Friday 17th July
And we're off! Over the past 6 months I've researched beaches, tide charts, camping grounds, food ideas and more, and now it was time for Chris, Fe, Guy & I to board the Tiger Airways flight to Mackay. Picking up the 4WD hire car, we drove to Mackay supermarket to do the shopping for 6 people for 6 days as the tiny supermarket in Airlie Beach just wouldn't cut it (although we did later find that there is a large supermarket in Cannonvale - 10mins down the road from Airlie). As we piled all the shopping on top of our packs for the 2hr drive to Airlie Beach, we were glad that we didn't choose the small hatch-back car as it wouldn't have all fit in.
Arriving at Backpackers by the Bay, we checked into our private 4-bed dorm, met up with the other two members of our crew - Karen & John - and competed in the hostel's Quiz Night where the grand prize is a $3 bottle of bubbly! After our glorious win, we celebrated in style with an amazing dinner at the Airlie Thai Restaurant. Highly recommended! Our night got even better when a lovely old man gave us a bottle of Oyster Bay so we could him him celebrate his birthday.
Saturday 18th July
A morning of wandering around the lagoon and shops with all the other tourists, our afternoon took us for a ride on the local bus out to Shute Harbour for our safety briefing with Salty Dog Sea Kayaking. We were given a pile of dry bags which we took back to the hostel and started sorting all of our gear & food. It all became a bit overwhelming as we tried to remember how many pieces of salami we allocated per person person per lunch, or how many cups of powdered milk were needed for breakfast! (the kayaks were going to have so much weight in them, we needed to be this specific). But, along the next few days we found that by packing each of our lunches and dinners into individual bags proved to be very worthwhile
How to climb into this adventure:
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And we're off! Over the past 6 months I've researched beaches, tide charts, camping grounds, food ideas and more, and now it was time for Chris, Fe, Guy & I to board the Tiger Airways flight to Mackay. Picking up the 4WD hire car, we drove to Mackay supermarket to do the shopping for 6 people for 6 days as the tiny supermarket in Airlie Beach just wouldn't cut it (although we did later find that there is a large supermarket in Cannonvale - 10mins down the road from Airlie). As we piled all the shopping on top of our packs for the 2hr drive to Airlie Beach, we were glad that we didn't choose the small hatch-back car as it wouldn't have all fit in.
Arriving at Backpackers by the Bay, we checked into our private 4-bed dorm, met up with the other two members of our crew - Karen & John - and competed in the hostel's Quiz Night where the grand prize is a $3 bottle of bubbly! After our glorious win, we celebrated in style with an amazing dinner at the Airlie Thai Restaurant. Highly recommended! Our night got even better when a lovely old man gave us a bottle of Oyster Bay so we could him him celebrate his birthday.Saturday 18th July
A morning of wandering around the lagoon and shops with all the other tourists, our afternoon took us for a ride on the local bus out to Shute Harbour for our safety briefing with Salty Dog Sea Kayaking. We were given a pile of dry bags which we took back to the hostel and started sorting all of our gear & food. It all became a bit overwhelming as we tried to remember how many pieces of salami we allocated per person person per lunch, or how many cups of powdered milk were needed for breakfast! (the kayaks were going to have so much weight in them, we needed to be this specific). But, along the next few days we found that by packing each of our lunches and dinners into individual bags proved to be very worthwhileHow to climb into this adventure:
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- to get to Airlie Beach, you can either:
- fly Tiger to Mackay and hire a car from just outside the airport;
- fly Jetstar/Virgin to Hamilton Island and catch a ferry
- fly Qantas to Prosperpine and catch a shuttle
- you can hire your kayaks and related gear from Neill & Hayley at Salty Dog Sea Kayaking. We made up our own itinerary, but you can also do tours with them.
- we decided to do main meals as a group, negotiating on what each person liked to eat (we each organised our own snacks). We made a list of exactly what we needed to buy BEFORE we walked into the supermarket which made things a lot quicker and easier in the isles
Nice blog Kim!
Karen