QLD - Day 4: Cairns to Airlie Beach

This day was always going to be a long one, with over 700 kilometers to cover and with a plan of arriving in Airlie Beach by 4pm to check in with our sailing trip. We left Cairns at the start of the Bruce Highway and headed south through the cane fields, banana plantations and the National Parks.

Our first stop en-route was at Mission Beach, we'd heard that it was an amazing palm-fringed beach where the rainforest met the sea (again) and we weren't disappointed! Only wished we had more time to relax there. We were also hoping with all the road signs, that we'd also get a chance to see a Cassowary...

...but yet again the only type of Cassowary we'd see would be a plastic one, although this one was the largest!

Perhaps the person who did the artwork for this sign hadn't seen a Cassowary either, or a real car for that matter!

A lovely spot to have a picnic! The Lagoon at Townsville.

Something else to add to the 'giant' section, this time a Mango!

The journey down was supposed to take around seven hours, but after coming across a number of road works it had taken this out to eight and a half! So we were slightly knackered by the end! Managed to check into our sailing trip, find our accommodation, and just about found something to eat - not easy when you have standards like ours and you're in backpackers-ville! Not sure what it is about Queensland, but it doesn't like to keep its businesses open too late either!