Aug 2006

We decided to get out of the city and spend the last of my parents days in Australia, 25 km up the coast at a small seaside town called Palm Cove.

Cairns northern beaches are known to be the living area of those who work in Cairns, a string of coastal communities, linked by the Captain Cook Highway. A little less hectic than what we where used to Palm Cove was probably a bit too quiet for the last days but we still managed to have a good few beers and that.

We did the cable car up to Karunda whilst we were there which has more camera-toting tourists than you can shake a didgeridoo at. Albeit a bit of a tourist trap its still a good place to go to get souvenirs of all kinds from opals to boomerangs to kangaroo testicle bottle openers. We got the railway back down the mountain and took the photo next to the waterfall.

We said farewell to the parents the next day and the brother the day after that. We had our ups and downs but on a whole I think we all got along pretty well. We headed back down to Cairns and started the long search for work.

As we have only a month left in Australia, we needed to find work as soon as possible and the money even sooner. However, our search didn’t take too long and our first call found us something. The Long Island Beach Resort was looking for people to work in the restaurant and bar and to start asap – result! We left Cairns the next day and drove back down the coast only stopping for about 10mins in the 9hr drive. We stopped off to advertise our van for sale (no roads on island), buy our sailor style deck shoes (which gives you an idea of the uniform) and to stock up before getting the boat back into the island.

Will update with a few photos of work asap.

Pics of van from Ad

Cairns

We drove during sunset to do the 5 hours from Airlie to Townsville to join up with the parents again. We had a barbie, a few beers and swapped stories before having an early night and an early rise. They said that Magnetic Island and Townsville weren’t all that and as we were running out of time, we decided to go all the way up to Cairns, which took us another 5 hours.

Due to the location of Cairns, the town enjoys sunshine all year round and is warmer than most of the places on the east coast. It enjoys the tourism from all the backpackers and holiday makers but still retains some old style character. I liken it to Darwin in many ways as it is without the skyscrapers of the other big cities but still has all the thing you would expect to find like shops, bars, clubs etc.

The first night was spent in a dodgy holiday park which due us not being able to find anything else, we were more than happy to leave the next day. Not before taking the mandatory trip to the local casino and a few of the lively bars and clubs of the town.

The Whitsundays contain over 90 islands, mostly uninhabited and continental (the tips of underwater mountains). The surrounding water is a marine park and fall within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Still tired from last night, we had to get all our stuff together and get to Shute Harbour to catch the morning ferry to one of the islands. When we arrived we decided to meet my parents a day later and stay a night on the island, thanks to a deal they were doing at the time.

Our first stop was Hamilton Island, which we stayed for two hours. The most built up of all the islands, Hamiton has the big flashy resorts and a few of the high rise hotels aswell. It attracts the money aswell, judging by the size of some of the boats at the marina. We spent out time looking round the colonial style shops on the wharf. Unfortunately we didn’t have time but the only way to get around the island is to scoot around on a golf buggy like some crazy golfers grand prix. We also saw the Koala Sanctuary on the island.

After the lunch on the boat, our next and main stop was Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach. The biggest of the islands, we spent the four hours we were there relaxing on Whitehaven Beach on the south-eastern tip. Supposedly the best beach in Australia and one of the best in the world.

Then onto Long Island where we were spend the night. The island is only 2km wide and 9km long but big enough to house 3 resort, one of which was the Long Island Beach Resort, which it turns out we were to come back to but not know at the time. Nice resort with loads to do, such as the rainforest walks, which we did the following day and a good beach, which we spent a few hours on before getting the boat back to Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach.

A quick four and a half hour journey on the Bruce Highway took us from Yeppoon to Airlie Beach.

Sitting between the Great Dividing Range and the coast, Airlie is a jumping resort town and gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Backpackers seem to outnumber everyone else here, coming into town by the busload to do the Whitsunday sail but spend most of their time frequenting the nightspots around town.

We arrived in Airlie in the afternoon and spent the next good few hours looking for accommodation, which wasn’t easy. I suppose just coming into the high season we were to expect this.

First impressions were that of the guidebook, busy resort with loads of shops, cafes and bars and even more young backpackers all out for a good time, needless to say my parents weren’t that enthusiastic. We spent the day lounging by the artificial lagoon as despite the name Airlie doesn’t have any beach to speak of. And at night after the folks were off, we went to a few bars including a place which had a foam party on the first night and a wet t shirt comp the second.

We spent two days in Airlie before going our separate ways, not being a big fan of long boat journeys, my parents decided to go onto Townsville and Magnetic Island and we decided to do a tour of the Whitsundays before meeting them up there.

Whilst making our way up to Airlie Beach, we decided to do a pit stop and stay for a few nights somewhere along the way. That somewhere is Yeppoon. While its also the gateway to Great Keppel Island, Yeppoon is an attractive seaside town in its own right. Just south of Yeppoon, is Rosslyn Bay, the departure point for Great Keppel.

After having a few issues getting accommodation in Yeppoon, we stumbled across a 3 bedroom apartment which is right on the beach, which is a stroke of luck. During our first night, although we didn’t have too much luck in the last casino, my dad insisted on having another go and with his sense of finding these things, it didn’t take us long.

We took a ferry over to Great Keppel Island during the morning of writing this section. The landscape is ok though, expansive beaches, motionless blue water, bottle green forests peppered with walking tracks. But of course we didn’t really make the most of it and spent all of our time on the beach which we could’ve done anywhere I suppose. But it was still nice especially since it was the best sunshine we’ve had for a long while.

Onto Airlie Beach