DAY 2
Week 1
TOWNSVILLE (Queensland, AUS) to WALKERSTON (Queensland, AUS)
via BOWEN (Queensland, AUS) & AIRLIE BEACH (Queensland, AUS)
Tuesday September 14th, 2010
TODAYS MILEAGE – 303 miles or 488 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 307 miles or 494 kilometres
Well, it's Day 2 of what I've called the "2010 No Doot Aboot It Eh! Tour" and it's time to hit the frog & toad. We were off to Mackay, via Bowen and Airlie Beach.
Starting the second day with 5½ hours sleep, would not be considered ideal, but after a Truckie's breakfast and some re-hydration, we were off. We travelled South down the Hume Highway, which is Australia's Highway 1, reminds me why the United States has got the goods on road building. I call it the "Dakota Road" - as it drives like someone flew over the landscape and pushed the bitumen road out the back of a Dakota DC3 warplane.
Bowen was the first port of call. This was the location of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman's movie - Australia. We wandered up the hill that overlooks both the town of Bowen on one side and the Whitsunday Islands to the other. Talk about a gorgeous sight, looking out over Gloucester Island, with the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, 24 degrees with a slight breeze and crystal clear blue waters......brilliant.
From Bowen, it's about an hour and ¼ into the touristy town of Airlie Beach, which seems to be the epicentre of activities of the Whitsunday's. Just out of the port are the likes of Daydream, Hamilton, Haymen, Lindeman and South Molle islands.
After hearing so much about Airlie Beach over the years, I decided to stop in for a quick look. Talk about a waste of time. Over developed, over priced and over rated is how I'd describe it politely. A quick couple of happy snaps and we were on our way. Truth be told, both Jungle and I were far from impressed with the joint, as over-development has destroyed any charm or character that they place would have had in bucket loads.
A quick 2 hours South of Airlie Beach is the port town of Mackay, who's major industry is supporting the surrounding coal mines extracting their product, then shipping it from our fair shores. We pulled up at Shaun (or "Mary" as we call him) & Kealie Frerich's place, on the outskirts of town, as that's where we were parking up for the night.
Somehow we got roped into playing Polo Hockey or fluffy polo as I call it. It wouldn't have anything to do with Mary being the manager of the Mackay Indoor Sports Arena would it??? Yeah right!!! 
But what the heck, we'll have a lash at it anyways. Now the game consists of 5 players on each team, armed with one metre long sticks with a foam pad on the end of it. The object is to hit the soft ball into a net, the size of a hockey net, and each game goes four 10 minute quarters.
So here's the skinny, Jungle, Mary, Courtney (Mary's 16 year old daughter) and myself are up against four twenty-something young fellas who play regularly with delusions of grandeur that they were going to hand out a world class spanking to three 40 year olds and a 16 year old girl, who had never played the game. We held up our own to the tune of losing by 13 goals to 10. Not a bad effort by any measure I reckon.
At the end of the game, Jungle and I thought someone had turned on the fire sprinklers as we both were covered in condensation. Ah well, after working up a sweat like that only made the cold beers taste a whole lot better.
• AIRLIE BEACH (Queensland, AUS)