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Airlie beach to Hervey bay
Driving into Airlie beach we got a great vibe from the place and we found a campsite within walking distance from the town. It was good to ditch Carlos for a while (sorry Carlos). In the morning we took a nice walk along the harbour and boardwalk into Airlie beach and Whitsunday town and to our dismay it started raining, only for 5 minutes but it remained cloudy all day. For some reason I had the worst bad mood ever, think I must have been a little homesick. Poor Mish had to take the brunt of this, as all who know me can imagine.
We didn't really do much on the first few days, just read our books and awaited the good weather for our Whitsunday boat trip. On one of the nights we accidentally unplugged an Aussie mans power cable, and he was not happy, and lost his temper with us. Though over the next couple of days he came over and chatted to us I think he must have felt bad, either that or he was scared of the guns!
On our 3rd day at Airlie beach we woke early and went down to the marina to catch our boat. It was an 80 foot rib called Fury and it was 3 times as quick as any other boat. The sun was beaming and after an hour we got our snorkels ready to see some more of the great Barrier Reef. We opted out of stinger suits as they cost extra but the water was pretty damn cold!!! Mish only lasted about 20 minutes but I managed to stay out for the full 50 minutes and I saw one of those horrible stingers which can actually kill you. After warming up Fury blasted over to Whiteheaven beach, this beach was on par with the Thai beaches and is rated as one of the top ten beaches in the world! The sand here was soooo white that it didn't get hot as it reflected the sun. There was so much silicon in the cans that it polished our silver up beautifully (a tip given to us by the tour guide). We spent 3 hours at Whiteheaven beach and the Crew put on a lovely buffet lunch for us and we topped up the all important tan! About 3,30pm we blasted back to shore with a quick guide of the other islands, we passed by Hamilton Island and its new 6* resort and saw George Harrison's old house. From a distance we could see a large mass, we realised that it was a humpback whale! It was splashing about in the water and spraying into the air, it was quite a distance away so we could only just make out its massive size! Quality boat trip, the crew were sound, I would recommend this boat as its smaller, more personal and much faster getting to the islands. It will set you back $130 each.
We left Airlie beach that night, didn't fancy driving too far to avoid hitting a kangaroo at night. We stopped off at a nice cheap caravan site near Bloomsbury. It was pitch black when we got there but we could see that we were near a river. This gave Mish a very bad nights sleep and she was scared to go to the loo for fear of seeing crocodiles.
The next morning we woke up and there was in fact a Crocodile warning sign!!! But the site was beautiful and the sun was beaming. Then we continued our trip down the Bruce highway. We arrived at Cape Hillsborough National park early and had a wander round and again there was another gorgeous beach there, though a little windy for sunbathing.
We drove through the day, around 4 hours through Mackay to a free stop at Carmila beach, it was very spooky arriving there at night. We were trying to find somewhere to park when a guy jumped out and helped us to find a great spot. We sat around with him and his wife, and had a few drinks next to the camp fire. We sat and watched the stars and couldn't believe how many there were and how clearly we could see the milky way, I saw 3 shooting stars that night and Mish saw her first one ever too! It was crazy waking up to the sound of the tide rushing in and realizing that the ocean was only 15 foot from us. We had a walk along the beach that morning before setting off again. We then drove another 3 hours south to another free stop on the highway and had a pretty boring night.
Then the next morning we had a crazy long drive, around 6/7 hours through Rockhampton to Bundaberg where we finally managed to use the net and call our parents and let them know we were still alive! I was absolutely nakered by the end of the days driving! Then we found a local free site for the night and went to bed mega early. We are craving watching a film of TV (really bad, but soooo boring in the evenings!)
The next morning we drove an hour to Hervey Bay where we plan to spend 3 or 4 nights, do some running and some whale watching and enjoy some civilization for a while!!! And there is a cinema here, yeah so may treat ourselves to a film one night! We have managed to camp 11 free nights and 6 pay nights, all thanks to the 'Camps 5' book, definitely worth the purchase if you plan on camping in OZ as it shows you where all the free and cheap sites are!
Bye for now, love Ads and Mish xxxx
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