The Land Trap

After Nannie left us at Airlie Beach, we quickly adjusted to life in town. After so long away from shops, water, rubbish disposal, internet and phone service, it was nice to have them all on hand. Airlie in itself is a lovely small town, very touristy and definitely catering to backpackers and holidayers. There is a swimming lagoon set up on the waterfront which was a refreshing and relaxing place to spend some time. The weekend markets have a great selection of fresh fruit and veg with a wonderful atmosphere. The one downside of Airlie from a boating perspective is that it is quite a rolly anchorage. At least it was consistent though so we adjusted to it relatively quickly.

While we were in Airlie some old family friends of Bryce's were going to be holidaying at their beach house back up near Glouchester Island. The invited us to come and stay with them for the weekend and even came and picked us up in Airlie. It's amazing how much faster you can get somewhere driving! But at least the wind is free! we had a lovely, relaxing, family-filled weekend (with real showers and beds!) that was just what we needed. We are so grateful to them for sharing their holiday with us.

"Small" fire in Airlie that was thankfully quickly contained

One activity that occupied an entire day for us was cheesmaking. Last year for christmas, Bryce had been given a cheesemaking kit. We had gone to use it once before only to find that you couldn't make cheese from UHT or powdered milk. So when we found organic full-cream  milk 50% off at the local woolies we jumped at the chance and it was fun. We ended up with a small amount of ricotta, a medium amount of mozzarella and a gigantic ton of whey. In an effort to use all the whey up, Bryce tried to make oatmeal with it (not delcious) and I tried to make pancakes with it (delicious). In the words of Bryce from whom compliments are treasured, they were the best pancakes he'd ever had. Bryce looked up what else could be done with whey and found a suggestion to mix warm, fresh whey, rum, honey and lime juice. It was a bit like a hot toddy with little chunks of cheese in it (surprisingly delcious apparently!). So thank you cheesemaking gift giver - you know who you are! It was fun and we look forward to doing it again! :)

The cheesemaking results

When we finally broke out of the clutches of Airlie and everything it had to offer, we had some mild growth on our anchor chain which was a sure sign that we needed to move on.