Airlie Beach

After getting picked up at Airlie Beach Bus Station (which was actually more of a bus stop) by a courtesy van from our hostel, Backpackers by the Bay, we made the short trip to the hostel where we were relieved to be told our room was ready and we could drop our stuff off. The hostel was really nice, and it helped change Nicola’s opinion towards hostels (the previous ones we stayed in were pretty pants). Our room opened onto a pool, there were hammocks and very helpful staff, which made settling in a little easier.

We had a quick change and jumped into the pool for an hour or so before we decided to test out the hammocks – well within five minutes I was fast asleep and snoring (according to Nicola, but I don’t think I snore…but Nicola has film evidence to prove it). After a few hours chilling by the hostel we decided to head into Airlie Beach to have a look around. The place is lovely, there is a lagoon in the centre of the town, which is an alternative to the sea as between October to May it is jellyfish season and there are two very deadly jellyfish in the sea – the box jellyfish and the irukandji (the most venomous creature in the world). Airlie Beach is pretty small, with a handful of hostels, hotels, holiday apartments and beachside cafes and shops all catering for the sailing tours that depart daily to the Whitsundays. Despite its size, Airlie Beach is still a busy place, the lagoon was filled with tourists – both Australian and overseas – and the town is very pretty, with most of the shops and cafes fronting on to the beach. It is a very idyllic place.

11.45am

11.50am

We spent most of the day relaxing by the lagoon, after our late morning nap on the hammock, before we went back to our hostel where they had a deal – one large domino’s pizza plus one can of beer for $13, bargain. We had our pizzas and went to sleep, despite having a pretty chilled day, due to the overnight greyhound bus, we hadn’t had a good night’s sleep and were pretty knackered.

 

Joel's lovely centre parting..

 

We woke reasonably early on our second day, and headed to a local café (Sidewalk Café) where we both had an awesome milkshake. We had had a milkshake yesterday morning but today we opted for a “thickshake” a really thick milkshake. They were served in a metal litre container, like an old fashioned American glass, where I assumed the milkshakes were made. I had a vanilla milkshake (I had banana the previous day) and Nicola had chocolate (Nicola had strawberry the day before), they were amazing. I wanted us to try all six flavours, but as we had both suffered from milk-overdose and felt ill, only I opted to try the lime flavoured milkshake on our final day in Airlie Beach. I think the lime flavour was actually my favourite.

As our friend Oli was in town, he had just finished a two day sailing tour around the Whitsundays, we arranged to meet and have a catch up. The last time we saw Oli was in Sydney, and Nicola and I had left for Melbourne and Oli for Cairns but our paths had crossed again as we were heading north through Queensland and Oli was heading south towards Brisbane. We spent another afternoon by the lagoon, relaxing and chatting, before we headed to Oli’s hostel where we had a bite to eat. We said or farewells to Oli and went back to the hostel where we arrived just in time for the evening quiz. Nicola gave our team (consisting of Nicola and I, as well as a girl from Chile and a woman from Sydney) the name Let’s Get Quizzical in homage to Olivia Newton John, the Aussie icon. After 20 questions, our team had 17 questions right and were declared the winners and we received a bottle of bubbly for our efforts.

We had previously booked a sailing tour, on a boat called Blizzard which was due to depart on 6 November and return on 8 November. As the boat didn’t leave until 14:00, we spent another morning relaxing in the hammocks at our hostel where we got chatting to some of the staff at the hostel who made us aware of a money saving option out in Australia – some hostels operate on a work for accommodation basis i.e. a few hours cleaning etc. a day an you get free accommodation. After another relaxing morning and early afternoon we made the shortish walk to Abel Marina where we waited to board our boat.

Abel Marina