2- 8th November 2020
We left Mission Beach nice and early on Monday (well that’s if you call 8.30am early !!) We had a total of 540km to travel down to Airlie Beach on the Bruce Highway. It should have been a 5.5hour drive, but The Bruce Highway is only a single lane highway and we felt like there were roadworks every 20km, so the speed limit was constantly changing from 100 to 80 to 60 to 40 to STOP. Frustrating drive !!! We arrived in Airlie Beach around 4pm and checked into the Discovery Airlie Beach. This is a great park to base yourself and it has a great pool.
The day after we arrived was extremely windy so we took a wander along the waterfront and then browsed the shops down the Main Street. It was interesting to see how much the town had changed as the last time we were here was a few days before Cyclone Debbie hit in 2017. Interesting to talk to some of the locals who say that the town was only really getting back on its feet before COVID came along and ruined it. The town wasn’t that busy during the week but the weekends obviously they do well as there seemed to be people everywhere.
We took a drive to Proserpine on one of the days and wandered down the street, a very interesting town with some fantastic little shops to explore. There is also a coffee plantation – Whitsunday Gold Coffee where we took a look and grabbed a yummy coffee. If you happen to be going through or in the area make sure you put Proserpine Bakery on your list as OMG the pies are the best we have every tasted. We also took a drive out to Peter Faust Dam about 20km from Proserpine, this is a huge dam which has fantastic free camping facilities, we have put this on our list for next time to stay a few nights.
Whilst in Airlie Beach we did the Bicentennial walk along the waterfront which runs from Airlie Beach lagoon to Cannonvale Beach and is about a 4km walk along the coast with the most stunning views of the aqua blue waters. It was so fantastic that we did actually do it a couple of times. A lot of the boat tours leave from along here to go out to the Whitsunday Islands, but as we did all this last time we were in Airlie Beach a few years ago we decided to save our money for some more tours further down the coast.
On Friday we took a drive to Dingo Beach and Hideaway Bay. There is a resort near Hideaway Bay called Cape Gloucester Beach Resort. Wow it is a bar/restaurant right on the beach front. We had a beautiful lunch and a few drinks whilst here, it is a fantastic place to spend an afternoon looking over the aqua blue waters that you never tire of and the golden beach.
Every Saturday they have a market on the foreshore with lots of different arts and crafts and some produce. We went for a wander and then another walk along the waterfront before heading back to spend the afternoon in the pool as it has been very hot and humid here today and the midges are on the prowl, my poor legs are covered in bites and are so itchy. I’m not sure why they feast on me and not Jeff as he only has a couple of bites and they apparently don’t make him itchy….
Our last day at Airlie Beach and it has rained all day 🙁 Even a quick dash to the toilet and you’re soaked !! Not much fun, oh and all the midges are on the prowl after the rain 🙁
On our way to Cape Hillsborough tomorrow for a night and then to Yeppoon ……..
