Agnes Water - written March 7th, Agnes Water

One thing Agnes Water has made me realise is the type of traveller I want to be. Sam and I have lived and worked at Cool Banana’s for nearly six weeks now and it was just what we needed. After being on such a strict budget in Asia and New Zealand, then working and living in a hell hole in Bundaberg we just were not ready to get onto the busy tourist trail, spend all our hard earned cash in 3 weeks and have to work again. Living in Agnes has provided us with the chill out time we needed and really given us a home in Australia.


Let me describe the hostel to you. A two story, Balinese themed beach house with ten, eight share, dorms, a spotless well stocked kitchen, huge cosy lounge room, lovely showers and you can reach a four kilometre white sand beach in just five minutes. Need I go on?


Agnes itself only had a population of around two and a half thousand. There is a tiny town centre with a few shops and cafes and several other beaches within ten minutes’ walk. Many people only use this as a one night stop over between Fraser and Whitsundays and that is just such a shame as there is so much to do here. Sam and I had surf lessons (predictably he succeeded at this far better than me!), went for a kayaking trip in 1770 and learnt to surf waves, paddling home in the sunset drinking wine and eating fruit cake! There was also Scooteroo, flamed leather jackets, choppers and bombing around the countryside and free 4wd national park tours from the kindest locals you have ever met. Not to mention Lady Musgrove island where we snorkelled with about eight turtles all day long. We even had a staff trip out to Lowmead – the smallest village I have ever seen. We had a picnic in the meadow behind the pub and went kangaroo spotting at the golf range on the way home. And the above only covers the day activities – we enjoyed getting to know so many other travellers around the nightly campfire, cooking delicious fresh meals in the spotless kitchen, visiting the meat raffles and drinking a lot of red wine while dancing in the kitchen.


We definitely worked hard in Agnes (and sweated hard too with the tropical climate and cyclones) but all the fun activities, laughs with friends made here and countless sunny days at the beach totally outweighed it all. I am so glad we came here and managed to wangle an extra six weeks without working. We even still have one more trip to do before we leave – Castaway where we fly a tiny plane over to an island and fend for ourselves for a night. Shame about the camping but it will be another adventure! Despite how much I hate to leave Agnes it feels time to move on and travel the east coast, and end up in Sydney for some city life and comforts, but Agnes has definitely reminded me of what sort of traveller I want to be. I love all the key attractions and awesome photo opportunities as much as the next person, but to be stuck to a rigid schedule of bus times and tour operators, to always be rushed only ever meet English people does not feel right. I want to be someone who is happy to jump off the beaten track, get to know the locals and discover as much of the ‘real’ country as I can, because the traveling experience I have had so far, tells me those are the stories to write home about.