to take the awning down and then I hear a shout, I turn around to find the awning has deposited an amount of water and small leaves on Andy, it had collected in the awning and has not yet dried out, so as everything else was done, we let the awning hang to drip dry and went to shower.

For a change I was back from my shower before Andy that is nothing short of a miracle as I am always the longest. The awning is now dry so we continue to decamp. We try to fold the tent and then realise that the pegs are still in it, it seems that this morning we are out of sync, things have not been done the way we usually would.

By 9.45 we set off from the Walkabout Big 4 and head out towards the North of Townsville, we drop the photo DVD in for the Colemans, the post box is metal and exposed at the front of the house on the lawn, it is another hot day so I hope that the DVD does not buckle in the heat.

We then head out on Riverway drive toward Kelso as we are dropping in on Roger this morning. He should be easy to find as he is on the main road. By 10.30 we pull up outside his house, only to find that Roger has just pulled up on his driveway, he said he followed us down the road.

We go in and see the dogs, Danger and Fender, poor Fender is caged in as she has done something to her ligament and not allowed to run around, they are both pleased to see us, so we think that they recognise us from Darwin. Roger and Louise are actually sleeping in the Motorhome at the moment as they have family staying so the house is quite full, Rogers Grandson, is being baptised next week so he is expecting more family to arrive in the next few days.

We have a cup of tea a chocolate cookie, but to coin a phrase from Andy yesterday the spectre of time is standing on our shoulders and if we want to get to Airlie Beach tonight we need to head off.

Andy and I are both sad to leave Townsville, we had a great time here, the campsite was very good, but of course we have been made to feel so welcome and at home by the Coleman’s and as always when we spend time with people we find ourselves back on our own again.

We do enjoy the travelling and moving from place to place, exhausting as it can be sometimes, but you do get used to being in one place after a few days. I navigate Andy back out of Townsville, on the Bruce Highway and towards Ayre.

Townsville is becoming a blot in the rear view and wing mirrors as the terrain opens up to more mountains, more rugged territory and of course in the distance we can sometimes see the sea.

We stopped at a small place called Sandy Creek just before Ayr, to have some lunch we were both hungry and it was already lunchtime, a few people were stopped here enjoying a rest in the shade, we chat to a couple from the Netherlands for a few minutes, they are on a short holiday and have to be in Cairns tomorrow night to fly on to Melbourne for a while before heading out to New Zealand.

Back on the road we find ourselves travelling through Ayr, quite a nice little town, a lovely park on the left hand side as we leave, looks very well kept and a welcoming sight for a weary traveller.

Moving on, it seems like we have been driving for hours, feels like one of those long days that we used to get in WA when you would just keep driving and nothing would change. Except at some point we see a look out, it says the road is not suitable for caravans and trailers but we take it anyway, there is a mount with some radio masts on the top so there is bound to be a good view, it is a steep climb, but we are up this short tarmac road with ease.

The view is stunning from the top, you can see for miles and especially out to the beach, the amazing thing is that there is a nice little rest area up here with a barbecue, what a great little place to have an overnight camp, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is called and I cannot see it on any of my maps.

We want to head for Conway National Park, at Airlie Beach, or rather in the area of Airlie Beach, we want to do a bit of bush camping again after being a town for a week, we take the turning and the National Park is signposted, we continue to follow the signs for Airlie Beach but the National Park signs are not really prevalent, we arrive at Airlie Beach, I think it looks a great place, quite touristy but it does look beautiful, there is a lot of work going on here, they obviously have reclaimed some land and are building new roads, hotels, apartments etc.

It really looks like nothing will stand in the way of progress here, I hope that they don’t ruin the look and the feel at the same time, I guess it is another resort but far more advanced than places like Mission Beach.

Lets not forget though, this is the Whitsunday’s, Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour are both the gateway to the splendid Whitsunday Islands, all 74 of them. We have had the pleasure of being on Hamilton Island on our last visit to Australia when we were with our friends Gary and Karen, but I don’t think we will be visiting the Islands this time round.

