Day 13 – Airlie Beach – 27 September 2017

We were due to spend 2 nights in Airlie Beach and quite looking forward to spending more than one night somewhere for a change! We were also in no hurry to get there too early, so had breakfast at the hotel before setting off. The trip, again, wasn’t too eventful or interesting, with fairly arid areas now breaking up the sugar cane plantations!

We stopped at Bowen to have a look at the beaches. The town is pretty dry and dusty, reminding me a bit of the Northern Cape, although the coast and sea were beautiful, making you forget about how dry the surrounding area is! We took a little walk up to Rotary Lookout and had some amazing views before carrying on again.

It was another scorcher and we were glad to have the room ready and air-conditioned when we got to Colonial Palms Motor Inn at Airlie Beach (after passing many more sugar cane operations!). Our hotel was a bit outside the main drag, which wasn’t a problem as the boat trips leave from just over the road. We booked a half day trip to Whitsunday Island (Whitehaven Beach) for the next day as soon as we got in and then relaxed for a bit – if trying to get a blog published on dodgy, intermittent WiFI could be called that!
Once it cooled down a bit we took a walk to the town and my nose led me to the Whitsunday Sailing Club, where we found they had a Wednesday Roast on special for something like $15, and of course I was immediately sold! Brian had a burger and we watched the sun set over the harbour while enjoying a cold bevvie or two. The club has a great setting and the food was very good as well, making it a very pleasant place to spend a few hours. Of course members get special rates on food and booze, making it popular under the locals, and we much prefer seeing the ‘real’ pubs and clubs rather than the touristy ones. Most towns we’ve been to have sailing/yacht clubs or surf & rescue clubs with membership options, but are more than happy to welcome visitors as well, as long as you have some form of ID, and they tend to be very good options for eating and drinking.