Stop 7 - (122km)
We rolled on into Airlie in the sunshine and looked at a caravan park that was pretty cheap and decided it was too far out of town and went back in to look at another one, we ended up at Seabreeze Caravan park which was close to town and right at Able Pt marina. They were doing renovations so it was a bit all over the place but we also got a discount on our accomodation if we booked a tour with them, so we organised to do a day tour on a large sailing catamaran, and a day out on an amazing pontoon snuggled inside the outer reef at The Great Barrier Reef!
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| Sea Breeze entrance, pretty nice |
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| view up to the hills from our camper |
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| cool hedge |
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| big ugg boot! |
Second Day-
Our day sailing on The Camira; it was an early start, and we know how much I love early starts! It was also a little chilly but then the sun came out, so did the wind..which is perfect for sailing, not so perfect for lazing around the deck and enjoying the fully catered and all inclusive beer and wines! But it was amazing...
blue water, sunshine, laying on the 'trampoline' watching all the goings on of sailing ships, and picking the brains of all the crew...
Then...we stopped at Whitehaven Beach...sand so soft it feels like powder and so white it hurts your eyes...and water so blue and so COLD..but its all about the sun and sand.. :-)
Then back around all the Whitsunday Islands and a few wines sailing home... AMAZING DAY...arrive home in the dark
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| man thats a big sail...and thats not even the big one! |
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| Little chilly George? You realise that I'm up to my neck in the water to take this photo.. |
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| Our boat, waiting for us to tan up! |
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| Never realised that George was part albino..me niether! :-) |
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| cheers! |
Third Day-
Our amazing day on the Great Barrier Reef
Another early start, bus picked up outside our caravan park..cruised out 2.5hrs to Knuckle Reef on this massive ocean cat..the biggest ship in Airlie!
Then we parked up at the pontoon, which had everything...SCUBA, snorkelling, glass viewing lower deck, glass bottom boat tours, semi-submersible boat tours, swimming and A SLIDE!
So straight to the Scuba for me, with all the other certified divers on board...all 3 of us! So we had a nice little group..I had a terrible time with foggy mask as I thought the nice new ones looked best....So I spent quite some time filling my mask with water and blowing it out to give me 60seconds of clarity! I tested out our new camera for underwater durability...it is 10m capable and the dive was 12m... oops....gotta a little fogging when we came up but dried out in the sun quickly.
George also went on a dive and had a great time, he also got a great photo with Wanda, the large humphead maouri wraisse, Im sure he has told you about it...but I will tell you again...
She was such an attention seeker...loved diver and especially loved the camera...she was like a puppy you called her over and she would scoot straight over and demand to be patted! I got a bump cause I was trying to take her photo without a pat! I patted her so much and was leading her around, she was so slimey feeling..not like scales at all...so awesome and so huge...(and shes really only about half her full size) I also loosely use the term 'she' as she was a she but when the male fish passes the dominant female changes sex to be the male and changes to prettier male colours and grows the male hump..she was partway through this transformation when we saw her.
Then we went on all the glass bottomed things, had lunch and I was one of the few who braved THE SLIDE... Was heaps of fun but probably a bit cold to really enjoy it..and I wasnt wearing the correct swimmers for sliding but what the hell, that is why I am holding them on in all the photos!
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| George all suited up and ready to SCUBA |
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| funny Angel fish that keep chasing this guy... |
Hi! hhahaha
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| George and Wanda |
Testing out the new cameras video underwater :-)
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| Wanda...just before she head butted me |
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| The boat moored onto the pontoon |
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| how to scuba without getting wet!...hahaha glass bottom on the pontoon |
The Slide.....
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| up I go... |
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| round I go... |
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| woosh..out I come! Straight into the barrier reef and a pile of fish |
Dingo Beach...along a long dirt road we had been told Montes was an awesome place for lunch...
we took a slight detour..OK I directed us to a short cut that lead to the beach...just not a part of the beach that you could drive on and the track got pretty tight and Magnum now has some battlescars down one side from a few close trees ...oops
By the time we back tracked and got to Dingo Beach we had missed lunch but had a beer there anyway...lovely...
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| view from the short cut... |
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| View from the deck at Montes |
Fifth Day-
Out to the waterfalls and Proserpine to see what we could see...then we thought we would go to the pub for $13 dinner and drink deal and then to free shot limbo and jelly wrestling...unfortunatley we missed the wrestling but George did his best limbo for a few free shots...
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| Big Shoes (a boot and a high heel) that someone had either side of their driveway! hahaha |
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| George preparing to tackle the falls... |
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| is that spiderman??? |
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| Sherii come up here....no thanks, fine here :-) |
Then...Slow pack up and off to Townsville...via some big things.. :-)
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