Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 71

At 8:30 this morning it was already HOT - like mid-day in July in Canada. Yesterday we took a sailboat cruise and snorkeled on the great barrier reef. Spectacular! Not only the fish, but also the coral comes in an amazing array of colours, shapes and sizes. The kids were spoiled as they were the only children on the expedition, and hence got lots of attention. Went on a hike through the rainforest afterwards, before sunset - about 45 minutes. We got a little sweaty! Kept our eyes open for snakes - eleven of the twelve most poisonous snakes on the planet are indigeonous to Australia - mostly up here in the tropics. We spent Monday on a bus tour of Fraser Island - largest sand island in the world. 128 km long and no exposed ... read more

Been having disputes with Mother Nature as to why she is so stingy with the sun! Only rain for the last couple of weeks.......that's not on!!!! If I wanted rain I would have stayed in London *hmpf*! So she decided I was right, and granted me the wish of sunshine! Moved on from Fraser and Stephan....found it a bit hard at first, since we had been travelling together for over a week, but figured I had no time to get hung up about it, so I got over it in a jiff! Went to 1770 (yes, that is its' actual name!), where I had a sublime time! 1770/ Agnes Water is a town named after when Captain Cook took his first step on the island. It is a quaint little place, with only one put, one ... read more

This camper (if I can figure out how to put the photo on) will be our home for the rest of our time in Oz. We're cruising down the East coast and currently in Airlie Beach. Spent a few days at Cape Tribulation, where we stayed with some crazy croc-hunting Aussies and got to know quite a few insects, lizards and toads (and a lovely Irish couple). Went on a little catamaran and spent the day snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, which was awesome mate! Saw lots of colourful fish and coral - there are some v. weird things out there in the sea! Tomorrow we start a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands so I've stocked up on the motion sickness pills and Karl's stocked up on the VB. Hoping to survive ... read more

Time for an update on my tour up the east coast of Australia... At the moment I am in Airlie Beach, the gate to the Withsunday Islands. I arrived last friday after a long ride on the Oz bus coming up from Dingo (that's another story, to be told at another time). After a night out with two dutch guys I met a couple of days before while staying in the same dorm room (and who are also travelling with Oz experience), I had a relaxed start into the day - apart from the fact that the rain was pouring down like crazy. This was not the best outlook for my sailing trip through the Whitsundays and apparently a couple of day tours had been cancelled. However, we met for the introductory meeting at 1:30pm and ... read more

we've made it safely to Airlie Beach. A successful 500 + kilometers south of Cairns, adjacent to the lower half of the Great Barrier Reef. Matt has been the STUD driver, and I have been great at freaking him out by yelling out "hey--you're supposed to turn right in the right lane!!!" oops. thank goodness he thinks before listening to me:). last night was the first night we made use of our tent in Lumholtz National Park; we hiked down to and (barely made it back from) Wallaman Falls. This is the longest permanent single drop waterfall in the entire country of Australia, and we are so excited to share at least a photo of it with you. The hike was very beautiful -- tons of great bird sounds, causing occasional fear of the large and ... read more