Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 14

Heute mussten wir eine sehr lange Strecke bis nach Airlie Beach zurücklegen. Da es hier in Australien in der letzen Zeit sehr wenig geregnet hat, ist die Waldbrandgefahr entsprechend hoch. Schon am Vorabend konnten wir immer wieder kleinere Brandherde von der Straße aus erkennen. Heute waren kilometerweit zahlreiche Straßenabschnitte so vom Rauch vernebelt, dass hier der Verkehr von der Feuerwehr geregelt werden musste. Auch wurde uns bewusst, dass es besser ist, den großen Roadtrains rechtzeitig Platz zu machen. Gegen rund 40 Meter lange Lastzüge sieht unser Spaceship verdammt klein aus :-). In Mackay buchten wir im Visitor Center einen zweitages Trip auf die Whitsunday Islands. Eigentlich wollten wir noch am Strand vom Mackay ein bisschen chillen, allerdings machte uns der Wind einen Strich durch die Rechnung. Deshalb fuhren wir nun direkt, auf schnurgeraden Straßen, weiter nach ... read more

Day 12: Wednesday 3rd August, Maxi Ragamuffin The day I'd been waiting for, Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands. We got up at 7:00 to get ready to catch the bus to Shute harbour. We went up to the front of the caravan park and waited for the bus. At a bus stop across the road there were school kids waiting for the school bus. Felt sorry cause they had to go to school and I was going sailing. Two other people from our park came up to wait as well. Then a coach pulled up to pick us up and we hopped on board. We made a few stops to pick up some more tourists that were to sail with us. Then we got down to Shute Harbour where the vessel was waiting for us. The ... read more

When one hears the words "Whitsunday" most think of a group of islands off Queensland. In fact, the area has been named after the Whitsunday Strait which passes between the islands and the mainland.The islands belong to the Cumberland group. No matter, besides this piece of trivia, we found this a wonderful area to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Sunday 24th July 2011 We had done most of the preparation for our departure yesterday and after completing the last few things we could only do before leaving we joined John and Marilyn for breakfast. This had been arranged last night over some drinks we had on our return from dinner. John presented us with scrambled eggs and bacon, cooked tomato, toast, with a side of black pudding for the men. Delicious! Brendan, the ... read more

We stayed in a rain forest camp on Fraser Island. It was great fun but we mostly travelled around the island to places like Champagne Rocks where we could swim with little fish. After Fraser Island the weather turned to rain. We had a short trip on the car Ferry on Saturday morning & we saw a dingo while we were waiting. It walked around our car looking for food. From there we went to Burrum River & it rained most of the time. Luckily there was a room where we could play & eat plus we went to Hervey Bay & played on some really interesting equipment. It stopped raining on Monday & we went to stay at 1770. It is called that because Captain Cook first landed there in 1770 – more than 240 ... read more

Ellie and I have just arrived back from an epic two days (two nights) sailing trip around the 74 beautiful islands of Whitsunday. When we were told we were going on a 'sailing trip', I don't think we were quite expecting to be so involved in keeping the boat going! Along with a captain, two crew and twenty paying customers, we all had to help out at some point at pulling certain ropes, hoisting the mast up and making sure that we held on for dear life as the boat went from a seemingly flat 'safe' position to a scary (almost) vertical position. During our two days sailing around Whitsunday, we had an awful lot of rain (yes, it does rain occasionally here) and wind so the weather (and giant waves) made for an eventful trip! ... read more