Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Blog Day 150 Mon 3rd October 2011
Today we are making our way down to Airlie Beach. We get up, pack up the van (seriously don't remember unpacking this much stuff out of it), say our goodbyes to Jackie (she is the only one in this morning), and hit the open road once more! All the way round to the corner shop. We can't resist the bargains in there, even though we don't need the stuff now we know we will do soon enough.
After a quick whip round the shop we are back in the van heading out of Townsville. It takes us a couple of hours to get to Bowen (the next main town) and by this time our tummies are grumbling. A short sharp dose of McDonalds soon sorts that out, and after another couple of hours we are pulling into Airlie beach. The place seems very laid back and the sea is a beautiful turquoise colour.
Renee has booked us into the Nomads here, so we have our eyes peeled for that as we drive along the esplanade (everywhere out here seems to have an esplanade or a strand). Nomads is pretty hard to miss with its giant blue sign out the front. So we park up outside and head to reception. We are told that all the private rooms were full and that we would have to go into a dorm. This isn't a problem at all, and we are told we can park the van in their car park, at a cost of $5 a day. We hand over $25 for our parking and a further $20 room key deposit. Upon driving round to the parking area we see that there are a good 20 or so campervans all with their chairs and cooker set up outside. As it turns out this Nomads has camping facilities.
We disturb a little Irish fella in our dorm as we check out the facilities. The dorms are like small apartments with 4 bunk beds, 2 showers and 2 toilets. They are very clean and spacious, and they all overlook the swimming pool and beach volleyball court. However after thinking about it we head back to reception to see if we can park the camper in one of the available spots and make use of it instead of a dorm. The girl behind the desk double checks with the manager, who comes out to say hello. She's a friendly Irish lass whose name escapes me at the time. After a quick chat about the rugby (she is obviously pleased the Ireland in the quarter finals) she tells us to come and see her if there is anything we need, and that she would have a beer with us after our Whitsundays trip.
By the time all this is sorted out daylight is fading, we opt not to cook anything tonight so our evening meal consists of cheese and crackers followed by a bag of M&Ms. A few more blogs are updated and the rest of the evening is spent working our way through our books.
We shall see the sights of Airlie tomorrow.
- comments