Nov 17-18
Airlie Beach is one of those ‘Must Visit” places for many of our overseas (and domestic) tourists as it really is the Gateway to The Whitsundays. From the town you can see Hayman and Hook Islands, while Daydream, North and South Molle, Hayman and Lndeman are just around the headland off Shute Harbour.
This time for us had to be a short visit just for a “look see” but we will come back and do an island cruise at some point. So this time we stayed for two nights at the Island Gateway Caravan Park which is “the closest to town”. In fact the Nomads Caravan Park and Base Hostel is right in town but still recovering from Cyclone damage and only partly open.
The Caravan Park was reasonably busy with rented motorhomes, mostly european visitors with most Aussies having already gone South before the Wet starts in earnest. About 2km+ to the town centre Frances was able to put in her daily walks of 6 km or so and get some extra photos from various spots along the way – we will add an extra photo gallery a little later. We were regularly visited by a few Sulphur Crested Cockatoos and a whole band of Whistling Ducks, not too shy to wander under our awning in search of anything tasty!
Saturday morning found us looking around on Market Day and with time to take a few pictures of the Marina and Bay. A cruise ship was in as you can see (don’t know which one?) with passengers being ferried ashore and many to be seen wandering the Market.
Airlie is one of those places which has seen incredible growth in a short number of years which can be seen n the almost new rows of holiday apartments and hostels and huge “suburban” growth with the whole town feeding off the Whitsunday tourism. One German couple we met back up the coast who had been here said the biggest surprise was seeing the unexpected highrise hotels on Hamilton Island (and the Airport!).
