Party or Peace

As soon as we arrived in Airlie Beach, I had a funny feeling I wasn't going to like it here. It's been built up around the sailing on the Whitsundays but on the flip side has many bars and clubs open all hours catering for those just off the boats or going on to the boats.

Everyone we'd spoken to had horror stories of bedbugs, drunken fights and loud music so came here with some anxiety! We checked into Beaches, a large hostel that had a big bar underneath it and guess where we were staying - right above it!

However, the town itself was lovely. It had a lagoon for those times when the stingers prevented you from swimming that was lifeguarded, spacious and beautifully landscaped




We didn't go in but did sit overlooking the Lagoon and out to sea in a shelter from the sun. As you'll see below the weather was just glorious :)




Once checked in, we went off on a lovely walk to see the marina and sort out posting stuff back home and picking up our WWOOF book that Jan had sent from Brisbane. The next town along was Cannonvale, approx 3-4km away.



The walk took us along a purpose built board walk for tourists and residents to access the brand new apartments, some luxurious and other super luxurious. The views from the boardwalk looked something like this..



It was a beautiful day to walk and took most of the afternoon.

Whilst in Airlie, the second and decider "State of Origin" Rugby League match between QLD and NSW took place. The QLDers ran riot and thrashed NSW to win their record breaking 5th straight win. It was a great atmosphere in the bar below and changed my view of the place.

It turned out to be a quieter place than previously expected due to the winter months so the late noise didn't materialise, fortunately the bed bugs weren't to be seen and there was no drunken fights...

So can reliably and thankfully report that it was definitely Peace.