Urs' Gap Year Blog: Airlie Beach

I broke the journey from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach in Rockhampton, which apparently is the beef cattle capital of Australia. There are certainly big sales yards and they were already advertising for the Beef Expo 2015. I arrived around lunch time, so took a little excursion to Mt. Etna National Park and had a look at the Capricorn Caves. They were quite different to the Buchan caves that I visited about four weeks ago. The Capricorn Caves are dry, so there are only very few stalactites and stalagmites and most of them are very old, formed when the cave was still wet. The other difference is that there are bats in the Capricorn Caves, which means that there is guano, which was mined in the last century and sold as fertiliser. These days the guano is still being accessed by some fig trees that grow above the caves and send their roots down into the caves' floor to get to the nutrients. Some of these roots are massive, coming down many metres through the cave. The main cavern in the caves is called the Cathedral Cave. It has been fitted out with pews and stepped stage for a choir. The cave has almost perfect acoustics and in November there is an Opera in the Cave weekend. We were treated to some recorded music by candle light as part of the tour. You can also book the cave for your wedding, it must be very romantic when lit up by hundreds of candles.

Candlelight in Cathedral Cave

Rockhampton has the appearance of a working town. There are large industrial areas, but I did take a walk into the town centre, where there are some nice colonial style buildings left.

Heritage Hotel in Rockhampton

On Friday morning I took advantage of a local windscreen repair shop to fix up a chip that I collected when a big truck chucked a big stone at me while I was doing a hundred km/h, which meant that I didn't get to Airlie Beach until late afternoon and couldn't do much sightseeing that day. On Saturday morning I walked from Cannonvale, where I stayed, into Airlie Beach along a new boardwalk that they built on the seashore. It was very overcast and started raining when I was about half way. In Airlie Beach I browsed through a market that sold everything from fresh fruit and veg, to crafts and even camel rides. When the main shopping street opened I went looking for some tours that I might take during my three day stay. I booked a half day fishing charter for Sunday and a full day sea kayak trip on Monday.

Airlie Beach was actually my first port of call when I immigrated into Australia back in 1989, because a Swiss friend of mine lived there. I took a stroll 100 metres up the hill from the main street to see whether the house he lived in still stands and was very surprised to find it in more or less the same shape; it is quite unique in its street, which is full of new developments like the rest of town, which is barely recognisable after 25 years.

9 Begley Street, where I stayed with a friend when I
first arrived in Australia

The centre of Airlie Beach is still dominated by backpacker hostels and the shops and nightclubs catering for their needs, but either side of the town are new marinas and luxury hotels that cater for a much more up-market type of tourist, which wasn't the case at all when I first arrived. Then all the upmarket places where out on the islands, with Hayman Island, where I worked for three months, being the most extravagant.

Abel Point Marina, I don't think these belong to backpackers

On Saturday afternoon the weather cleared up and I went for a walk via Mt. Rooper to Swampy Bay in the Conway National Park. The walk up to the top was very hot, with hardly a breath of air, but the views out over the islands were worth it. After the descent down into the denser rainforest it got markedly cooler. Swampy Bay wasn't swampy at all, it was a shingle beach with some mangroves and very clear water. There wasn't another soul in sight.

View from Mt Rooper across the Whitsunday Islands

Stepping from the rain forest onto Swampy Bay

Mt Rooper from Swampy Bay

The fishing charter on Sunday was like most of my fishing adventures and ended up with me feeding plenty of bait to the fish but not catching any. But then, none of the other four guys on the boat caught anything either, so it ended up being just a very pleasant cruise around the islands instead. After the trip I took a drive to Cedar Creek Falls, where there is a very refreshing natural swimming pool. After a very dry winter the falls themselves didn't run, but the pool was still very pleasant and it was nice and cool in the rain forest.

Not catching fish was not due to the lack of rods...

Saltwater Creek on the way to Cedar Creek Falls

Cedar Creek Falls

The sea kayaking trip on Monday was definitely the highlight of my stay in Airlie Beach. We set out from Shute Harbour in the morning and headed across to the West Side of South Molle Island, where we pulled up on a sandy beach and spent a couple of hours snorkelling, bush walking and eating lunch. After lunch we paddled from South Molle to a small rocky outcrop called White Rock, where we took another break. On the crossing we saw a sea turtle. On the way back from White Rock to Shute Harbour, between the Shute Islands, we spotted another couple of turtles. I love sea kayaking because you are so close to the water, able to get at one with the marine environment, and I find getting into a steady paddling rhythm almost hypnotising. There was a good bunch of people on the trip and our guide Amy was very knowledgeable about the area, plants and wildlife. I would highly recommend it if you want to get a bit of exercise and at the same time get a close encounter with the Whitsunday Islands.