Mackay - the Looper Central, and Airlie No-Beach!

Hey everyone! Well what an interesting few days it's been!

We set to work on Saturday morning doing some much needed shopping, stopping off first at the market for some bargain fruit, then to the Canelands Shopping Mall! (aptly named due to the percentage of industry that is sugar-orientated in Mackay). We mostly window-shopped as we've not really enough money to spend on luxuries, the only thing I ended up buying was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I've really got into it actually it's a great read.

Anyway, the hostel we were in was really friendly and cosy (it was family-run), but my, were there some nutjobs staying there! There was a Chinese guy who shouted in his sleep ("Wicked! Woo! Wicked! Yeah! Wicked!"); two German women, one of whom talked to herself and the other who starred a lot; one blonde woman who sang loudly above other peoples' conversations, and another woman who slurped water from the tap in the kitchen (and who did other unspeakable things which I cannot bear to mention here!). It was exhausting work trying to stay sane yourself.

Anyway, today we walked down to the Victoria Street Sunday Market where we spotted an even worse souvenir shop than Australia, the Gift, selling all sorts of touristy crap, but I didn't find a hat unfortunately. So we bought some fudge to comiserate. We also paid a visit to the art gallery, the only thing open with free entry - Artspace Mackay. They had a cool display of indigenous art, but the main event was, of course, the air conditioning!

We also arrived in Airlie Beach today (where there is, in fact, no beach, unless you like mud), where the sea looked a lovely shade of turquoise as we were driving in, despite the dingy, cloud-filled evening sky. We'll be setting sail for the Whitsunday Islands from here on Tuesday. In the meantime there looks to be some serious touristy-crap shopping to be done in the many shops that line Airlie's only street, so I think I'll like it here! We move out of here on Friday for Townsville, or to be honest, for Magnetic Island really (if you stay in Townsville you're classed as a geek, cos Maggie's where it's at!), so plenty of time to enjoy Airlie!

I'll post again after the Whitsundays and let you know how it all went!