Day 61: Whitsundays and Airlie Beach

What a delight Townsville is – really, quite the surprise!  We stopped in at YWAM to see if we could catch up with Rachel Bridgman, who has recently arrived here to do a DTS – but she was elsewhere – so it was time for a bit of an explore of Townsville.  We found a lovely beach front area (the Strand) where we grabbed a coffee and sat on the esplanade and admired the blue sea, white sand, and Magnetic Island about eight kilometers away.  We were very impressed with the lengths that the city council had gone to make the beach front attractive to all kinds of different people – there was a marvelous fishing jetty, complete with shade covers, benches, fish cleaning spots etc.  Then there were walk ways, children’s playgrounds, exercise areas, water fountains and benches.   It was a beautiful balmy day with not a cloud in sight – which we are really appreciative of given the days of mist and rain that we had in the Daintree and Cairns (which is why they call that area the WET tropics).  We have brought out the doona at night though, which is an ominous sign that we are moving southwards towards Melbourne!

From Townsville it was about 250 kms south to Airlie Beach, which was also a big and pleasant surprise.  It is known as the gateway to the Whitsundays – The Whitsunday islands number 74 altogether – and are very different to what I expected – they continue the theme that we have seen all along the coast from the Daintree – huge mountains rearing up out of the sea, the sides of which are covered in forest and the edges of which are sand.  Rich assures me that some of the islands (Hamilton etc which he has visited for some conference or other) are very much geared for the tourist – but then there are some that are just island with no one on them.  Contrary to what I thought too - they are not coral islands, in fact there are very few coral islands along the coast at all (the barrier reef is much further out to sea).  

Given all that, the area both from the mainland and towards the islands are truly lovely – postcard perfect with palm trees, white sandy beaches, boats bobbing in the bay and beautiful blue water.  We have decided that we won’t actually be going out to any of the islands – once again the big dollars reign, but instead we will just enjoy the nearby rainforest, the beautiful beaches etc.  I need to do some study too, so Rich might head off for a bit of a fish.  We have treated ourselves to a caravan park tonight (and possibly tomorrow) and are ensconced in a nice little caravan park in the rainforest.

I did have a little chuckle at two signs I saw today.  The one I took a photo of – it was indicating ladies and gents toilets at a little roadhouse that we stopped at - it is best not to dwell on it too much, because the more you think about it, the worse the mental pictures get.  Then tonight in our Pet Friendly caravan park, I came across a notice that said …. ‘Dogs not to be bathed in toilets.’  What the!!!   I’ve heard of dogs drinking out the toilets, but not being bathed in them!  

Follow us to Airlie Beach on Google Maps