|
|
||
 |
Jay & Nicole Visit Australia (click any picture for enlargement) |
|
|
|
||
|
Our visit to Eastern Australia continues as we leave the sugar cane area around Bundaberg; which is 300km north of Brisbane. Today we area heading 600km north to Airlie Beach, where we hope to take a cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. After some traffic, we found ourselves on a wide-open road. |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
| We didn't see many motorcycles, but don't know why ... ? |
There
were still fields of sugar cane and areas of sparse trees ... |
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
Through the breaks in the trees, we could see funny shaped volcanic hills sticking up. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We took a break at a park along the road. Even though this highway wasn't traveled much, the grounds and facility were in excellent shape; we especially liked the turtle-shaped speed bumps! |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
While
eating lunch we were visited by a family of black cockatoos and a little
green parrot. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
The highway went inland for quite a while and transitioned to grazing land for cattle. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
| The ranches were on big properties and had very nice homes; their economy was doing rather well! | The small country towns were also full of nice homes. | |
|
|
||
 |
<==
As we drove back to the coast again, there were sugar cane fields and old
rail tracks.
We stopped
at the first tour ==> |
 |
|
|
||
| Overall,
today's weather
had been good for traveling. We only hit a few isolated rain showers
that ended within seconds.
The sun was getting low when we neared Airlie and saw this full end-to-end rainbow. |
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We arrived in Airlie Beach about sunset; the town was modern and definitely set up for tourists. |
||
|
|
||
| We
parked near a nice park and reviewed the tour books, looking for a place to
stay. We toured the campgrounds
in the city, but they weren't very nice.
We went just out of town and found a place where we could rent a little cabin; then it rained! |
 |
 |
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
The next day we walked to the beach, which was rocky and not too nice. This part of the country has a very calm coastline ... the only place to find waves is on the other side of the islands. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
We
had the whole day to play tourist, as our boat would only leave early the next
day. |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
It would have been nice to relax by the water, but we wanted to see the local area. |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
The area behind the town was hilly and quite lush ... like a rain forest. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
The large resorts and condo complexes were luxurious ... but they ruined the landscape. |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
We drove up to see the view from the resort area ... spectacular ... which explains the high prices! |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We ventured into town to check out the shops ... but mainly spent time at the pub & internet cafe. |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We heard the familiar sound of some of loud birds ... a family of entertaining cockatoos! |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
Today we were on land, looking at nice trees ... tomorrow we would be looking at open water! |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
Early the next morning, we arrived at the harbor and got the last parking spot ... whew! |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
The check-in area was nice ... |
.... and full of many tourists. |
Could this be our boat? Nope! |
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We were given an intro and then led to our sailboat; it didn't look very big, but was ok for 12 guests. |
||
|
|
||
 |
The "Alexander Stewart" is a 19- meter classic sailing vessel. Every item on this wooden ship was meticulously hand-made by 3 generations of the same family ... over a span of 17 years! |
 |
 |
||
|
|
||
 |
|
 |
| Our room had a double bed and a porthole ... but no storage :( |
The
bathroom was funny ... |
The common area was quite small and not used much. |
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
As we left the port area, we could see many nice homes and water toys. |
||
|
|
||
 |
<===
The Whitsundays are a group of 74 coastal islands, protected by the Great
Barrier Reef; only a few are inhabited.
Our sailboat had a general 3-day route that went between the bigger islands. The exact route would depend on the weather. |
 |
|
|
||
 |
||
|
As we came to Hayman Island, we could see an exclusive resort ... only for the "Rich & Famous" |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
They used the motor during the first day, as the wind came up only on the other side of the islands. |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
The next island was deserted and had a wonderful beach ... the captain announced a shore trip! |
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We took the dinghy and did some snorkeling. We had to wear wet suits because of the stinging jellyfish, which was a major hassle ... we could never just simply jump in the water :( |
||
|
|
||
| We
anchored for the evening and then just hung around the top deck and read our books.
The next day we sailed to a big cove on Whitsunday Island and got set for an excursion. The Captain took us on a jungle hike to the top of a hill; it was hot and we had to drink plenty of water. |
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
| At
the top of the hill we had a wonderful view of the beaches on the other side
of the island.
This 7km long stretch of beaches is a national park and has beautiful sandbars, which get moved around by the ocean current. |
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
We walked down to one of the beaches and spent a few hours roasting in the sun. Unfortunately we could not take any samples of the rare sand; you'd get a big fine if you are caught with any. |
||
|
|
||
|
It would have been nice to stay for a longer time, but the captain reported that the weather would soon be getting much worse. We hiked back to the boat and sailed to a safe location for the rainy night. |
 |
|
|
|
||
 |
<==
The island under the cloud looked kind of blurry & strange.
It turned out
to be a series ===> |
 |
|
|
||
| The
big storm ended our sight-seeing for this cruise; we were lucky to see the nice beaches before it hit. The captain drew our itinerary on the map to the right ... we basically did the route that was advertised. Thank you to the crew of the Alexander Stewart! |
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
||
