Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Bicentennial Walk, Airlie Beach - May 2022

Sam and I snuck in the walk without getting too wet.

After finishing my Whitsunday Great Walk a day ago I'd taken it pretty easy on my time up in Airlie Beach. With the weather a little grey and overcast I'd chilled out taking in the views from our apartment balcony and enjoying some of the great cafés in town. With our time in Airlie Beach rapidly running out I mentioned to Sam about a walk called the Bicentennial Walk. With the walk starting around 5 minutes from our front door we figured that even accounting for the overcast skies it would be a nice stroll to do.

While it didn't rain (much) the overhead conditions were a little grey and overcast. 

We started our stroll near the Airley Beach Hotel.

We skirted around the lagoon...

... and climbed the Bicentennial Walkway out of the CBD.
 
Now even though this is a pretty easy walk there was no guarantee that we'd finish this stroll as the clouds were threatening to dump on us at any minute - although they'd been looking like that for the last couple of days and hadn't really delivered. We started the walk at the eastern end of the Airlie Beach CBD this afternoon and from the get go we had rain and wind to deal with, although thankfully the rain stayed intermittent for the time being. After passing by the Airlie Beach Lagoon we continued on along the coast climbing a little to pass through the carpark of the Coral Sea Resort before dropping down a beautiful length of boardwalk towards a café and a marina.

The Bicentennial Walk passes through the car park for the Coral Sea Resort.

Once through the resort the walking was very nice.

The Bicentennial Walkway.

I passed by the Feral runabout which is in dry dock for a bit of work!

Coral Sea Marina.

Heading towards Cannonvale along the Bicentennial Walk.

We copped a couple of squally showers along here. 

The view out across Pioneer Bay through the mangroves.

There was a few pieces of public art as we approached Cannonvale. 

With the sky grey and overcast I was looking else where for colour tonight. 

Pioneer Bay from Cannonvale. 

The stinger nets at Cannonvale marked our turn around point. 

We now were walking past, and sometimes through the Coral Sea Marina and boy are there some flash boats in here, this is real Lifestyles off the Rich & Shameless stuff. After leaving the marina we walked yet another great section of boardwalk, like the last one this one was also cantilevered over the water with views out across the water towards Pigeon Island. We were heading for Cannonvale Beach now and once leaving the boardwalk we walked the coastal parkland for another 15 minutes or so to our turn around point at Cannonvale Beach. With the rain still threatening but mostly holding off, Sam and I didn't muck around on our return walk, arriving back in Airlie Beach just as the last light of the day was ebbing away.

Near the Cannonvale end of the stroll the track passes through plenty of parkland - with all the normal facilities if anyone wanted to have a picnic, find a toilet or let the kids loose in a playground.
 
Looking out over Pioneer Bay.

This is the closest I got to seeing a turtle today. 


Back at the Coral Sea Marina.



Approaching the lagoon again - it was pretty well dark now. 

Airlie Beach Lagoon. 

There is no shortage of rules at the lagoon by the look of it!
 

The Dirt.
According to my GPS we walked around 8.5 kilometres and climbed about 130 metres on this easy stroll. This is a very inoffensive kind of walk, great for a stroll before dinner or after lunch or brekky, although obviously it would be better under blue skies rather than the grey sky we had today. I'm thinking that this walk would be ok for wheelchairs or prams as well. I used my Alltrails App and my GPS topos this stroll this afternoon. 

Relevant Posts.


Airlie Beach foreshore. 

Airlie Beach.

Back at the Airlie Beach Hotel and the walk was over. It was time to head back to our apartment...


... and watch the numbers come in for the federal election. 


 

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