Australia, Narelle's recollection
Great Barrier Reef, March-April 2003
Our big trip to oz included a week at the Great Barrier Reef. We started from the Gold Coast and drove for fourteen hours over two days.
Four hours drive north of Brisbane, it had been a long time since we saw any sign of civilisation, aside from the occasional farm, amongst hundreds of kilometres of bush and nothingness. This 'honesty box' banana truck was the first thing we saw. We bought a bag of Lady Finger Bananas for $2. Not as cheap as on the Gold Coast, but loads cheaper than Britain and they were definitely fresh and delicious.
For our 5 night/6 day holiday, we booked into a newly built self-catering flat called Toscana Village Resort. It cost the equivalent of a weekend staying at a B&B (for two people) in Glen Coe, Scotland and our room overlooked the ocean. We could see Hayman Island in the distance! Toscana was a really nice place to stay and I would thoroughly recommend it. Our villa was high up in the hills with stunning views. We even had a BBQ on the balcony one lunch!
We stayed on the mainland at Airlie Beach, overlooking the Whitsunday Islands. Airlie Beach is a small town in an area called Proserpine and is a haven for backpackers from all over the world. And whilst it's a great spot, location wise, the backpacker trade has dragged the place down a lot. Many of the shops advertise hangover cures (be it breakfast burgers, Hawaiian Shave Ice, or the Chemist) and the outdoor Beer Gardens are overflowing with sunburnt 20 something year olds getting drunk from around 4pm until 3am.
One of the drawbacks of holidaying in North Queensland, Australia, during summer is that the stingers are out, meaning you can't swim in the beaches (unless you fancy being killed by a Box Jellyfish sting.) Airlie Beach Council's answer to that was to put in a big lagoon overlooking the beach, so that you can still swim.
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos were everywhere in Airlie Beach, and we spotted some as we walked down the hill from our resort towards the main street. The cockatoos were gathering red berries from the palm trees and then flying over to the other side of the road to eat them in the gum trees.
We went on two day trips on a Maxi-Action Yacht, sailing one day to Blue Pearl Bay, where Yves did some Scuba Diving, and the next to Whitehaven Beach. The Maxi Yacht used to race in the Sydney to Hobart race.
On the way back we stopped for breakfast at Le Café (352A Esplanade, Scarness, Hervey Bay, 4655) which had beautiful French toast.(Note from Yves: Now why would they call it that? We don't have anything remotely equivalent in France. I say they should call it Freedom Toasts.)
