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Well we picked up our little car in Cairns and have thankfully departed down the coast - Toyato carrola which we have called Sandy which i will explain later..
On our first day we headed soiuth heading towards the small town of Mission beach, down the bruce highway through stunning mountains and tropical rainforest, through sugar cane fields, with the cane train chugging alongside. Its picturesque to say the least. Thankfully the Itrip working so we werent subjected to Oz radio for the 4.5 hrs drive.
We arrived 1st at Innisfail , as i'd had enough of the itchy rash and decied to go see a pharmacist they sorted me with cream and antihistmine tablets (now alot better) and we had a bit of a wonder, nice liottle town, some cool 1930's architecture but not alot else to see and do (stop for a coffee and 20mins walk and then keep going)
I'd gone out in the am and picked up a cool bag and provisions so we stopped of at a small beach signposted off the highway north of Mission for a picnic (think it was conway beach) it was stunning and we were the only ones to be seen in either direction, our own private beach!
Small issue however on returning from said picnic, Steve had parked the car on a small sandy/ grassy bit before the beach access, could be get the car out hell no! the more Steve tried the more wheelspin, till i got out and realised the front wheels were under 1ft of sand,.. OOPS! (Bleedin car was front wheel drive) Luckily for me Steve can move heavy stuff when needed and he managed to push the car out (he did go purple in the process) Hence the car is now called sandy..
Arrived at mission beach and headed to info centre to sort out room, we were going to hostel it again, but i soon realised that teh hostel whilst being out of town was 44 quid and the lady showed us a self contained bungalow just off the beach for 8 quid more, well sorry not really a choice to be made, so we headed off to our bungalow and it was lovely. (No spiders neither!). We walked along the beach which is stunning and tried to get onto some beach buggy things with sails but the guy said it wasnt windy enough so that was a no go. Headed out for F&C for tea at local cafe on beach (we had barramunde which i later saw its huge, fair few steaks out of that) and off to bed as we were supoposed to be getting the 8.30 ferry over to dunk island in the morning.
Ferry didnt happen as Steve manged to talk me out of going to the island as he wants to puc\sh on so we have time to go to Surfers paradies south of Brisban (wasnt part of the original plan but never mind) so we left our lovely little private bungalow and continued south onto Townsville for lunch.
Townsville is one of the larger towns and has a lovely marina, we stopped inat the aquarium, which was nice but it relatively small and not worth the $50 entry. At the recommendation of the lady in the info centre we headed up to Castle Hill (Hill more like a bloody mountain) i didnt think the car was going to make it it was so steep and theres mental australians running up it in 37 degree heat. Well it was well worth it the views were amazin.
We were originally spending the night in Arlie beach but we were running a bit short on time and didnt want to be stuck finding a place to stay late on, the lady at Townsville had recommended a small town called Bowen north of Arlie, so we stopped there. Didnt look too promising when we hit the town , v industrialised (later found out its where the new Baz Lurhman film was shot). We headed to info centre to sort room , well could we find one no we damn well couldnt! the place was fully booked! Finally found an apartment off where we wanted to be and paid over the odds, it was big but a bit of a 1970's throw back. As it was Sunday all the shops were shut so ended up getting a pizza and beers and sitting on the sofa watching telly for the night (arent we exciting !)
Got up dead early and bought some scupa gear and food provisons and hit the beach, stunning cove called horse shoe bay - a local bloke took us out to the coral, which is sparning at the mo, so couldnt see anything visability was awful so we gave up.
Headed back to the info cenbtra at Bowan, as the lady had told us that they get late availability on whitsunday sailing boats every morning, managed to get a grt deal for a private cabin for 3 days sailing ($399 pp) on a cat called the avater, leaving Wednesday.
She also sorted us out a room for 2 nights in an apartment block in the hillside above arlie ($169 a night) which Steve was whining about but exchange rate has improved so told him to shut up! Well he soon did when he saw it its stunning, the view over the Whitsundays is just unbelievable, breathtaking (its soo beautiful i may just stay!!) The apartments huge!! we have two balconys, one off the lounge, one off the bedroom, we have an ensuite wet room and a seperate bathroom (which actrually has a bath) we even have our own utility room with a washer AND a dryer!!) I am literally a pig in muck, sooo happy. The view from the infinity pool aint bad either!! We even have our own tame pet parrot which we havce called Perrie, he bought his mates over last night and we had @9 over for dinner!
Steve did a barbie last night and then we headed into town for a few beers, nice enough. Weather not soo good today hot but overcast, will update again when we have been sailing. (Have tried to uploda more piccies but this computers taking an age so have had to give up)
Hope everyone is fine, speak soon my harties!
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