February 16, 2025
Today we arrived in a town called Airlie Beach, located in the Whitsunday area of Queensland. The Population for Airlie is +/- 1500. The main industry is tourism.
For today we booked a short tour on the bus to get an idea what the town and neighbouring area looked like. Our first stop was an area called Shute harbour. This is a small harbour where smaller ferries leave for the numerous islands of the Whitsundays. This harbour area with its numerous buildings got totally leveled by a 2022 category 5 hurricane. Today it was all rebuilt to new hurricane building guidelines. Our next stop was a view point where we could shoot a few pictures. Unfortunately, we were seated in the back of the bus, and it took forever to get out, being behind a large group of very slow moving tourists. Next, we drove through a large area of sugar cane fields. After the sugar cane fields we made a brief stop at Boathaven Beach. This beach had Stinger fish netting in the water to protect the swimmers from stings. Stinger fish are similar to jelly fish. Following this stop the bus driver showed us a variety of expensive real estate. Instead of taking us back to the ship, we opted for being dropped off in town. I forgot to mention that it was sweltering hot today with very high humidity (30+ deg C). It might not have been the most exciting bus ride we took, but the driver did a great job educating us about the area.
Being dropped off in the middle of Airlie , our first mission was to find an establishment serving a cold drink. In this town that’s not really a problem as the main street is lined with restaurants and bars. It’s easy to see that this town is a popular hang out for young people and backpackers. After consuming a well deserved cold beer we walked towards the other end of town checking out the shops. On the way back we passed by the public man-made swimming lagoon. This is a large area for swimming and sunbathing and not having to worry about stinger fish and sharks. This lagoon is a very nice and popular facility. After circling the town we arrived back at the bus stop to catch the shuttle back to the ship.
For the night we first enjoyed a sail away get together on the back deck of the boat. For this occasion the crew had brought in several varieties of Aussie beers, which was a nice touch. For dinner there was an Australian Barbecue (Barby) with several stations cooking up prawns, chicken skewers served with rice. This was an Aussie Barby with a twist , having people wearing pink refering to the movie Barbie. After having enjoyed our dinner, for the rest of the night we laid low.
Cheers
Cor and Carol
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