East Coast Australia... done!

Wednesday, December 08, 2010 Katie and Taylor
After skipping the worst of the thunderstorms we made it to Airlie Beach after an early morning wake up call from the mozzies. Airlie beach is the main jump off point for the Whitsunday Islands so we went to price up a trip and spend some time on the beach and in the sea. However you can't actually swim there as there are marine stingers everywhere and you can probably guess from their name they aren't too cuddly. Airlie Beach have compensated for the mass stingers by building a lagoon where you can swim stinger free and there's also a mini beach there for sunbathing. So after a day there we wen't out for free pizza and a few drinks before staying in our $10 a night hostel thanks to the Sydney Expo in Nov.. so had a reasonably cheap time in Airlie. The weather warnings were threatening severe thunderstorms so unfortunately it wasn't worth risking a trip to the Whitsundays, it's pretty expensive to do a trip there and with the thunderstorms we opted to head to Townsville a bit earlier and skip the Whitsundays.


As we headed to our most northerly point of our trip, Townsville, we drove through at least 3 seasons, skipping out on the snow. Passed by a big mango to go with our pineapple and banana and worked out what our plans were since the East Coast seems to be experiencing some weather problems this year... rain in the summer can you believe it!!? Unheard of!


Magnetic Island or Maggie as the locals call it is an island 20mins ferry ride from Townsville, we had hoped to visit the Koala Sanctuary and do a bit of snorkelling over there but once again the weather dealt us a blow. We didn't want to risk the weather so checked into a motel in Townsville for the night and worked out our plans for heading west instead into the ominously sounding "Red Centre". 


The next morning was spent exploring Townsville and climbed Castle Hill which is a short steep climb in the middle of the city, it's a monolith rock (like Ayers rock but just a tad smaller) and gave us stunning views over the city. Ofcourse the sporadic weather decided to give us blazing sunshine and roasting heat while we went up which made it rather uncomfortable but we made it, just a little lighter than when we started!


That's us finished the East coast and tonight we head inland towards Mount Isa before reaching Alice Springs in just over a week. We celebrated the last month on the East Coast with our final BBQ lunch on the beach this afternoon, and prepared Shelly for the journey to the centre of Australia. Loaded up on supplies, water, wine and tunes.....off we go!
Internet might be a little scarce in the centre - and by scarce I mean it costs a fortune when you do find it so we shall update when possible and be in touch when we find a McDonalds (where wifi is free and ice cream is 50cents!)
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