There was nothing to stop us from leaving for our Christmas/New Year holiday. The bathroom renovation is taking care of itself at "Paringa", the storage shed roller door is now installed, the reversing cameras have been fitted to the caravan and the "Saltwater" renovation is completed. So, off we set.
We have no particular place to be apart from Christmas at Toowoomba with mum and New Year at "Evergreen" with son. We have a few friends scattered around Queensland that we want to catch up with but they are all pretty flexible with times. We are on a wait-list to have the van serviced at the place where we bought it at Bennetts Green (Newcastle), so we will probably head down to New South Wales to be close in case they have an opening. We never thought that the service department would be booked out until February, but knowing the number of people purchasing caravans, it doesn't surprise us at all.
We were on the road by 9am on Monday. It is always a bit of a shuffle to get the caravan out of our storage shed as the garden maintenance business beside us has lots of vehicles parked in just about all the available parking bays and we need a lot of room to exit!
Our first stop on our journey south was at the Babinda Bakery where we picked up a loaf of bread straight from their oven and of course the absolutely compulsory cream buns. We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop and throughly enjoyed our salad sandwich, nectarine (that was not nice) and of course the cream bun. We hardly felt like moving but we really wanted to get to Rollingstone the first night so we pushed on.
Rollingstone has an excellent van park right on the beachfront and we have stayed here numerous times. The new management team where very helpful and they suggested that for $25 for two years, we join the Discovery/Top Caravan Park Group. So far so good as we have already saved our membership!
We quickly set up the van and didn't even need to un-hitch as there were very few people in the park. A walk along the beach is a must do at Rollingstone so we set off. Even high tide didn't stop us as we strolled along the beach looking at the interesting shells and coral. We very rarely see shells or coral at either Palm Cove or Port Douglas beaches and I don't really know why. It would have something to do with the tide flow I imagine. Back at our camp it was showers, a couple of games of Backgammon, and straight to bed where we watched TV for a short while before a deep sleep overtook us.
Next morning we decided that we would only drive as far as our lunch stop each day. This would give us around five-six hours of drive time or 300-400 km, and really that is as much as we need to do in a day. That way we can enjoy a late lunch and then a short nanny nap before we go exploring. Today our journey took us through some very parched country with lots of fires around the Bowen area. I hope the wet season comes early to water this dry country. It desperately needs it.
Our stop today was Airlie Beach and we have decided to stay here two nights. The first time we visited the Whitsundays was on our honeymoon in 1978. My parents had very generously given Philip and I a week on Hayman Island as a wedding present. The next time we visited was with my youngest sister and her husband some thirty odd years ago. Back then it was still a relatively sleepy little area with magnificent beaches and Islands. Of course the magnificent island and beaches have not changed but the area has been developed beyond belief! Of course we have said this of lots of places and it is a sign of our age that we rememberer what they used to be like. Having said that though, we are in love all over again with Airlie Beach. At this time of the year there is hardly anyone around and we pretty much have the run of the Island Gateway van park. I dare say when school holidays start it will be a different matter.
Today we drove to Cannonvale to purchase a couple of things for the van and then we headed to the stinger net on the man-made beach at Port of Airlie. It is one of the largest stinger nets we have ever swum in and Philip enjoyed lapping up and down. As for me, well, I'm just a whale....
We are tossing whether to stay another night but our friends in Tannum Sands are waiting for us so we will head off again tomorrow. Have no fear though because Airlie Beach is high on our list of places to return to so we will be back as soon as possible.
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