Townsville Qld August 7, 2015

Rockhampton Qld August 7, 2015

Actually, I’ll start with a late note from Airlie Beach. One of the nice things to do here is stroll along the boardwalk which runs 3.6km around the edge of the water, through the resorts, across the parks, through the marina and into Airlie Beach town proper. Apart from the zillion dollars’ worth of  floating collateral to be ogled at and drooled over, there is one standout that just begs to have its snap taken.

Whitsunday Magic. Airlie Beach Qld

It is called Whitsunday Magic, and was used for luxury sailing tours up and down the coast. We are talking $700 a night cabins. Its fate is sad: It survived sinking at its mooring in Shute Harbour in 2011, to be rescued by a fellow who spend millions on it, only to have it caught in a gale in 2013 while making passage from Cairns to the Gold Coast (coincidentally while outside Airlie Beach), and was washed up here. At first it was still afloat, but the owner baulked at the $60,000 recovery cost. Its fate was sealed when it again started to sink and it quickly became stuck in the mud. Now he’s been in and out of court and his company is in liquidation because he and / or the insurance company can't, or won't,  stump-up the $250,000 required to ‘remove’ it as directed by the council and maritime services. Such a shame, but you cant help but wonder if, with its sinking record, that the well-heeled sailing tourist has been saved from a worse fate. 

Last night we did something a bit out of character for me: we went along to the caravan park dinner with 99 other inmates. It was for a good cause - to support a local child with some dreadful illness - and at $15 head for a full roast dinner and deserts, it was pretty damn good.

Sadly we had to leave Airlie Beach this morning after a very relaxing week. Must pencil this place in again for next year: maybe two weeks.

We are now heading south toward Agnes Water, which is about 600+ km away, so naturally we were planning to stop somewhere in the middle. The only town in or near the middle is a place called Marlborough, which appeared to have a Roadhouse / motel / caravan park. When we got there it quickly became evident that if the place was actually open, that it wasn’t going to be for us. As it was lunchtime, we doubled back to the only other sign of life which was a servo, just off the road. We had lunch and considered our options. Stay here: No. Go back to the free camp we saw, just cant remember how far back it was: No not really, or drive on the extra 103 km to Townsville. 

Definitely a yes, provided they had a space, which they did. So on and on we went, 470km in all and quite pleased to have made it. We have been to this park before and I had a ‘dislike’ in my head, but it turns out to be quite Ok, we even had a dip in the ‘heated’ pool. Not as warm as Airlie Beach, but quite refreshing after a long day in the car. Speaking of warm, we came back up to dry ourself off and sit in the sun next to the van, which was quite pleasant, right up until right now! The sun has dipped behind a tree and it’s instantly quite cool.