Australian Vacation - Day 9
Mission Beach - Airlie Beach
Got our breakfast made by the couple running the small hotel in Mission Beach. They moved out of Sydney a few years ago and started running their own Bed and Breakfast and also have 4 kids to boot. There are only 3 bungalows on the property, which were really nice. They had a pet parrot that once on your hand would immediately make his way up to your shoulder, just to give you that pirate look you were always looking for. After breakfast got in the car and made our way along the Queensland coast.
The drive itself is pretty nice, the highway doesn’t run along the coast exactly but it’s pretty hilly, with a mix of tropical forest and plains. Definitely not the same scenery we’d have back home so it was interesting enough. For such a warm climate on arable land in a developed country, I was amazed how few people live in North Queensland. The entire area is serviced by a quasi highway that slows down to 60 or 80 in a lot of places and it’s only 1 lane in each direction. Almost everyone drives the speed limit or close to it. There are virtually no cops around but they use speed cameras in some places. They have a lot of cane sugar farms, interspersed with tiny boring towns that have seen better days.
After about 7 hours of driving we got into Airlie Beach. This used to be a quiet hippie town only a few years ago but the landscape is definitely changing. Vacationers are making their way to the area more and more so there’s a lot of high end development going in. Case in point is our lodging in the area, the #1 place on trip advisor, Summit apartments. Our condo is massive and amazing. It’s on the outskirts of town, although the town is still small, but the view is great cause we’re up on a hill. Place comes with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen with everything in it. So we went grocery shopping and bought food for a few meals to save some money.
The grocery store was pretty normal, something of a cross between an English grocery store and a Canadian one. I’ve come to realize that Toronto has some of the best grocery stores in the world, in terms of quality and selection, although I’m sure my opinion is biased based off my palate. Had an early night watching Bear Grylls try to make his way out of the Sahara in Man vs Wild. That guy is awesome!