The Whitsundays are magnificent, it is hard to put into words how nice it is to be here, the water is that glorious turquoise colour, apart from being photogenic, the Great Barrier Reef still lies beyond in the South Pacific.

It would be nice to stay here for a couple of days, but if we find our National Park campsite then perhaps we will.

We drive through sussing everything out as we go, however we seem not to be able to find the turn off for the campsites that I am looking for. My Camps 5 book just gives an indication of mileage but the signs have run out, we arrive in Shute Harbour and a dead end, or rather just a mere drop in the ocean.

We find one pull in for the National Park, however this campsite is a mere 2.5 kilometre hike away, which is no good for the trailer tent, so we move on the next turn off we check out is only a picnic area with no camping allowed, so nice dice here either. We both think that as time is getting on, we need to use our fallback plan which we passed on the way in, the Airlie Cove Big 4, is a 4 star resort and only half a star less than the other Big 4 on the way into Airlie Beach, so I guess we wont be roughing it tonight.

I check in, fortunately it is mid season so the prices are favourable, the receptionist tells me that although they will be busy over the Christmas period, mainly during the wet season they will not receive much trade, nobody wants to come here in the wet season, she also tells me that the swimming pools are too cold at the moment, so if anyone is swimming here now, it will be a tourist and not a local.

We are pitched in record time, it is hot even though it is late afternoon, we have some shade from the trees around us. I wander off to the loo’s and see a girl in there with some snorkel gear and a hard waterproof case for her camera. I chat to her for a while about how good she thinks the case is and has it ever let any water in. This girl kindly explains it all to me and shows me some of her pictures, Turtles, Clown Fish etc. The colours are pretty fantastic, she goes on to explain that she has the case for 5 years and has used it whenever she goes diving and has never had a problem.

The reason why I was so inquisitive I would like to get one for my SLR camera, however we have often wondered how good they are at keeping the water out, everyone sucks breath through their teeth when I mention it and suggest a cheaper point and shoot camera, but for me that defeats the object really. One day when I go snorkelling or maybe take the plunge and learn how to dive I will invest in one.

When I came back Andy tells me about something that just happened, apparently a bullet wind went through as quick as a flash and some of our gear had managed to be flung a metre or so away from our site. The woman behind us told Andy that they come thorugh frequently, it is a wind that comes through very suddenly and very quickly thus being called “Bullet”, apparently nothing like the willy willys that we have experienced on this trip. I found the washing up bowl under someone else’s caravan!

It is still daylight, we are both hungry so for a change, I cook up our dinner in the daylight (it is only about 5.30), so we are having an early tea (an Airlie Tea!). Ok so maybe not the best of jokes, but we laughed.

I had a chat with my parents on Skype, they are on holiday at the moment themselves so Skype sessions are few and far between due to the intricacies of free WiFi and needing to sit around in car parks or café’s in the hope that we are logged on at the same time.

I try to watch last nights episode of Flash Forward but as last Monday, we think they do not upload it until it has aired on TV, so that will be something to look forward to tomorrow night, also being cheap Tuesday, another good reason to stick around here for another day!

We are both tired, it is cool out here tonight so I am wearing trousers and a long sleeve top, but that is also to help avoid being bitten by whatever insects happen to be around here. So we decide on an early night, I take some brain training with me as it is too early for me to sleep, but it will be nice to get cosy in bed.

Another day, another place, I wonder were we will be tomorrow.

KJ

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Photos

Show us your Melons
Picking up a Melon from a road side stall

The Curature of the earth
A view from the look our who's name we can not remember

The Road down
They said no Caravans or Trailer, but we did !!

Old Truck
Its day' of delivering are long gone

A Stone Curlew
Scrounging

Comments

[Darryl and Sarah]

Funny you should mention it!
We've loved using our waterproof casing for our camera, we bought it in Cairns and have used it continously.....until Monday that is! It sprang a leak .... so guess what, camera ruined! Nevermind, it's been awesome while it worked and we've loved getting the memories that we have managed to get. Luckily we'd captured all the snorkelling and marine life we wanted to prior to the leak (the tiniest of holes) and we'll get another one in Perth - along with the new camera!!! Good job it wasn't the Canon! All our love to you both WW