We meet again, at beautiful Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach is one of those magic places you don't come across very often. From the moment we got out of the motor home when we arrived, there was something in the air - the weather was warm, the sun was shining and the sky so clear. The colour of the water is such an amazing azure blue. The town itself is built along the coast, with a board walk along the length of it, from our caravan park, past the marina, past several beautiful resorts, several beaches, and into town, covering about 3 kms. A long but very pleasant walk.

The main drag is located along the beach, so there are magnificent views from most cafes and restaurants. Most of the accommodation and resorts are one block further back, but because there is a bit of a slope, they also have magnificent views, so nobody misses out. The beach itself is also tidal and a bit muddy and rocky, and not great to swim in, so they have built an artificial beach/pool between it and the shops, called the Lagoon. Absolutely beautiful.

Airlie Beach is known as the gateway to the Whitsundays as it is where most cruises leave from. The islands include Whitsunday Island, the largest, as well as other famous islands such as Hamilton Island, Daydream Island, Lindeman Island etc, just to name a few. There are 74 in total, but some are very small, and a few are actually privately owned. Whitsunday Island has a beach called Whitehaven Beach, which is listed as one of the top 5 beaches in the world. It is 7 kms long of smooth, fine, white silica sand that squeaks as you walk on it. This place is magnificent.

And what a place to catch up with Faye and John again. They had stayed in Yeppoon, where the mechanic had tried one thing after another. His latest last ditch effort was a small hand pump off a boat to prime the fuel tank manually each time before driving off. But even this did not work. Eventually he had to concede defeat, and the decision was made to tow the van back to the Gold Coast where a proper Mercedes mechanic could fix it properly. Faye and John were planning to go back to the Gold Coast anyway about a week later, where they would be flying back to Melbourne for a short time for some family commitments. So they hired a car and came up to meet us in the meantime.

John had been keen to see Airlie Beach as they had not been there for many years. The other things on his "must do" list were to see Whitehaven Beach, as he had never been there, and Hamilton Island as he had been there about 25 years ago, and was keen to see if it had changed. It turned out we had also been there 25 years ago, probably very close to the same time exactly, and were also keen to see if it had changed.

There was a special deal where if you booked a cruise to Whitehaven Beach, you could get a free transfer to any of the islands to be used in the following few days. Bingo! This fulfilled all our requirements.

Cruising the bays and between the islands was magic. The water was so calm and beautiful, nothing like our recent endeavors on the Lady Musgrave (I was a bit anxious at first.) Whitehaven Beach was everything they said it would be - this is what every beach in the world should be. The boat had to anchor out from the shore a little, and we were ferried to shore in a small flat boat. We were told anyone who was a confident swimmer could actually swim to shore, and George lost no time about it, being first in the water.

The next day we took our free transfers and visited Hamilton Island. We made full use of the restaurants and cafes for breakfast, morning tea and lunch, interspersed with a free bus tour of the whole island. At one point it stopped at a lookout, and the views in all directions were absolutely sensational. The resort hadn't changed all that much, and we all found bits we remembered. There were many other new resorts as well though, and many houses and apartments for rent.

John's third thing on his "must do" list was to catch a barramundi. Now if you have been following our adventures, you will know he has attempted this already in a couple of places, but was told it was too cold. Well, here we were further north and the weather was much warmer. So we tried again, with a fishing charter boat for one afternoon. Well, we caught a few flathead, the first one caught by Faye, but no barras. At least we had a fish dinner that night.

We were loathe to leave such a beautiful place, but time was marching on. So eventually we had to say our good-byes, John and Faye heading south to the Gold Coast, and George and I heading north for new adventures.


GeorgeY's bit

Checked in at Seabreeze Caravan Park for a couple of nights, with possible extensions. Kept going everyday to the office and extending our stay. Lovely place, can't get enough.

Airlie Beach is by far the best in everything, from weather, to shops, to facilities, to people, to islands with names like Hamilton Island, Daydream Island, Long Island… the list goes on, 74 of them. Beautiful, beautiful and beautiful.

They had a market on Saturday, checked it out. Then Tuesday a cruise ship arrived and there is the same market. Had to check it out. I suspect these stalls are an off shoot of the existing shops, creating more exposure, or getting rid of old stock.

Few kilometers past the centre part there is Shute Harbour, and on the way there is Conway National Park, which I previously thought was in Greensborough. Had to take a picture.

The place is magic, the islands are walking distance, and the water is calm,. You can hire a self drive luxury yacht for $1200 a night, for 5 nights minimum, and tour the islands if you have a licence,. Four cabins each and a well equipped kitchen. Can be done, but needs to be organized.

TV reception is very good, so watched some of the Full Brazilian, not because I am a fan of SBS. Au contraire, I think it deserve the name SSBS, for Self Serving Broadcasting Services, instead of just SBS, which for me is "Stupid Bull Sh*#". I have earlier avoided commenting on Eurovision rubbish, Giro Italia, Burundi on foot and Tazmania viewed from the bum camera of a cyclist. I still can not understand why SBS is government funded, while double dipping with commercial advertisements, but having the smallest viewership in the nation. In a real world it would be a dead enterprise, if it was not floated by endless taxpayer's money. Accountability not needed.

I watched SBS because Jimeoin is funny and Australia is out, so the chest beating had stopped earlier in the piece, and we can have a laugh looking at real soccer nations competing. Still one thing that cheesed me off was 'our Tim' Cahill's magic goal being replayed a million times in slow-motion, from every conceivable angle. One thing about slow motion photography, it might be suitable for hummingbirds, but with people it makes them look either awkward or demented, and in our case both. Adding insult to injury there was the notion of awarding 'our Tim' a knighthood for his random kick, and him saying, "If this does not deserve a knighthood, I don't know what does." I will tell you what does, possibly spending a selfless lifetime of effort in serving community or improving human lives. If our boys were that great, why aren't we closer to the finals? Why did golden boy fail to mention the rest of the team? After all soccer is allegedly a team sport.

You might think I was harsh describing Tim's kick as random, but it is, and I have seen more constructed ones from bare footed players. But it is the nature of a striker. They are not team players, but opportunists. So there you are, an opportunist by nature and training, claiming a knighthood for a random kick. I think he deserve a kick, not a knighthood, and that is not random.