Airlie Beach

Airlie Beach was a sleepy place on Sunday afternoon. The main shopping
street is made up of bars, restaurants, travel agencies and the occasional
retail shop selling holiday items. It was quite busy as we passed through
on Saturday afternoon but perhaps most of the holiday makers were sleeping
off their Saturday night still on Sunday afternoon.

The beach was all but deserted - stingers are a problem in this area also
during the stinger season but not at this time of the year. There is a
man-made lagoon on the foreshore which was a very popular venue and it
seemed that all the holiday makers who weren't sleeping were down there. We
waded in the water for a bit and it was quite warm but as the temperatures
here are much lower than we have had recently I didn't think it warm enough
to go swimming. We have gone from 32-36 degrees in Darwin, to 27 in
Townsville and now 24-25 in Airlie Beach - far to cool to go swimming! The
lagoon has varying depths from a few centimetres to two metres so caters for
all ages and capabilities and is certainly a popular activity with the life
guard on duty to assist as necessary.

We eventually wandered back to the car which was parked on the Esplanade
just as they were setting up the band for the live afternoon entertainment.
There are a number of restaurants opening on to the esplanade and it was a
lovely spot to finish our afternoon.