From Cooktown we travelled south inland through the Atherton Tablelands and then down the coast, passing through Tully and Townsville. We had overnight stops at Flying Fish Point near Innisfail south of Cairns and at Ayr, before arriving at beautiful Airlie Beach overlooking the stunning Whitsunday Islands. We stayed here for two days, taking a boat trip around a few of the 74 islands in the Whitsunday group. We snorkeled over the colourful and varied corals on the fringes of Hook Island and spent a couple of hours on Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. This beach is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest with tropical blue waters lapping along 7 km of pure white sand.Airlie Beach was teeming with overseas visitors, particularly young English people, and the hotels were pulsating after dark. We had been carrying a tent in the car as back-up accommodation and we decided to pitch it in a park next to the beach. But we hadn’t counted on the late night revelry of the many backpackers in the park in their tents and campers, or their post-midnight phone calls back home to Mum in England. One young woman in a camper van next to us breathlessly and loudly recounted to her Mum her day’s adventure skydiving, and then repeated the whole detailed story in turn to the five or so other relatives who seemed to be on the other end of the line in England. But her genuine excitement was infectious and it was nice to hear what a great time she was having in Australia, so all was forgiven and I quietly put the tyre lever down. Eventually silence fell across the park, allowing us to get to sleep.
