Airlie Beach
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
45
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Airlie Beach,
Queensland,
Australia
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Well, we got to Airlie Beach in the afternoon and went straight to Hertz where we changed our awful English Vauxhall for our favourite: Toyota Aurion. Simply gorgeous to drive, way it's designed, simplicity of it all.
We found a B & B almost immediately 10mins from the main town centre. It was called Organic B & B and considered itself as another hippie chickie meditative 'chill-out and check-in' type place and it was indeed a load of decking, plants, non-chemical toiletries and recycled paper but it was all very low key so was good. Apart from the plants. Why they felt the need to put plant leaves everywhere in your room, including on top of the toilet, on your bedside tables, on the sink...is anyone's guess. Plants should be in pots
Hook Island
. Not watching my back as David pees like a shire horse!That night, we headed out down to the local town for a drink and a bite to eat. Why does everywhere in Australia close so early?????????? What do people do here for fun?????????? We walked past a heaving fish and chip shop where people sat scoffing vinegar soaked chips. Smelt so good. So after we had checked out the whole town (one street the length of a Volvo Estate Car) we decided to head back and immerse ourselves into a greasy bag of local fish and fat damp chips. But they were closing up and turned us away without a smile or an apology. The shutters were coming down. Cash tills were ringing up the takings. It was 8pm!!!! This was a beach resort!!!! Restaurants were closed, bars were empty except for a couple, the street was a ghost town! We went into one bar with loud pumping music and bar staff who were as friendly as the inmates in Parkhurst Prison. Welcome! After 15mins, streams of people from where??? Came pouring in to the back of the pub and they all congregated around tables. To play Poker. That was Airlie Beach's hot crack of nightlife then.
Airlie Beach is quoted as the place for parties, drinking, barbecues and all round socialising and cavorting. We had obviously arrived too early in the year for action
Whitehaven Beach
. Actually, something that did rather excite me was that Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson partied all night at Airlie Beach Hotel after filming Fools Gold last year. More interesting though, is Matthew McConaughey also frequented a pub called Paddy Shenanigans where he spent another night, post Fools Gold filming, thrusting his pelvis with backpackers in an alcoholic frenzy!! Woohoo! (David: The place was closed when we saw it.)The next day, we ventured out on our boat trip, booked the night before, at the last minute. Hey! Why change the habit of a lifetime?! The weather that day was absolutely revolting with strong winds, rain and black clouds. The day before had been stunning! Our boat trip was going to take us around 3 islands with time to explore all 3 and lunch thrown in. Airlie Beach is the access point for the Whitsunday Islands, of which there are several, surrounded by a utopia of cobalt Great Barrier Reef National Marine Park and white sand stretching for ever. You can sail, snorkel, sunbathe, daydream.
First we went to Hook Island. This is the 2nd largest of the Whitsunday Islands at 53km. We all got off the boat and settled into the beach front café of the only Hook Island Resort, accessed by a snaky rainforest path. Some of the passengers we sailed with went snorkelling. We didn't as we forgot towels!!! Actually we probably could have still gone, but we didn't..we sat and drank coffee instead and read books. There was also an underwater observatory - the oldest in the area. This was quite interesting since coral has been encouraged to grow around the windows... there was also a brief semisubmersible trip. But, you know: once you've seen the barrier reef, a little island curtain reef doesn't really cut the mustard
Wading from our boat to Whitehaven Beach
. (David: The leaky windows added a bit of spice though...)Next we went to the very famous Whitehaven beach. This was absolutely stunning. It's dubbed the most beautiful beach in the World and you can believe it. Like one of those abstract arty paintings which just consists of a strip of sapphire blue paint for the sky and a strip of cream paint for sand and that's it. Nothing else. But this is really how it looks! It's pure fine silica with not one bit of mineral impurity. (David: Yep, pure silicon. Like a computer chip, but more beautiful) To access the beach, the boat went as far as it could up to the sand and then we all had to walk down the metal stairs, into the sea up to our knees and then wade onto the beach. All very informal. David and I built a killer sandcastle while everyone else on the boat got photographed by the 'boat photographer' - informal posing, I think it could be called! For some reason, she didn't come near us. Maybe it's because we were English!
Back on the boat and the weather had made a turn for the worst. The rain poured down and the sea turned into a violent Tsunami with waves rollicking around and surf crashing into the back of the open boat where we were sitting. The boat rolled from side to side like a scene from Titanic - it was hysterical. We were grabbing onto rails, walking around like we were paraletic, and falling into each other's laps as we tried to sit down. So funny. There was a Japanese guy who was having a fantastic time! He filmed the Titanic-esque rocking boat on his phone while being thrown to the floor and wetting himself laughing and we told him to put the film on YouTube. Meanwhile, his poor Japanese girlfriend was chucking up downstairs. It was great fun but admittedly quite worrying when the waves were as high as the boat and rocking us so violently that we could barely sit in our seats
Rain and storm around Whitsunday Islands
! (David: At one point there was a clear half metre of air between my bottom and the seat as we went over a particularly jubilant swell.)Finally, we went to Daydream island. The weather was just so awful and it was absolutely freezing cold so while we were given time to go off and explore the island resort (crazy golf; pool swimming etc) we sat in a coffee shop thawing out. It was such a dismal day, weather wise but really good fun nevertheless.
That night, soaked through from the rain, windswept, sandy and shattered from being thrown about like a bead in an empty bottle, we went for a quick drink and then headed back to the B & B. We were exhausted. Curled up in bed with a book and a G & T was wonderfully more fabulous than walking about in the arctic trying to find a bar where you can hear yourself speak.
The next day, we left early and headed onto our next destination: Hervey Bay. In one day! This is approximately 900kilometres and we drove for about 10hours, arriving late at night.
Love, us xx
