Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach is a confusing anachronism. It shouldn't be here. There is no (natural) beach, just a large swimming lagoon. Well, there is a beach or two, just not the size and type that you associate with beaches in Queensland. And yet, Airlie Beach is a very attractive place - obviously, thousands of back-packers and visitors each year can't be wrong - it kinda grows on you. Geographically, it is a wonderful location on the Whitsunday Coast and demographically it appears young and vibrant. Is it noice? Yeah, I reckon it's noice! We will come back here. Pic of the main street:

We went for a cruise to Shute Harbour after we checked in and settled in. It's the jumping off spot for Hamilton Island and a slew of islands in the Whitsundays. I took a few pics of the inner harbour,

then went for a walk to the end of the pier. What's that? Masts leaning over a bit far. Beam in the water. It's sunk at its berth!

We had to get closer to see it in more detail, so off we went.

Peter is not too shy to have a chat with anyone - and I mean anyone - so he asked a bloke working on a dive boat what had happened. He said "it sunk". When Peter asked him how, he said "it filled with water". We asked a nearby bus driver and he told us that the boat had docked a few days before, with a bunch of people on board from a cruise. Two hours later, it had sunk, nobody on board, nobody injured, nobody wet. The boat just went down and sat on the bottom. These pics were taken at close to low tide, so you can imagine what it looks like with another 2.5 to 3 metres of water over it. The tides have had a 3.5 metre range up here with the full moon (according to locals), so the salvage bill will be large.

We also saw the yacht "Ragamuffin" come in to the harbour from a cruise and berth. Ragamuffin is a famous Australian yacht that has competed in many Australian and international races and won many.

Meanwhile, back at the "ranch", the wildlife is considering an attack on the caravans for a food raid. Feeding the wildlife, especially the birds is verboten!!

There are several different species of birds that frequent the park, most of the usual suspects for scavenging food - and these blokes as well. We went down to town and the beach. It's noice and the pics demonstrate how noice:

These two pics are of the "beach" at Airlie Beach. It's actually a large, lagoon-style swimming pool in the middle of town and FREE, no charge, nix payment, help yourself. No pool fence, I hear you say? Gotta lifeguard to keep people alive - and the girls amused............

We drove up a nearby hill with a very steep road that we could see from the caravan park. It's VERY steep. The road was built by a developer for a subdivision on the hill. Beautiful views, but some of the land is almost vertical! The vegetation is tropical forest - that means thick - and the pads carved out for the houses are very small. It would cost a lot of money to build up here, but the views...........

That's it from Airlie Beach. More to see and do here, but that's a good excuse to come back.

Off to Clairview Beach (go on, Google Map it, you know you want to) for a free camp tomorrow, then to Kinka Beach, then down to Tannum Sands, then back to Hervey Bay for a whale watch (yep, M's going on a whale watch trip with Helen and me and maybe Pete), then back to Elliot Heads for the airshow at Bundy and a much-anticipated visit from Michael and Ollie.

Till next time, hoo roo.