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Beach Writing
We don't have any pictures! Russell- So it was back on the road again. Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach is just too far to do in one day so we looked for a half way stop over. We did think we might go to the beach town of Yeppon near Rockhampton but in the end we decided we may as well stay in Rockie itself and get back on the road in the morning that much quicker.
After driving all day Rockhampton was a pleasing sight. For those who don’t know (and lets face it until we went there that included us) Rockhampton, or Rockie as it is affectionately known, is the beef capital of Australia. And boy do they like to let you know. Statues of bulls adorn nearly every street corner and every business is named after some kind of bovine theme. To be honest the most interesting thing for us was that Rockie is right on the line of the tropic of Capricorn. From this moment on every step north will be in tropical weather. Cue hula music. We checked into a campsite and headed for the pool to cool off.
We awoke next morning to find it was raining. Hang
Beach Writing 2
She loves me really! on stop the hula music what’s going on. It must be a blip. At least we were no longer freezing in the caravan at night and this rain will blow over in no time. We packed up and got back on the road. Airlie Beach was still quite away to go.
Another day on the road and another chance to stop for lunch this time in the “city” of Mackay. What can we say about Mackay. Well for a city we were there about two hours and managed to see just about every street 5 times. It is not exactly on the large side. But it was good to stretch our legs and get something to eat. Pity it was still raining - at this rate I’ll have to trade in my grass skirt.
Finally we arrived in Airlie Beach and headed for the campsite in the centre of town. Lins wet in to find out if they had any sites. Apparently they didn’t know and we were to just find somewhere to pitch down and let them know if we found anywhere. That was a bit worrying really. What happens if we go for a drive and someone nicks our pitch. We drove around the site and then drove straight out. There is rough and then there is that - we had to find somewhere else. About 1km outside town we found another site that seemed like heaven after that. What’s more they booked sailing boats and gave a nights free camping in as part of the deal.
We pitched up and went straight in to book a boat. All the boats that sail around the Whitsunday islands have stand by rates and if you get the right boat you can get quite a bit knocked off the price. The number of boats is actually mind-boggling and the poor woman behind the desk was starting to lose patience with our umming and ahhing. Eventually we settled on a boat called Summertime. It had a hot tub on the back and did all the snorkelling we wanted to do. Well lets hope this rain lifts a little - actually what is the weather forecast?
All I’m going to say is it wasn’t good. What we had taken to be a blip in the tropical balminess seemed to be the tip of the iceberg. Winds were forecast to rise to 30-40 knots. I know you need wind it sail but that is a bit over the top. We decided to postpone our sailing adventure and see how the weather turned out the next day.
The next day dawned wet - this tropical weather is starting to annoy but hey as long it is wet now and not on our wedding. We spent the day doing what you are supposed to do in Airlie Beach - bumming around. We checked out the beach and walked around the town. It is pretty laid back though very backpacker orientated. By the end of the day the weather was marginally improved - well Ok it wasn’t but the forecast was much more upbeat so we decided it was now or never and we headed back to book our boat. Our lady at the booking office looked at us with an here-we-go-again look but this time we booked. We chose a boat called Dreamcatcher. She was a smart vessel that we up for some island hoping and snorkelling - oh and some sailing. We couldn’t wait - we just need this weather to improve.
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