We arrived in Airlie Beach at 3.30am and by the time we found our hostel – Magnums - and called security to let us in it was more like 4.30am – we were well ready for the sleep! Our room was part of a large wooden building set back from the main resort in the middle of a rainforest area – a beautiful canopy of palm trees. The only downsides were the insects and the rain had made the wooden building smell a bit damp. Some a/c soon sorted that out though! We were both surprised that we had slept through til 12pm! Half the day gone already!! Must have needed it though.
Airlie Beach is not a very big beach resort and is the hub for most of the Whitsunday boat trips. People tend to stay a night either side of the trip. However we kept bumping into more and more people that we knew. We thought this was very strange but we learnt that the buses were no longer running any further north of the town due to the flooding. There were even some towns further south that had been isolated by flood water. One bus had even tried to get through a flood and got stuck. The passengers had to climb out the sunroof and be rescued by boat – all their belongings in the bottom of the bus, totally immersed!! This meant that there was a congregation of people in the town all trying to get out! Our friends Lee and Jess were stuck in Agnes Water (south) and had to charter a 4 man airplane to fly them out otherwise they would have missed their Whitsunday trip and lost a lot of money! Also, a German brother and sister, Matias and Patricia (that we met in Fraser) spent 12 hours on a bus one day trying to get north, just to return back to Airlie Beach having made no progress at all! How frustrating! We were very lucky in not getting caught in any of this.
We spent the rest of the day at the manmade lagoon pool. You are not allowed to swim in the sea because of jellyfish that sting so bad that they will kill you! Not to mention the saltwater crocs and sharks! Whilst at the lagoon we bumped into a few more people who we had made friends with along the way!
Back at the hostel we treated ourselves to some 2 minute noodles and went to the hostel bar for a while. Jugs of beer were on special at $8 so it was rude not to really!
Gav had a quick catch up with his parents and then Amanda wanted to sample the local McDonalds... just to check if it was the same as everywhere else!! We both enjoyed the junk food!
On the walk back to the hostel Amanda saw something in the corner of her eye... there was a good sized brown snake slithering its way down the main street, just minding its own business!! It was the first proper wildlife we had seen in a built up area! A bit scary so we gave it a wide berth and heading to the hostel.
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