Golf Buggies and good times (Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island)



I’m writing this one at anchor, bobbing around outside the Coral Sea Marina in Airlie Beach.
We’ve been here for a while, Charlie having left us a week or so ago..
I’m warning you now, I’m going to miss great swathes of what went on, as I’m writing this some time after the fact.
After returning from Maggie, we had a wiggle round the Whitsundays - as delightful as ever, but we were basically killing time until Charlie turned up.
We headed back over to Airlie to get into the marina a day or so before his arrival.
He flew up business class, using some of Chez’s Qantas points to get here and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
In summary - the time he spent with us was wonderful, chaotic and tiring. Here’s some snippets of what went on;
Both Chez and Charlie both badly seasick in windy rolly conditions enroute across to the islands. We remained fairly boat bound for the first day or so, but made up for it when we arrived at Hamilton Island - hiring a golf buggy and sedately whizzing (yes both!) around the island’s attractions: scenery, pools, pub, and restaurant - it’s nice to go to a developed island for a change, and to see how the other half live, but for the ludicrous amount of money you pay, the marina could have tried harder.
Traitors Ireland was on while Charlie was with us, and the three of us all thoroughly enjoyed watching that.
Today (26th Sept) after a sweaty fairly steep walk in the hills behind Airlie, Chez decided enough was enough and made an appointment to see a chiropractor. Her back hasn’t been right since that so and so Bishop Brennan cocked it up for her so many years ago. Happy to report that after 20mins behind a closed door with the chiropractor - with various grunts and groans coming from the other side, she emerged, with a spring in her step that I hadn’t seen for many months.
We remained in Airlie, waiting for the wind to change. This allowed Chez to continue her visits to the chiropractor/magician who fixed her aches and pains with a couple of clicks and groans every other day or so.
I’ve suggested that I could probably do the same spine adjustments for her if needs be, but she’s got concerns about being paralysed - she’s no fun!
Our time here in Airlie, as Cairns did last year, has over time fallen into something of a rough routine:
We take the tender to shore at the Coral sea marina public dock. Walk in the baking hot sun along the boardwalk into town. Couple of clicks at the chiropractor, then off to McDonalds for breakfast (the Monopoly promotion is on again). From there, Woolies to top up the provisions. Back out of town passing the lagoon, the backpacker carpark, and the Coral Sea Resort (where we occasionally grab a sneaky swim and a shower). This is done by brandishing the Coral Sea Marina lanyards we retained from our brief marina stay, and breezing in as if we own the place). Then it’s back to the dingy passing throngs of excited daytrippers getting ready for their day of getting sunburnt in the islands. Then back to the little public dock, top up our containers with water from the drippy tap. I then spend an uncomfortable few minutes trying to coax our outboard into life - it’s an attention seeking piece of shit - always works fine eventually, but likes to make me sweat and swear before it eventually goes back to purring like a kitten!
4th Oct: We’ve actually left Airlie (for now), and headed around the corner to a secluded bay a few miles away (Woodward bay), this is to provide some protection from a forecast blow due to hit over the next few days.. for now though (as I write this) it’s a peaceful empty bay which we have to ourselves - lucky really as we quite enjoy walking around naked when it’s this hot.
The blow did come - nasty gusty bullets of wind howling down at us over the next few days. That passed, and we headed back round to Airlie for one final set of clicks from the chiropractor.
..and tomorrow at dawn: after a long enjoyable stay in Airlie, we’re off. We’ll be leaving with quite some affection for the place. The constant flow of excited holidaymakers, backpackers and sunseeekers keeps the little town a-buzz with a happy vibe all its own.

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