Day 8 - Road Trip from Cairns to Whitsundays

Day eight was our first foray into driving in Australia. We rented a VW jetta and took an eight hour drive down Australia's east coast from Cairns to Airlie Beach, home of the Whitsundays Islands.


Our blue VW jetta.


Driving on the left side of the road took some getting used to, but fortunately, most of A1 highway, Aussie's equivalent of California's Pacific Coast Highway, is simple and straight so our skills weren't tested too exstensively.


Wasn't much to see on the drive other than loads of sugar cane fields.

We ran into some heavy rain and a few road delays along the way including a road slide and a flooded street.

Traffic was backed up due to the road slide.

Greg pretending to drive on the left side of the car.

We were hesitant to cross the flooded area at first, but Matt got out to check the depth.

We decided our jetta could power through.

We checked into our hotel, got some grub at Mama's Boys Pizza and then hit the Airlie Beach night life. We started at Beaches, a local beer garden where most of the town seems to start their night. We then walked a couple doors down to dance to the live music at Paddy's Shenanigans Irish Bar. And lastly, we ended the night dancing to house jams at Mama Africa.

Greg and Amy, a fellow Californian.

Matt and his Irish friend Dayna.


Good day overall, but our minds were focused on the multi-day boat excursion we were embarking on the next morning. Whitsundays here we come!!