After Townsville we headed down to Airlie Beach,
which became my favourite place on the tour. Airlie Beach has one street of
shops and a man made lagoon for people to swim in so the stingers (jellyfish) don’t
get them! After walking around the town Mike went to hang out at the Lagoon and
I grabbed an Ice Cream and walked around town some more. We went out for dinner
that night at Cactus Jack’s and I had a Toblerone Cocktail for dessert. This
was a mixture of Baileys, Frangelico, Crème
de cacao and Honey mixed with Milk and Cream...
Mmmm. After watching the NRL I went back to our accommodation for an early
night as the next day we had a full day sailing trip around the Whitsunday
Islands!!
We got picked up at 7.25am and taken to the
marina to board the Camira which is a sailing catamaran. Once we got out into the passage they turned the engines off and
put the sails up. It got a bit bumpy and a bit wet out there as Mike and I were
on the nets at the front of the boat so I lost my stomach a few times but had a
bit of a laugh as well. Our first stop was Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday
Island. This beach is very unique as it is 98% pristine silica sand. This means
that the sand doesn’t retain heat making it very easy to walk on without
footwear. This beach was lovely and we spent an hour here in the water and
going for a walk up and down a part of the beach. We found 2 Jellyfish on the
beach and they were about the size of a fingernail, very easy to miss.
Back on the boat it was time for lunch and
we got a BBQ of steak, chicken and fish cooked for us with a fabulous array of
salads. After eating we had an hour’s
sail to our snorkeling spot near Hook Island. The visibility of the snorkeling
wasn’t very good at about 1 metre visibility however after having a look around
and then duck diving down I managed to see a lot of coral and fish.
After spending about 30mins in the water we
got back on the boat and it was time for afternoon tea and a couple of beers to
finish off the day. We then headed back to Airlie Beach just as the sun was
setting. It was a great day out so thank you to the Cruise Whitsundays tour
operators.
The next day we were up early for a day of
driving. We had around 6 hours of driving time to Rockhampton which was going
to be an overnight stop… or so I thought.
We arrived at our accommodation and
got ready to check in only to find that I had booked the room for the 6th
of April, not the 6th of May!! We were a month late! It was Beef
Week up in the Rockhampton region so all of the accommodation was full! After
checking the map we decided to continue on for another hour and a half to
Gladstone. Arriving there we found a backpackers and hit the sack!
Thanks to driving a little bit extra the
previous day we only had a 2 hour drive to Bundaberg. We arrived in Bundaberg
around 10am and went to the Bundaberg Barrel where they make Bundaberg Ginger
Beer and 13 other flavours. Yes, I did get to taste test them all.
Next on our list to do was the Bundaberg
Rum Distillery where we were taken on a tour of the distillery and then a taste
test at the bar. I had a try of a Rum, Chocolate and Coffee liqueur which was
very tasty.
All good things must come to an end and the
following day was the last leg of the journey back to Southport. We managed to
squeeze in a stop at Hervey Bay and Noosa before getting the car back to
Southport with 5 minutes to spare before the car rental office closed.
I’m now relaxing on the Gold Coast and
enjoying the sunshine and gentle sea breezes. I haven’t seen a cloud in a few
days now which I’m hoping continues till Saturday when I leave for Thailand.
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