Dearest Rachel –
Morning in Airlie Beach, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. My excursion doesn’t start until almost half past ten, although they were starting to call off those with tender tickets shortly after seven. On the other hand, I’m still trying to juggle breakfast and a phone call from Lars, so I’m in no hurry to leave right away.
Still, I honestly thought that getting a tender over with an hour and a half to spare would be plenty of time to wander around town before the excursion. What I didn’t count on was the fact that the ship terminal wasn’t anywhere near the town proper. They had free shuttles running into town (which is never a guarantee), but by the time they got there, I wouldn’t have a whole lot of time to wander about before I’d need to hop another one back and catch up with my tour. So I found myself too early for my tour, but too late to check out the town.
This is the kind of thing one deals with when one isn’t as prepared as one should be, I suppose.
Then again, there are some things you can’t quite prepare for, such as the weather. There was at least one short excursion that was canceled the day before, due to expected inclement weather; however, by the time we were waiting at the docks to board our bus, not only is the sun out, but it’s beating down pretty severely. The air-conditioning of the coach is actually quite welcome.
We pause to take pictures overlooking the harbor at our driver’s recommendation, but as we step out, he notes with some dismay that there are clouds rolling in. Guess that weather that the other tour group took into consideration when canceling may still be an issue. Granted, not so much for us, as we are on land, but it would be rather galling to lose out on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef only to be confronted with a bright sunshiny day on the day that your trip would have been.
As we drive into and through the town, our driver explains that there are 74 islands in the Whitsunday archipelago, with Whitsunday Island (home of Whitehaven Beach, with white sand that, supposedly, never gets hot) being the largest. One of the other islands, Hamilton, hosts several five-star resorts, but it’s not the only one; I discovered later that my balcony overlooks Long Island, and I can see the Palm Bay resort from there.
The driver talks about home prices in Airlie Beach and Cannonvale (where he lives, just to the north). They start at A$350K, with mountain and ocean views causing that to rise considerably from there. Granted, a house of similar size in Greater Sydney would start at twice that. And he would know, having retired to the Whitsundays from Sydney. It does pose issues with regard to health care; the local (and by ‘local,’ I’m talking a fifteen, twenty minute drive to Proserpine) hospital is really only a triage hospital. For major operations, one has to drive two hours south to McCoy, or three hours north to Townsville (yes, that’s its name).
I was of the understanding that Proserpine was only a historical sugar plantation; it turns out that sugar is still the leading industry in the Whitsunday region, with tourism coming in second. Australia supplies much of Southeast Asia with sugar, in fact.
The local historical society has a museum of the history of Proserpine and the Whitsunday Islands; you’d see it like the one in Put-In-Bay, but larger and better organized. There’s a quaint, homespun nature to it that’s really quite charming.
There’s a fair amount to see, but even at a leisurely pace, we’re through it in half an hour, and waiting for our driver to return… or so we think. It turns out, he’s parked and waiting for us. It did seem a little soon for him to be needing to take a mandated break, especially since we’d be returning to “downtown” Airlie Beach in barely an hour. But as it’s ‘only’ noon, and we won’t be leaving until 12:15, I’m once again too early to climb aboard. Then again, with the sun beating down upon us, an air conditioned coach seems like just the thing I’m in need of.
And to be honest, I’m not the only one. Within five minutes of hopping on, the bus is almost full, and we’re ready to head back just ever so slightly early. Sure, it was an enjoyable trip, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. Then again, sometimes, ‘spectacular’ isn’t what’s called for.
As we drive back towards Airlie Beach, our driver talks about how vast Australia is. I will occasionally make jokes about European tourists coming to America and thinking they can visit Disneyland as long as they’re in Washington, DC, since it’s all the same country, but Oz ramps this situation up on steroids. I mentioned the distance he would have to go just to get to a decent hospital (and he admits, “you just pray you stay healthy”); but it’s hard to comprehend the distance between reasonably-sized cities. At home, we have Chicago in our backyard (granted, Chicagoans themselves would see it the other way around), with reasonably large places like Milwaukee and Madison only a couple hours away. From here, Cairns is a drive of eight hours (which would get us past St. Louis), and Brisbane would take eleven hours (which passes Nashville, or Kansas City). And bear in mind that this is all just in the state of Queensland; there’s still the rest of the continent to cover.
Meanwhile, it’s not as if there are many exit options; there’s only one road out of Airlie Beach into the interior, and only one lane either way. If a traffic jam happens (like, say, an accident), you’re out of luck for an indeterminate length of time. It’s almost unfathomable
At the same time, it’s got incredible weather here. Winter is the best time to be here (which, I need to remind you, is between June and August). There’s not much rain, or even humidity, while it stays above 25 degrees Celsius throughout. If you could get used to its remote nature, it’d be a beautiful place to live.
A few more blocks down the way, I was let out of the bus to wander around, with what felt like too little time (and too much cash to get rid of), and I suppose it would be easier to show you all that, rather than to tell you about it at this point.
Anyway, by now, we’re about to be arriving by Yorkeys Knob, so I’ll need to let you go. As always, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 