Coral Beach

Another beautiful day. Another bushwalk and a beach swim... at Conway Conservation Park and Airlie Beach.

Ern is super chillaxed with Daph-organised day trips now, not even questioning where we were going or whether the drive would be treacherous. It wasn’t. But the caravan park wasn’t the best choice.

Daph decided to pick an unpowered site this time. In previous parks, we had found that the unpowered sites were usually the better spots, situated in a peaceful corner away from the hustle and bustle of families with noisy kids. But pulling into our spot, we were serenaded by the jet engines of a scenic flight, whose runway was situated smack bang on the other side of the twelve-foot fence, which was our view from the Kombi back window. Great. Not the most conducive backdrop for peace and quiet.

Then the young Israeli guy parked on the next site came over for a chat about our awesome set-up. He proceeded to tell us that all his friends were meeting here tonight for a party to celebrate an Israeli national holiday. Great. Peace and quiet, completely out the window.

Then the youngest member of the family on the other side of us decided he wasn’t happy. He let the whole park know about it by grizzling as loud as he could until he finally fell asleep at around 8.30 p.m. *Deep sigh.

It wasn’t an all-bad evening. The Israelis weren’t offensive. Their party was quite subdued. Must have been the marijuana. Daph and Ern declined the invitation to share a toke and instead spent the evening searching the night sky for UFOs and pondering the wonder of infinite space and time.

The following morning, we waved goodbye to our weary-eyed neighbours and set off for a bushwalk through Conway Conservation Park to Coral Beach, a beach literally made of coral. As beautiful as it was, Daph felt like they were walking through a graveyard of bones. The humidity here is increasing as we move closer to Summer, and Daph was desperate for a swim after the walk. But the coral underfoot was just too uncomfortable for her f**ked feet.

So, we drove the short distance to Boathaven Beach, where the sand was soft and the water was delicious. Despite the ego-driven posers with their doof-doof music on loudspeaker (because everybody wants to hear your shit music, right?!), Daph and Ern enjoyed a refreshing frolic in the water before heading “home”. Home for the next week only, as this is the last working week of our stay here in Mackay.

Next weekend, we will be packing up the Kombi for the long journey back to our real home.