Airlie Beach - Jetski and More Snorkeling

We had a lovely week in Airlie Beach, a beautiful location between Port Douglas and Brisbane with the Whitsunday Islands right offshore. One day, we took a nearby hike out to a literally deserted beach with great views of a couple of the nearby islands:

The Great  Barrier reef extends through the Whitsundays; so of course we had to do another snorkeling trip. Although it was not as spectacular as the one from Port Douglas, we still saw a lot and had fun:

The tour  taught us a bit about the local indigineous tribe and how it lived on the islands, and made a stop on Whitsunday Island itself (the largest of the group). The scenery there is absolutely gorgeous:

This area essentially serves as a "nursery" for young sea life, and you can see many small animals in the shallows including baby fish, turtles, crabs and, most interestingly, sting rays, which are easily found resting on the bottom:

We also took a jetskiing tour, which was supposed to take us to one of the inner islands nearest to Airlie Beach, but bacause of weather conditions (the sea was very choppy) we just stayed in the city's bay. Nonetheless, it was extremely fun to jetski in those conditions, as we often caught air off the waves at 25-30 mph. I had a blast driving, and Shana enjoyed hanging on and screaming in my ear:

Note that we borrowed the silly hats from the jetski company, but given how strong the sun is in Australia in general, and in the tropics in especially, almost everyone wears a hat all the time. In particular, we've noticed that school uniforms (and almost every kid in Austrlia wears a uniform to school) include hats.

While in Airlie Beach, we stayed at a cabin slightly outside of town. While this gave us the chance to eat many of our meals in, which was good, it was a bit rustic for our taste, with the number of bugs making it difficult-to-impossible to enjoy the outdoor area around the cabin. We were often visited in the afternoon by really cool cockatoos who came to feed on the provided birdseed, but we never did see any larger animals that are supposedly in the area. The bugs were really vicious and while bug spray was available, it only helps so much when the bugs are flying near your head.

And, speaking of missing wildlife, one day we drove a long way to Eungella National Park to see platapodes (one of the accepted plurals of platypus). Because of how far away the park was, we could not be there during their most active times of day -- early morning and late afternoon. So, despite watching and remaining really quiet for over an hour at several viewing spots, we failed to see a single platypus! Shana, particularly, was very disappointed. However, the park was extremely beautiful, and we stopped for some great views on the drive:

Overall, we had a really good time in the Whitsunday Island area, it was very relaxing and we enjoyed both of the tours we took. Most importantly we had time to plan our Vietnam itinerary. Now, on the Brisbane and then New Zealand!

Ciao,

Jeff and Shana