Current location: Nomads: Airlie Beach, laying by the pool
in a hammock to be 100% precise.
Favouring past experience, we decided to stay with Nomads
again in Airlie Beach, after 6 nights of straight camping, staying in a hostel
was the last thing I wanted to do, I longed for a fancy hotel with a bubble
bath and scented candles, just to restore myself from a lack of showers,
flushing toilets and hair straighteners ! Of course this wasn’t going to be the
case, however knowing that Nomads policy is to have an en suite bathroom in
most bedrooms, swayed me to believe that this would be the better choice &
the closest thing to luxury. And to my delight I was completely right, we were
booked into a six bed dorm, which are situated into little cottage looking
huts, in blocks of three. The hostel isn’t too busy, and I expect that the
reason for this is because the hostel down the road is a few dollars cheaper a
night. Due to the lack of people booking in, I assume, we have only had to
sleep one night with a full room, most nights have been just us two, which is
as you can imagine pure bliss! Complete with full access to an en suite modern
newly built bathroom, and separate toilet. The décor is mainly varnished timber
meshed with a mocha coloured paint, which makes a pleasant contrast to the
Nomads in Noosa, Rainbow beach and Noosa which had funky coloured paintings and
retro designs poorly put together on the walls. The ceiling is pyramid shaped
and has hard wood beams outlining which creates a spacious feeling and air
conditioning units are smartly placed to cool the entire room with a fan to
circulate the air, there are black steel framed bunk beds, however me and David
were booked into a double bunk, where there is a single at the top and a large
double sized bed at the bottom, apparently, it’s the only one available in the
whole hostel, so believe me did I thank my lucky stars that we were blessed
with such luxury. There is a communal
pool and volley ball area, and just down the path there is a bar with
reasonably priced drinks and pool tables, laundry facilities are convenient and
well-spaced, the kitchen area, I’ll admit is a little basic, however we haven’t
had a chance to use it just yet as we have been eating out most nights. I’ll
admit this isn’t the most financially smart way to live, but after camping for
so long, a nice meal in a restaurant sure does soften the wound. In saying
that, the restaurants along the strip of this small town aren’t too pricey. You
could go from a posh dinner at Mamma Jacks which works out around $25 a head
with a drink (Neptune pizza is a ‘must’ should you have a taste for sea food)
to a $13 meal deal which includes a fair sized portion main meal and one drink
(average pub food, but great live music. The Australians really do know how to
sing) to a $5 deal at club Phoenix, where you arrive between 7-8pm and receive
half a free pizza with any drink purchase of $5+ (a little heads up, this clubs
does Agwa bombs, Warning: they will get you smashed!)
A downside to the town, is that the actual beach in itself
is pretty small, I expect it has a lot to do with the Whitsunday’s excursions,
as the thing to do here, is to get a boat and sail across to one of the many
islands. They do have Airlie lagoon, which is a man- made beach, more of a
family place. The Marina where most yachts are docked is beautiful. We are
going on a Catamaran, called Wings III and the kind lady booked us in to a
double room, as we are a couple, which I’ve heard from friends are the rooms
that are most coveted. We have decided to do Scuba diving whilst on board, as
there are many limits as to where you can do it in Cairns, due to high
shark/jelly fish risks. One dive works out to be $70, this includes full swim
suit & kit hire along with a quick lesson to make sure you don’t die down
there. I am a bit nervous as I’ve heard many times that Scuba diving can go
horribly wrong, should your breathing become out of sync and you intake water.
I also have issues with the fact that it’s quite common for a shark to casually
swim past you. But ill report back to you on that as soon as I know more. I
just overheard one of the staff shouting about a pool party that’s about to
start. I guess that means It’s probably a smart idea for me to put my laptop
away. And to be honest the sun is scorching , so ill need to get out of this
hammock before my skins turns leathery ! Ahhhh run away ! More soon folks !
