Saturday 25 Jun 2016

Made it to Airlie Beach. Got a nice motel room with a view of the harbor.beach. Booked a harbor tour on a duck boat, a one day cruise of the inner reef and a flight over the outer reef.

Won’t go into a lot of detail here but had some serious fun, sight seeing and met several Aussie’s on holiday. Great bunch of people and learning much from them.  

Went for a Duck Boat tour; noisy, eye catching and fun for both riders and pedestrians. After driving around in the harbor we drove through the city center making a lot of noise and attracting a lot gazers. Took a lot of pictures in the harbor. All sailboats and mostly catamarans.

 Pictures

1, Where I'm at

2, Artist on the beach

3, The Duck boat

4 View from our room

Sunday 26 June 2016

Went on an all day cruise aboard a huge Catamaran. Guessing it holds 100 people, we were about 35. Toured some islands and anchored at Hook Island. Many went snorkeling, some of us went coral viewing in the glass bottom boat.

This area is known as the Inner reef. Hundreds of islands, some privately owned and a lot of coral. Unfortunately it was cloudy and the colors didn’t come through. So you get lucky; no vacation pictures!  Maybe a couple!

Went to an island where there are some beautiful white sand beaches. Small problem is the beach is on other side of Island requiring a walk over the top. An easy walk once you get the directions correctly. Seems everyone else got them.

Absolutely beautiful, breathtaking! The small ponds that form when the tide is out is home for baby Lemon sharks. You can walk in among them but they won’t let you get close. The sand is like powder and comfortable to walk on. Tomorrow I’ll view this beach from 2000 feet.

Pictures

1, How we got to shore

2, What we saw

3,  A privatesailing vessel

4, & 5 More of what we saw

6, Another Private sailing boat

The day cruise ends with a stop on Daydream Island. Somebody spent some serious Shekels building this place. Everything you would ever like to have at a vacation spot. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. One exception: Walking around I met up with a kangaroo coming down the pathway. He stopped to look at me, I grabbed a leaf from a nearby bush, it came over, smelled it and proceeded to the grass for a snack. The little guys are cute as can be. If US Customs would allow it I’d bring one home.

This is another area of Earth Chae Sun would have loved.

Did I mention the Cockatoos; they are all over and make a devilish screech. I’ve seen gatherings of these birds of a hundred in a single tree. Seeing flocks of twenty + is common. They start with the sunrise, alarm clock free zone. Picture is across the street from my room.

Monday 27 June 2016

Went for a plane ride today to the Outer reef. It's out near the continental shelf takes awhile to get there even by plane . Got lucky again. Got to sit in the co-pilots seat. Best place to take pictures. Appears my chubbiness played a role in the seating arrangement.

First we looked from above at the white sand beaches visited yesterday and then a spectacular viewing of the Great Barrier Reef. The pictures can do the talking.

Leaving the East coast and it’s beaches reminds me of another notable feature of Australia; bikini size. They are spectacularly small. 

Tuesday 28 June 2016

Mad it to Townsville yesterday afternoon and decided to head west. Got to Charters Towers just after dusk. Noticed a little speed related growl as I drove into town. Found a Toyota dealer in town that would look at it. Right front wheel bearing was shot. Couldn’t turn the wheel freehand. No wonder it felt like the emergency brake was on.

That is where this day will be spent.