Day 56 Ayr to Airlie Beach

I had good intentions to sleep last night, and worked tirelessly to get the blog up, but didn't manage to get to bed until after 1230am.  I drifted into a deep and blissful sleep that was shattered by the dog raiding the metal bin outside our van at 0400.  Who has metal bins still?  There is a reason we did away with them.  Anyhow, I was just drifting back to sleep when the rain came pouring down.  Remembering our shoes, towels and chairs were all outside and uncovered, prompted me to get out of bed and sort things out before everything was soaked.  As you can imagine, getting back to sleep was fun after running around in the rain.

Anyhow, my sook aside, we had a shortish drive today from Ayr to Airlie Beach.  On the way out of town, we came across this BIG snake.  As we are now in the habit of photographing as many BIG things as we can, this was a must stop.  The snake is a monument to the Ancestors of the Birriguba Tribe which had inhabited this area as far back as 40,000 years ago. 

This guy was as good a place as any to start this morning.

We travelled South out of Ayr, through the vast sugar cane fields that are standing very tall and ready to harvest.  The land is criss-crossed with narrow gauge railway to move the cane from field to refinery in the shortest possible time.  We learnt today that the sugar cane grown here is some of the fastest photosynthesising material in the world.  The cane regenerates for 3-10 cycles after harvest before replanting is required which is done with 40cm cuttings of cane buried in the soil.  The growth is 9-12 months for full yield in the region, so very efficient as a crop. 

Just out of Ayr is the current longest bridge in Australia at 1003m span.  It traverses the Burdekin River, and has been affectionately named the Silver Link Bridge.  This is the new bridge as the river is wide and fast flowing.  The old bridge pylons are still standing in the water many meters below the level of this functional but horribly ugly piece of engineering.  Wikipedia tells me that this bridge will be eclipsed by a new one being built as part of the Pacific Hwy in NSW to be opened in 2013, so unlucky Ayr.


From the bridge we made good time down to Bowen which we know now from the back seat rhymes with Rowan...500 times.  In Bowen, we were able to get a glimpse of the BIG Mango.  I was looking for the BIG Ice cream to go with it, but as one of my friends pointed out already, there is an ant in this one.  Booooo!

We didn't stop for long here, and continued the drive down to Airlie Beach.  The caravan park here is very nice, although horribly expensive, but they have given us a free upgrade to en suite site...HOORAY!.

Rowan went exploring on his scooter and knocked skin off his foot, ankle, knee and hands before hobbling back to the caravan to have his blood mopped up and bandaids applied.  We decided that was a good enough excuse to stop for lunch so we all sat and ate.  Lisa and I finished our lunch and took a load of washing to the laundry to get it started whilst the kids finished eating.  Rowan appeared at the laundry and we chastised him for not eating his lunch, and sent him back (On his scooter again) to the caravan. 

Lisa and I walked down to the pool for a quick look and then went up the next street to head back to the caravan where we found a nice lady having a talk to our boy.  As soon as he saw us he burst into tears squealing about the blood and pain and how he couldn't walk.  Rowan was carried back to the van bleeding from the other ankle with the other knee scuffed and more grazes on his hands.  More mopping, cream and bandaids applied, and we decided to go into Airlie Beach for a quick look around before the day disappeared completely.

Airlie Beach is very pretty, with a huge marina on one side of the peninsula, and the town nestled on the other. There is a lovely esplanade along the bay and a public pool / lagoon for swimming although the weather is pretty poor right now.

We had a bit of a stroll along the foreshore before heading back to the caravan so that the kids could go for a swim. 



Now, I remember being a kid, and having some common sense when it came to freezing water.  I do admit once I went swimming in Lake Tahoe in USA, which is a glacial melt lake and I can assure you that it was cold, but Lisa and I needed tracksuit and jacket on to go to the pool to supervise our children playing. 

I am going to have to accept defeat on this one because Ashley and Emma stayed in the pool for an hour and a half before being dragged back to the caravan after dark. 

Rowan did his usual trick of changing to a purple icicle, so I brought him back earlier for a hot shower and got dinner cooking.  Tomorrow is Emma's birthday and we are cruising out to Daydream Island, and Whitehaven Beach, so I hope the sun puts in an appearance for the day.  We have stocked up on Travelcalm.