What a great team we were at packing up camp. Everyone just gets in and does their jobs and in no time at all we were packed up and ready to move on.

We were all excited to be finally going to Airlie Beach. This trip had been in the planning since our last big one to the Red Centre 3 years ago. Early in the planning we decided that the middle of the trip was to be a 5 night stay at Big4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort in Airlie Beach. That park has won best park in Queensland for three years in a row. We were all really looking forward to getting there.

We saw a few cane trains working along their narrow tracks collecting full bins from the farmers to take back to the mill. The whole area is cris crossed by little cane train tracks.

Passing through Sarina again around 10am and the day was a glorious sunny day without any clouds in the sky. The mountains in the distance were a hazy blue with their rugged peaks and valleys. Cattle all looked fat and healthy grazing in the long grass. The cattle around the area were mostly grey Brahman or red Brangus cattle.

Just before Mackay we saw a sign at a huge roundabout indicating that Coal Terminals were off to our right. I thought they would be interesting to check out however we continued on. We used the Ring Road to bypass Mackay and we saw another huge sugar mill in the distance. We were still surrounded by sugar cane fields. It was mostly farming country all the way to Airlie Beach and we seemed to arrive very quickly. The Ring Road was excellent and seemed fairly new. It saved quite a bit of time avoiding the Mackay CBD.

I was surprised how big Mackay is. Some 130,000 people call it home. It’s a big city by Australian standards.

It was 6 excited travellers that finally drove into Cannonvale, the suburb before Airlie Beach. We checked in to the Big4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort, our much anticipated destination. Wow! what a park! Kids were going to love it. We were allocated two grass powered sites that were back to back. The sites are very small and there is just enough room for the van & awning on one with the car parked in front. The motorhome is parked a round the corner and we were able to have both awning & slideout. There’s a grassy patch in between us at the back of our site that the boys have used to set up their swags. We were surrounded by lovely garden beds full of tropical plants.

The park has some 90 cabins of all sizes, 42 powered grass sites in one section, 20 drive-through powered sites, 38 powered slab sites and another section with 33 more powered grass sites. Surprisingly there’s only two amenities blocks for the whole park.

In the very middle of the park is the main feature, the pools with water slides and a mega waterslide park. As well as a tennis court, basketball court, giant chess, a playground, mini golf, badminton court and a dining area with a cafe van. There are jumping pillows and a Kids Club. Right down the back of the park is an animal park with sheep, goats, geese and a variety of ducks.

We’d travelled some 3000km to arrive at this point in our 6 week trip and we were all looking forward to 5 nights in the one place.

After we arrived and set up camp I went for a stroll around the park. Pa settled in with a book. There were kids everywhere and lots of families. Our kids headed straight to the pools and waterslides as soon as they could and spent the whole afternoon going up and down slides. An adult has to be on hand to supervise so I relived Katie for a couple of hours and found a sun lounger to lie in the warm sun and read my book (while I supervised). Heaven!

It was Katie’s turn to cook and we enjoyed spaghetti bolognese sitting at our tables under their awning. It was a happy and delicious meal together.