Days 67 and 68: Airlie Beach to Sarina

It has been a jam packed couple of days. Feels about a week since we left Airlie Beach but it was only yesterday.

In Sarina we are staying at Sarina Palms Caravan Village and had the privilege of meeting and chatting with the owners. Darren spoke business with Dennis for about an hour, comparing parks and the way they each approach different situations. Darren commented later how much Dennis reminded him of his father in relation to business operation.

Sarina is the home of Plane Creek sugar mill. Due to OHS regulations, sugar mills are no longer able to conduct tours so Mackay council set up the Mini Sugar Mill to fill the void.

We took part in the tour yesterday afternoon and learnt how sugar was made. We got to taste the juice freshly squeezed from the sugar cane aswell as various marinades, chutneys and alcohol made on site. The kids got to have fairyfloss instead.

We took a drive to Sarina Beach where Darren rang an old friend, Scott, who moved to the area 9 years ago.

We met up with Scott, his girl friend Michelle, and his kids Cameron, Byron and Felicitee last night for dinner. It was great seeing them all, especially the kids whom we haven't seen for 9 years. They are all so tall and such great kids.

We spent today with them all. Scott and Michelle were very gracious making time to show us the sights.

We had a great day that started with a walk to Finch Hatton Gorge that was topped off with a swim by Darren and the kids in Araluen Cascades. The water was freezing so they didn't swim for long. Cameron demonstrated a few times how to jump from the rock, Darren was going to give it a go until he felt how cold the water was.

We continued up a really steep hill to Eunabulla(can't remember to how spell it!!!!!) for lunch where we dined overlooking the most magnificent view of the valley.

The icing on the cake today was when we visited the platypus viewing area and saw not one but TWO platypus diving for food as well as heaps of turtles. It's the first time both Darren and I have seen a platypus in the wild so we were pretty impressed.

It's been great catching up with Scott, Michelle and the kids especially seems Scott and Michelle move to Africa in a few weeks. Thanks for an awesome day guys!