frangipani
... and little creeks.
We decide to take a little detour and stop at the Teemburra
Dam lake. Some folks out fishing, but mostly local
wildlife like herrons and ducks ...
We arrive at the Eungella picnic area to
discover that the info desk is closed on Sundays, but the
infosheet in the local store should be enough to help us 'not
get lost'.
We have a deliscious locally grown coffee and the lady at
the counter apologises for the nasty flies. Swarms of the
pesky buggers hanging around you when you step outside ;-)
We first head towards to platypus lookout platform. Eungella
is famous for being an excellent place to spot these elusive
critters ... but our timing is off. The best time of day to
spot them is at dusk or dawn. Too bad ...
We then start off with the 'Rainforest Discovery' walk (1
km), near the picnic area. It is obvious that they are suffering
from the drought here too ... The rainforest doesn't look
as lush as it should this time of year.
After that little stroll we head down to the 'Palm Cove'
walk (2 km). Here you walk through a fabulous part of palm
rainforest (Piccabeen and Alexandra palms), another type of
rainforest, quite different from Lamington. Along the road,
walking back to the car, are also big fern trees which look
prehistoric.
Our next stop here is the 'Sky Window' lookout point, offering
you a nice view of Pioneer Valley and the surrounding hills,
with signs telling you about the different Aboriginal tribes
who used to live here.
On our way from Eungella to Airlie Beach we decide to take
the Mirani-Mount Osa road (which would take us back to Bruce
Highway), giving us more of a countryside feeling. The road
is a single lane for both directions, but on this strech of
45 km we only passed one car.
Back on Bruce Highway, it's only another 70 km to Airlie
Beach, so we arrive again around 3:00 at the Mango
House resort. Our room is a small studio, with a kitchenette
and even washing and drying machines. Very nice! We head back
to town centre and have a stroll around. This time of year
there are several festivitites in town. We missed the fireworks
on friday, and the Rotary Street Procession on saturday (yesterday)
where community groups costumed in full colour fishy trimmings
parade up and down the road and a BBQ and party at night.
But today sunday is the 'Whitsunday Food and Wine
festival' where you can sample well over 100 Australian
wines and the best local restaurants. We have ourselfs a drink
and a small bite (pizza with prawns).
There's only a small stretch of beach here (again you can't
swim because of stinger danger), but there is a free Lagoon
swimming pool where the local folks hang out. Walking around
we keep our eyes open for a place to have dinner later on.
We also got a bottle of white aussie wine for today or tomorrow.
Airlie Beach is a bustling little seaside town, with a lot
of young people being cool. A nice little town. Driving back
to the hotel, we first got up to a lookout point for a sunset
on the Whitsunday Islands, but the sun sets on land, not at
sea...
We decided to go to the Village Deli restaurant, opposite
the Australia Post shop, after freshening up in the hotel.
We pick a 6 course tapas: Thai fish cakes with chilli mint
dressing, grilled whiting fillets with bruschetta, pinenut
and mint lamb cutlets with chutney, delicious dips and flatbread,
fried chorizo with baba ganoush, and nori rolls with japanese
garnishes. It sounds exotic and it was deliscious but way
too much! (Seems we didn't learn our lesson in Brisbane -
La La Lounge) Mixed with a bottle of white wine... Time to
get back to the hotel, next day it's sailing and snorkling!
Sleep tight,
JJ & Radica
|
Itinerary
Sydney
