Beachy Keen: A Week In Airlie

When the locals come out to greet you with such cheerful ferocity and in such numbers as soon as you pull up at your camp site, you know you're onto a good thing!

And this is how we felt after pulling up at the Big 4 Whitsunday Adventure Resort in Airlie Beach. Wiki Camps (a must-have app for all those travelling across Australia) and everyone we had met so far had raved about this caravan park and after extending our stay to almost a week, we didn't really want to leave either! Run like a well-oiled machine, this park is set amongst beautiful tropical gardens, with top notch ammenities and entertainment for the young or young at heart. We were even handed a weekly planner as we checked in which had activities like free pancakes by the pool or free cheese and biccies get-together hour and scavenger hunts and crosswords with prizes, plus kids craft activities and movies under the stars on their big movie screen. Just to name but a few added extras that this park provided. Plus ladies told us about a "stay one week and get the next week free" accommodation deal which they have going at the moment - pretty amazing and something we definitely would have considered if we weren't heading further north! 

 

And with the amazing pool, jumping pillows, mini-golf, playgrounds and farm animals (yes, farm animals that you could visit and watch being fed daily!) it's no wonder we found it hard coaxing the kids out of the park and into the car to actually explore Airlie Beach beyond the accommodation! 

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays Islands. It's pretty well known, even worldwide, with tons of Aussies and international tourists alike flocking to the region each year, many crossing off their bucket list must-do's like visiting Whitehaven Beach, flying over Heart Reef or snorkelling in The Great Barrier Reef. It's no surprise then, that the town of Airlie Beach itself is a full-blown tourist hub with every second shop in the main drag being an information or tour-booking office and scores of backpackers filling the many pubs, schooners in hand, whilst we were munching on our peanut butter Cruskits at morning tea time! 

On our last visit here, Luke and I found the foreshore to be a tad grotty and the main street too, but I'm not sure whether there's been a turn over on the council in the past eight years or we were just looking at the place with fresh holiday eyes, but this time we really enjoyed the lazy tropical feel, despite stinger season still meaning the beautiful beaches were empty (the water anyway, there were plenty of super-brown tanned Brazilian bodies on the sand!!). 

The kids enjoyed cooling off in the man-made pool lagoon which overlooks the coast with the Whitsunday islands in the distance and watching the sun set over the many sailing boats as we scooted around the town boardwalk was pretty magic too.

   

We ventured off the coast and followed the sugarcane fields to explore the nearby Cedar Creek Falls and this was a highlight for us all. A short walk from the car park, there's a huge fresh water pool that offers a natural swimming hole with two cascading waterfalls replenishing the supply. We swam in the clear waters and the kids built 'rock' castles for ages, but after a fellow visitor spotted a red belly black snake swimming in the shallows, we high tailed it out of there! This little friend and a few rather large turtles with snapping jaws made up our minds on whether a second swim was on the cards and Arley asked us why all the waterways are full of biting creatures up in north Queensland? We told him that stingers, snakes and turtles were nothing compared to the crocs we were going to swim with up north!!

  

We visited the Saturday morning markets at Airlie Beach and sampled some local fruits and coffee, but I must say, I was a tad disappointed that there weren't more handmade delights amongst the imported Chinese junk stalls... a great place to shop, but just not a lot to buy!

It was lovely to set up camp for a full week and not have to rush the kids or pack up our gear every few days and I know that added to our relaxing time at Airlie Beach. The kids made cubby houses, Luke perfected his Webber-cooked pizza and I even read a few pages of one of the many books I packed so optimistically a few weeks ago! All in all, a week to remember and I haven't even mentioned the reef visit yet! Stay tuned....

Arley's Video Blog #5

After extensive editing, Arley's video blog is still almost 5 minutes long this week - there was just too much to show and tell in the beautiful Whitsundays! Keep an eye out for his amazing stinger suit!

The Coastal Return: Yeppoon, Kinka Beach and Mackay

We bush walked the morning away at Cania Gorge, before driving out of the gumtree covered hills, through farming land and back to the coast, via Rockhampton. Luke and I had been to Yeppoon a few times before, crossing through on our way around Australia on our first trip before the kids, and also on another occasion when we caught a boat across to Humpy Island for a week of wild back-to-basics camping with Uni friends and family waaaaay back in the day. But gee, it has changed since then.

The gateway to the Keppel Islands and the start of the Great Barrier Reef, Yeppoon is a bit of a central gathering point for Island-hoppers, holidayers, those preferring to live on the coast but who work in nearby Rocky, or as a coastal part-time home for those working inland in the mines. We caught up with Luke's mate Macca, whom he went to Primary School with but is now doing just that - living in Yeppoon and working half the week three hours away in a coal mine. He couldn't say enough good things about the place, especially the reasonable living costs and the year-long holiday vibe and we had to agree, that after booking in for just two nights, and staying almost five, our pace slowed down and it felt like we were on holidays too... oh wait... we are!  

We decided to stay at Kinka Beach this time, mainly because we'd heard many-a traveller with kids talking of the amazing Coolwaters Caravan Park, right on the beach and river inlet. And wow, we've seen some amazing parks on our trip so far, but this place was up there with the best! The water park rivalled that of Wet 'N' Wild on the Goldcoast, there were playgrounds and jumping pillows and bush walks on site, plus a little bonus that Arley was particularly taken with, a BMX bike track for him to practise his tricks! 

We spent a few days exploring Yeppoon and the beaches that surround the area and ventured into the hinterland to swim in the fresh water pools of Stoney Creek, but got a little lost along the way and ended up at the not as pretty creek down the road... whoops! The kids loved playing in the foreshore water park and Luke and I quickly found a few great coffee spots - Lure on the main drag, which sells beautiful homewares and juices too, being our favourite.

The beaches have huge tides and the kids were amazed that they had to walk for ages to get to the water's edge. They loved playing in the warm shallow water and thought it was a heap of fun making mud balls and covering each other in the brown, thick sand. A kid's paradise!   

I was lucky enough to be spoilt for Mother's Day on our last morning at Kinka Beach, and awoke to a bed filled with balloons and party blowers (perfect for a caravan park... NOT!) and some sweet hand-made cards and craft that the kids had hidden all over the caravan. A Mother's Day I'll always remember! 

On the way to our next stop over, Mackay, we had lunch at a quaint little park in the small town of Marlborough. This tiny town just off the Bruce Highway was once a busy service centre for the surrounding farming towns, but is now home to just 50 residents. The museum was well worth a visit, and for a gold coin donation, you could spend ages reading about the past and how the area is famous for producing the world's finest aqua semi-precious stone, chrysophase.

We finally arrived at Mackay, and spent two nights here, mostly trying to avoid the horrible sand flies at our caravan park and keep cool from the heat! The free town pool, The Blue Lagoon is a popular spot to have a dip and on a Monday we had the place to ourselves, minus a few toddlers and their mums and a bunch of sun-baking backpackers. And after being on the road for five weeks now, the kids were chuffed when we visited the Mackay Art Gallery for a browse and a milkshake in the cool cafe, but even more excited to find the local library next door! We are weekly library visitors back in Newcastle, so spending some down time, out of the sun, to read and colour-in and just chill out was a lovely change and reminder of home.