Saturday 19 Jul 2003
Whitsunday Coast, Australia
Airlie Beach
Ive arrived in Airlie Beach, "the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands", after an exhausting 6 hour drive through the vast Central Highlands of Queensland. I decided to head north from Sapphire, rather than trek back East to Rockhampton (to get back on the Bruce Highway) since its obviously a lot shorter, but unfortunately the road through the central highlands is more suited to tractors and I spent most of the time trying to avoid potholes or avoid slipping sideways into the the ditch on the loose gravel.. erk
I passed a lot of small cattle towns, some were showcasing their cattle in large ranch-shows, and gradually the roads got better as I arrived cloaser to Mackay (the first major town on the coast)...
Of course as I got closer to the coast I noticed the people no longer waved at you as you passed (well more like lifting their forefinger from the steering wheel which is the "Ozzie wave") and that the population were far more groomed... no more big hairy beardy men in checkshirts and short-shorts as frequent the Gemfields...
The weather at Airlie Beach (70 kms on from Mackay) is not great and not going to improve soon unfortunately so I may have to choose an alternative to heading to the islands...
PS: Excuse the bad grammer and badly-phrased sentences in this entry, but quite frankly Im wrecked!! Time to get some fish n chips and head to bed... no more long drives for me any time soon...