We have just put in an offer on a gorgeous little rain forest house, and have planned to buy a small motor boat to cruise the Whitsundays!! Just kidding - but highly tempting!
We have had a lovely time in this part of the world. We booked 4 nights but will have been here 7 by the time we leave. Besides spending time relaxing, reading, knitting!!, and chatting with lovely neighbours and others, we have ridden our bikes, gone for lovely walks around the place and spent a day out on a boat snorkelling and visiting some of the islands in the Whitsundays.
For the first few days it was grey and rainy. It was lovely having the rain as we were forced to relax and stay home. We only went out to do our shopping at the Whitsundays mall - everything you need! The following days have been clear, perfect sunshine. The sunny days colour the sea and make it an invitingly greenish, turquoise blue. In the summer it is very dangerous to swim because of stingers and box jellyfish.
While we were on The Voyager - the boat that took us out for the day - we could not get over the beauty that surrounded us everywhere we looked. We stopped at 3 islands - Hook, where we snorkelled in a beautiful bay (no stingers at this time! - hopefully), Daydream, where we walked around a piece of paradise, and Whitehaven which has pure, white silica sand and is a protected Marine Park where we saw goannas walking around our feet. Snorkelling amongst multicoloured fish was, once again, like swimming in a real, live aquarium. We absolutely loved it. We also went in a glass bottomed boat that sailed over a coral garden. We were both a bit disappointed with the dullness of the coral. We have heard that the coral in the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reef is far more colourful but it takes much longer to sail out to the outer reefs.
We also spent an amazing day riding our bikes on the cycle path that runs on the edge of the beach at Airlie Beach. We stopped for a coffee in a funky little shop after visiting the market!! and sat in their comfy, leather lounge chairs reading the Saturday papers. Chris came to the market this time. He managed to keep interested by chatting up the camel owner and the Greens candidate! In Port Douglas he refused to come to the market as it is HUGE. He sat reading the paper waiting for me to continue my quest of finding something different - or "delicate" for Eva!
The small town of Airlie Beach, home of the magic car, is absolutely beautiful. Our caravan park is called "Airlie Cove" and is situated in a cove of rain forest. The only uncomfortable thing about it are the sand flies which have devoured me. Very uncomfortable. They don't touch Chris. I have been surviving on Polaramine - but that's minor as everything else is so beautiful.
When we leave here we are heading up to Platypus Bush Camp where I am hoping to see a real, live platypus. It's supposed to be a beautiful place in the Eungella National Park up in the Ranges! No power, so no contact for a while.
I couldn't resist the photo of the couple who parked their camper trailer in the local car-park and half set up the tent part. She took out her camp chair and book, and he sat in the front of the car. It looked completely bizarre but maybe that was their way of dealing with arguments!!! Him at the front and she, out of his way, at the back. "Oh well, if he's pissed off by something, I'll just kick back and read my book. Stuff it that we're in the car park!!!"
