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39-Airlie Beach/Great Barrier Reef |
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21st November 2008.
Took us most of the day to drive down to Airlie Beach and another perfect Big4 caravan park. Must admit. the caravan parks in northern Queensland are some of the best we've seen on our travels.
The town was extremely packed and really buzzing as it was "schoolies week" (school leavers) and they were really letting their hair down with no problems. The weather wasn't the best so spent the afternoon relaxing. Next day, weather forecoasts weren't looking to good again with chances of storms, so left it till the following day to do our trip. As the weather was still looking a bit dodgy, we decided not to do the Outer Reef which is 90kms out and stick to the inner Fringe Reefs.
We were picked up from the caravan park and the boat left at 8:30. First stop was Hill Inlet lookout. The views and colours of the ocean were absolutely stunning and the views across to Whitehaven Beach were unbelievable. The crystal clear water and pure white shifting sands and beaches are a sight to behold. The climb up to the lookout was a fair distance and quite steep and unfortunately Marlene didn't make it. That's one problem with guided tours and why we avoid them where ever possible as the time schedules are quite tight and she can't keep up the pace coz of her leg.
Next headed off to Whitehaven Beach. Although it was extremely hot and humid, the wind had come up and the seas were getting very choppy. The boat there before us had sent it's tender in with it's passengers and they got dumped by the waves, so our skipper said it was too dangerous and we were heading off to a sheltered beach which was safer. We were all advised to wear a stinger suite (for hire @ $7.00 each) coz of the danger of getting stung which can prove fatal. Thought that was a bit rich and that they should have been included in price of the tour. Anyway, everyone on board rented one thinking it's better to be safe than sorry. Landed at Crystal Bay and it was gorgeous and the cool water provided some much needed relief from the stiffling heat. There were about 5 other tour boats there and soon noticed that only half the swimmers were wearing stinger suites, so don't really know wether we were conned or not. The beach BBQ was awesome and their chilli burgers were a delight. After allowing more swimming time for everyone, we headed off to another sheltered bay to do some snorkelling. The wind and storms over the past few days had churned the water up a bit and visibility wasn't as good as it should have been, but we did see lots of nice coral and marine life.
As the weather was slowly deteriorating, the trip back got progressively worse, but a good day was had by all.
Life On The Road:
It's a pity that we didn't have more time to hang around for the weather to clear so that we could do the outer reef as well, but Avril's time is limited and we want to show her Fraser Island before she leaves us and heads back to South Africa. The girls are ganging up on me again as they're not looking forward to camping and roughing it when we get there. Can't understand why as we're very well setup and it's not really roughing it at all. It's nice to have the odd break from the caravan and go bush :) |
Our Trip 
