Driving, Driving and More Driving
We left Fraser Island yesterday and got on a ferry to head back to our car. While leaving the island Bill and Diane were fishing on the dock and they were waving goodbye to us. Before we got out of site, I saw Diane throw us a big kiss. I am pretty certain we will see them again at some point in the future. On the ferry we met a really nice young British couple with two small boys. The wife, Anika, is a lawyer, and her husband is a teacher. Both Drew and Noah had a great time playing with the baby and the older son, who couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old. We had a great conversation and traded information before getting into the car.
Then, it was into the car and off for a 3 hour drive to Awoonga Shed Retreat. Right before we arrived at our next location we saw a sign for Mangoes by the bag for $10, so we stopped. The woman filled the bag with at least a dozen mangoes and maybe more. We arrived at the Shed and met Karen, the owner of the place. Her husband, Cameron, showed up later that evening from work. Karen and Cam have two little ones, a 7 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. Ilise and I went shopping for dinner and travel food for the next day while the kids stayed back at the house and went swimming in the pool. When we got back from shopping we spoke with Karen and Cam for a bit and then grilled dinner and ate some mangoes, there are a lot of mangoes to eat!
After dinner we had a quiet night preparing for a 7 hour drive today. So, we woke up early and made breakfast with all the food that Karen had provided us and were on our way. We have driven across the US twice in the past 4 years so this wasn’t that far a trip. I was able to make it 4 hours before stopping, where we filled the tank and use the facilities, and then we were back on the road for the final 3 plus hours. We passed a lot of sugar cane farms along the entire trip and the landscape looked very similar to Iowa and Nebraska. There were fields on both sides of the road and the landscape was mostly flat but as we got further north we started to get into more hilly, and then mountainous areas.
We arrived in Airlee Beach around 5:30 PM, picked up tickets for a boat ride to Whitsunday tomorrow. We are relaxing in the apartment we rented for two nights and will head to dinner in a few minutes. Looking forward to a quiet night and a fun day tomorrow heading to White Haven Beach and an afternoon of snorkeling. It will be a GoPro day that I’m looking forward to. After tomorrow we head to Cairns for some trips to the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree and Cape Tribulation. I have dreamed about swimming in the Great Barrier Reef for a couple of decades, looking forward to time up there as well.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 