The Great Australian Road

 Along the hidden path in Airlie Beach, we found our Greyhound bus location nestled among the marina with open fields of grass and walking paths for your comfort. Located at the Greyhound station was the Port of Airlie Beach which had a cute café and a tour ticket office inside. It was a bustling location this morning with many tourists who had signed up for local excursions along with many passengers taking the ferry over to Whitsunday and Hamilton Beach Islands. Among the tourists were jet ski excursions, flying excursions, and backpackers locating a taxi into the town. Erik decided to grab an ice cream from the cafe on his own dime! He enjoyed a chocolate chunk drumstick with peanuts on top. His face and hands were sticky with evidence of deliciousness gobbled up.

After cleaning up his face and hands we grabbed our belongings and headed for the 29* humid weather to sit in the Greyhound holding area for our 57-passenger bus to arrive. Upon the arrival of the passenger coach, we stored our bags underneath the bus and boarded seats 6A and 6B. Erik enjoyed a lovely window seat next to his mother in the aisle. Departure from the station was quick as the bus driver was behind schedule and needed to make up time on the Great Australian Road.

The highway roads in Australia are full of bumps and potholes… good luck getting decent sleep on the tour. Another interesting note about the road down the west coast of Australia is that it does not follow the Ocean scenery line. The highway road is almost all inland, and some of the roads are straight for miles on end like we are driving in the prairies, in Canada. The bus ride from Airlie Beach to Makay was supposed to be approximately two hours where we were to have a meal break and stretch our legs but the bus driver was even more behind, so we had ten minutes tops to gather food from the gas station and take a quick pee. Fortunately for us, he decided we would stop in Rockhampton at 6:00pm to have a 20-minute dinner break!

Along with the driver choosing to stop in Rockhampton, it happened to be the end of his shift so we can see why he wanted to push through to the end of his day. But, luckily for us there happened to be a KFC at this Greyhound station for our enjoyment and fulfillment along with a gas station for necessary snacks to continue on any given road trip. KFC was delicious and filled our bellies. It has been about eight years since we last consumed this treat.

Back on the road headed to Agnes Water.