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Published: November 25th 2021
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Still plagued by the pandemic but needing to get away for my birthday we chose The Whitsundays for a small break. Both of us have been here previously (myself living here for six months in my early twenties) but haven't spent time here together. Winter being a good time of year as well for North Queensland and not being a hard place to get to, we flew from Brisbane to Proserpine in no time at all and just a short bus ride to Airlie Beach afterwards it was a very pain free transition day.
We stayed walking distance into town but up a fairly steep hill at Whitsunday Terraces, they weren't 5 star but fully self contained with a view of the ocean so that makes for a happy us. We settled in pretty quickly on the Friday that we arrived, we did a quick shop for food and drinkies and chilled on the balcony for the evening. We set off the next morning to walk around town, so much had changed since I lived here back in 2000 at the young age of twenty-two, still a party town though it was clear the pandemic has wreaked havoc on this
place. So many empty shops along the main street and so little backpackers wandering around, the town being so quiet was nice in a way as some twenty something years later hitting nightclubs every night aren't as appealing as it used to be!
My birthday on the Sunday we had booked a Whitehaven Beach tour for the day. We woke to some pretty dodgy rainy weather and on the way out on the boat it poured down on us, not happy and not how I wanted to spend my day but the sun eventually popped out every now and then and also luckily came out when we finally got to Whitsunday Island for that beautiful scenery that is Hill Inlet. Grabbing every opportunity while it was out we were able to get some pretty good pics and luckily even managed about half an hour on Whitehaven Beach before the heavens let go again. That evening we planned to go to a pretty nice place for dinner overlooking the lagoon but arrived to find it closed so wandered down to my old stomping ground of Hogs Breath Cafe where I worked all of those years ago. To our surprise the
food and cocktails were surprisingly good and we finished the night down at the Breeze Bar which became a regular little hang for us during our stay in Airlie.
We hired a car on the Monday for a few days and on the following day we set off in the dark bound for Cape Hillsborough National Park. Cape Hillsborough is 47km North of Mackay, it took us longer than we anticipated to get there (finding out the Bruce Highway is in some desperate need of repair in that area) but we managed to get there just before the sun came up for the very special treat of watching the Kangaroos and Wallabies venture to the beach front to feed on seaweed and mangrove seed pods which have washed up from the overnight tides. The sunrise itself wasn't much but watching these little guys feed and sometimes fight with each other was an experience we wont forget. They come very close to you as well which you can see from one of my photos, curious cheeky girl trying to sniff my camera. Just love encounters like this.
The following day we ventured out to Cedar Creek Falls only about
20mins drive out of Airlie. It was the dry season so we didn't expect much of a waterfall and when we got there we were greeted with not even a drop of water but it was still a pretty area and a popular swimming spot (I have pics of this place during the wet season and it is pretty impressive). The weather was hit and miss still for the rest of the week which was a bit disappointing on a beach holiday but we made the most of it. As the Airlie Lagoon isn't the nicest place to lounge around in my opinion we were lucky to find a purpose built beach just down from the yacht club, Boathaven Beach, a popular place for weddings for the locals and a pretty nice spot to relax and unwind for the next few days of our stay.
The last night we had the car we took a drive out to Hydeaway Bay, about 40mins outside of Airlie. Neither of us had been here before and I doubt many travelers get here when they stay in town but due to its position you can sit on the beach and watch the sun
go down which is exactly what we did (with drinks and nibbles of course). Again not the best sunset but a pretty cool bent palm tree which made for a cute pic. We had such a relaxing time up here and a great experience to have together finally in a place we had both been to before but not with each other creating new memories.
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