loveliness.

Live, travel, adventure, bless and don't be sorry.
loveliness.
  • Home
  • about
  • travel
    • Australia
    • Cambodia
    • Canada
    • Indonesia
    • Singapore
    • Mexico
    • Philippines
    • Thailand
    • USA
      • Arizona
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
      • Hawaii
      • Montana
      • New York
      • Oregon
      • Washington
  • loveliness
  • books
  • favourites
  • Tag: airlie beach

    • whitsundays

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 23, 2014

      A few more shots of the Whitsundays, just because I really can’t get over the colour of that water.

      The first two pictures are of the amazing beach that you always see pictures of when anyone is talking about the Whitsundays, where the sand and the water look like they are swirling together into an underwater river.

      It’s not quite impressive when not seen from the air, but it’s still pretty stunning.

      We also did a cruise around the islands one day, and that picture of us was taken by a couple in their 70’s who had been married for most of their lives, and were traveling the world together. They were having so much fun with each other, laughing and joking the whole time, even when huge waves were coming over the side and we were all getting soaked.

      They asked me to take some pictures of them so they could send them to their grandchildren, and they told us that we made a really cute couple. I wanted to tell them that they were the cutest couple I’ve ever seen, but I was worried that it would sound insincere, so I didn’t say anything, but I wish I had.

      DSC_2866

      DSC_2863

      DSC_2784

      DSC_2778

      DSC_2747

      DSC_2749

      DSC_2752

      DSC_2742

      Posted in Australia, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, beaches, travel, whitsunday, whitsunday islands
    • low tide

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on October 20, 2014

      During low tide in Airlie Beach, which happens around noon (and then presumably again at some point during the night, but I wasn’t generally in any condition to investigate this) the water goes out hundreds of meters, leaving a very wide beach, tons of tide pools, and access to some small islands on foot.

      At first, I was just wandering along the beach looking in the tide pools, but then I decided to brave the unknown and walk out to the island that was quite far out, but walkable at that moment. I was a bit worried that I would get out there just as the tide was rushing back in and I’d be trapped out there for the next 12 hours, but I must have read Baby Island a hundred times when I was young, and it gave me (probably false) confidence in my ability to survive alone on a desert island.

      whitsunday islands

      whitsunday islands

      I started squelching my way out there, it got very muddy after awhile, and even though it was only about 6 inches of water, I was convinced there was one of those sharks that blend into the bottom to lure innocent fish waiting for me to step on it. Again, why someone with such a rampant phobia of sharks spends so much time around the ocean is really anybody’s guess.

      whitsunday islands

      whitsunday islands

      I finally made it out there, with both ankles intact which was no small feat when you consider the mud I had to slog through, followed by the millions of slippery, jagged rocks that made up the rest of the path, and started to investigate, keeping an eye out for any signs of buried treasure or Tom Hanks.

      As far as I could tell there was only one other person out there, a middle-aged German lady who had followed me to the island. I thought it was courageous of her to trust me, a perfect stranger in a floral print onesie, not to lead her into certain doom, but there we were.

      whitsunday islands

      whitsunday islands

      Just as I was turning the corner beside the first mandrake, an older Australian gentleman poked his head around the tree and cheerfully announced that there was a dead tiger shark on the island, just up the way, and then continued strolling along back towards the beach.

      I passed the message along to my new German friend, but instead of turning around and heading the other way, she got very excited and rushed off to find it. Even though I really didn’t want to try to find the shark (it was probably dead, if it was, in fact, on the island, but it could have been an elaborate ruse) I felt sort of responsible for her being out there in the first place, so I went along with her.

      whitsunday islands

      We walked all the way down to the other end of the island along the rocks, searching for the shark, but we couldn’t find it, although at one point we both noticed a putrid smell, but we couldn’t see where it was coming from. I think we were both looking for a small animal washed up right along the water.

      We were about halfway back to where I’d met the man, when all of a sudden she stopped and and gasped and pointed at something wedged in the mandrakes.

      whitsunday islands

      It turned out to be a massive, dead shark, and also the source of the smell we hadn’t been able to place earlier. It was really scary, and also really sad.

      After that my companion and I parted ways. I crept around the island a bit more, but once there are sharks in trees all bets are kind of off, so I was too jumpy to explore by myself for much longer, and I started the long, muddy journey back to the main beach, checking carefully for buried sharks before each step.

      whitsunday islands

      Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, islands, low tide, sharks, Whitsundays
    • airlie beach: whitsundays

      Posted at 6:28 pm by jasminedesirees, on October 16, 2014

      We spent almost a week in Airlie Beach, and I loved every minute of it. It was so beautiful there, it was kind of like a dream.

      airlie beach

      airlie beach

      It actually really felt like a dream because to get to Airlie Beach, you have to drive down this quiet highway through small farming communities, it actually really reminded me of the small towns in Saskatchewan where I grew up.

      But then you take two rights, and drive 20 minutes past a field full of kangaroos, and emerge on a beautiful white sand beach and turquoise sea.

      airlie beach

      airlie beach

      airlie beach

      We stayed at the Magnum’s Backpackers, and it was great. Magnum’s is right in the middle of town, so it’s really easy to walk everywhere, and it’s right beside the Woolworth’s, and it has a nice big kitchen, so we were able to save a lot of money by cooking almost all of our meals, rather than eating out.

      Also, they have live music almost every evening, and falling asleep to acoustic guitar music every night was lovely.

      airlie beach

      airlie beach

      We also did the Airlie Beach Pub Crawl one night, and it was actually really fun. We met a group of Aussies from Brisbane who were in Airlie on vacation, and a girl from Texas who was WOOFing in Australia on a chicken farm, and had a great time with all of them.

      airlie beach

      airlie beach

      Airlie Beach has a huge park along the water with a gigantic, free swimming pool for everyone to enjoy, and it has a walking/biking path that stretches 5 KM along the ocean. We rented bikes one day and cruised the boardwalk.

      DSC_2753

      DSC_2761

      DSC_2755

      We also found a hike that would take us up to the top of the hills to see the view of the Whitsundays, but we only made it about ten minutes in before we saw a snake on the path, and then we spun around and ran as fast as we could back the other way.

      DSC_2760

      DSC_2764

      Airlie Beach is a pretty small town, and it doesn’t have a lot of diving, so even though our original plan was to stay there and try to find jobs, we decided pretty quickly we wouldn’t be able to stay there long term, but our time there was amazing, and I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who is traveling through Australia.

      DSC_2765

      DSC_2766

      Posted in Australia, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged airlie beach, Australia, beaches, islands, Whitsundays
    •        
    • Follow loveliness. on WordPress.com
    • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    • Popular Posts

      • the wright house
      • whitehaven beach: whitsundays
      • lombok: kuta
      • loveliness
    • Recent Posts

      • half dome: part 2 (the climb)
      • half dome: part 1 (before)
      • favourites
      • queretaro
      • white sands
      • orange county
      • life update
      • news21
      • land’s end
      • big sur
    • Instagram

      No Instagram images were found.

    • Categories

    • Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×