Townsville -> Airlie Beach

Odometer at beginning: 53037

Friday evening, my friend and I had Indian for my last supper.

I don’t usually go for Indian because I can’t be bothered discerning what contains tomato and dairy and I hate choosing something and getting excited only not to be able to eat it after all.

Long story short: I was super impressed with the meal. So impressed, I was inspired to cook Aloo Gobi for dinner on Sunday night.

On Saturday afternoon, I drove down to Airlie Beach, with the mandatory pit stop in Ayr.

I have been eating *a lot* of sandwiches lately

I arrived in the afternoon and parked the car down by the marina.

I’ve been waking up with the birds at 05:30am (not mad about that alarm) and the sun is already shining, so I head out.

I went for a walk along the esplanade and swam some laps at the lagoon. It was a perfect morning and I was absolutely thrilled with myself.
There’s a sign at the lagoon

“No long breath holding’

which made me laugh so much and I had to stop mid stroke a few times so I could giggle.

When I finished my lap, the life guard came down and asked why I was so happy – he thought I must be tripping on something.

Mate I am just HIGH on LIFE.

I have always struggled with holding my weight in breath stroke and over the last couple of years (since we moved to Townsville), I developed my stroke and became quite proficient at it. But the cardiovascular ease of the stroke led me to favor it over freestyle and I’ve found myself fatigued and out of breath very quickly from freestyle.

I’ve challenged myself to address this issue and I got into a little rhythm and found myself enjoying freestyle… Who knows, maybe I’ll become a full time swimmer 😉

I decided to stay in Airlie for a few days and checked into a hostel that had a campground.

While I love living out of the car, it was really nice to have a base to return to and actually cook proper food.

This isn’t what I mean by proper food but it’s SALAD SEASON!

Everyone questions me, but my bed is actually so comfy. Me feet may or may not touch the tailgate door BUT most of the time I’ve got one or both legs curled anyway.

Magical constellations radiating from my crystal

I spent the rest of the day relaxing, swimming and reading my book by the lagoon. I really don’t need any more sun, but it doesn’t hurt to even out the tan lines.

Yesterday I did some washing and talked to my friend on the phone. I wandered into town in the early afternoon to find the cruise ship was in and the markets were on! I was expecting them to be on on Sunday and was a bit bummed, but the moment redeemed itself.

There were some cute stalls at the market

I actually got myself some cute earrings and bracelets. I asked the stallholder if she had any bracelets and she said no, they’re all anklets unless you get one made for little girls… Turns out they don’t fit my ankles anyway and I have to wear them as bracelets HAHA. I sometimes forget I’m a giant.