Whitsunday Islands

Sunday 26th February

Flew from Sydney to Cairns, and from brilliant sunshine to cloud and rain of biblical proportions! Drove 500 Kms down to Townsville. At one time it rained so hard the traffic came to virtual stop.

Monday 27th.

Spent the day in Townsville. The plan was to take a day trip out to Magnetic Island, but there was not much point as we could not even see it from the shore. Went for a long walk along the promendade, which is beautifully maintained. Fantastic facilities for children, with no sign of vandalism or graffiti. What a nice change from home. Lots of warnings about "stingers" (jellyfish). You can only swim in certain areas that have booms and nets.

Tuesday 28th

Drove another 300 Kms down the coast to Airlee Beach. Lovely accommodation, with large white parrots as unpaying guests on the balcony. They are after food and if you don't feed them (which we don't as we are told not to) they are likely to attack the furniture!

Wednesday 29th

The sun is shining as we set off aboard the Whitehaven Express for a day around the Whitsunday Islands. Had a full and fun day. Jen went snorkelling for the first time and really enjoyed it. As Jen says you cannot go to the Barrier Reef and not see the coral. She was a bit put off by the huge fish that were swimming around her, but the tiny colourful fish made up for it. Jen looked for Nemo but didn't see one!.

We had BBQ on Whitehaven Beach where we were joined by 3ft lizards who obviously knew the daily routine and were waiting to be fed. Again the advice is not to feed the native wildlife.

We could not believe how lucky we were with the weather. It has been so bad that this was the first trip out for the boat for 5 days.

http://photobucket.com/albums/w452/paulnharris1954/Paul and Jen on tour/Whitsunday Islands