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Australia 2024
  • Janine Westlund
  • Mark E
  • Janine Westlund
  • Mark E

Australia 2024

An extraordinarily beautiful country that exceeded all expectations. Made all the more special for having the opportunity to reconnect w/ our friends Sue, Gael & Scott; as well as spend some time w/ new friends Janet and Simon. Read more
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  • Australia 2024

    Video 1 and 2

    November 3, 2024, Coral Sea ⋅ 🌬 79 °F

    Our tour provider created a video for the group. Since find penguins only supports 2 minute video, I broke the video into 3 sections

  • Australia 2024
    Lizard Island --- an unassuming little enclave.
    Our crew for the first segment of the trip.Walking around Lizard Island.It seems only 'stingers' are a threat here; not crocs. So you can walk off the shore & snorkel/dive.that's our boat in the backgroundWe were told that elevated house (upper rt) is ~AU$3000/nt (~US$1975). But it comes with a chef. 🙄Plant that the aboriginal people used to determine the turtle breeding schedules.Nicely maintained walking trail to the water.View of the island from the beachReturning to the boatOur Dive BoatDive platform in the backNew passengers waiting for pickupAfternoon dive: Cod Hole, max depth: 40ftSurface view of Cod Hole.5pm dive: Gotham City, max depth: 73ft

    Great Barrier Reef Day 2 - Lizard Island

    November 4, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 79 °F

    Our 7-day dive trip was a combination of 2 excursions: a 4d trip with 3 days in the Coral Sea and 1 day in the GBR, and a 3d trip fully in the GBR. Lizard Island was the 'transition point' for those who signed up for the shorter excursions. So the first half of this day consisted of the 'transition': the 4d divers disembarking from their trip and new divers boarding for their 3d trip. For those of us 7d-trippers, we had time for a short walk around the island. The island supports a small airport, some private yachts, and a high-end hotel.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Our fabulous crew!J9 making new friends: Jon has dove more places than anyone we've ever met!Cairns Harbor in the morningCruising into CairnsStopped at Mission Beach for a lookLocal areaView from Mission Beach looking toward the 'Family Islands'the drive was again nicely scenicAdditional views on our ride south3x zoom of previous pictureView from Townsville looking toward Magnetic IslandHappy to say Townsville has 2 vball courtsThe Strand Rockpool: salt water pool; less chance of getting stung by a stingers (jellyfish)..🏐 Let's keep it friendly with vball rules 🤣

    Drive south to Townsville

    November 7, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    7 days of diving was excellent. Now we're off to our next destination: Airlie Beach. Since it's ~7 hour drive, we broke it up with a stop at Mission Beach for a look, then followed the coast southward and spent the night in Townsville. Townsville has a beautiful 3.5 mile promenade walking/biking trail that we enjoyed.Read more

  • Australia 2024

    Video 1 2

    November 7, 2024, Great Barrier Reef ⋅ 🌬 81 °F

    Mike Ball Dave shop, our provider created a video for us. Find penguins limits video to 2 minutes, so I had to separate the video to 4 videos under 2 minutes.

    Videos 1 and 2

  • Australia 2024
    View North towards Magnetic Island. Notice canoe in the picture
    Local canoeing club morning rideThe Boardwalk is an active place in the morningView looking east from our hotel room: harbor, casino, ship yardCampers are fully prepared for their trip; complete w/ sunpanels on both the camper & the truck!Hitting the road to Airlie . . . looks like Iowa; but instead of corn, it's sugarcaneSugar cane trucks were a pretty common sightSome places looks like Florida, but instead of oranges it's mangoes 🥭We did a little fruit-stand stop to get some mangoes, oranges & bananas. YUM!Then had lunch at a little local seafood stopOur first sunset view from our balcony!

    Morning in Townsville, then on to Airlie

    November 8, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Woke up this morning to watch the canoeing club return from the Magnetic Island. It's dangerous to swim in the water due to stingers, so the next best thing is to canoe. There are also a number of surfer clubs on the beach, but it must be a different season, because the water is calm.
    After a leisurely breakfast at a local cafe, we hit the road for our next destination: Airlie Beach.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Many of the bars participated in the event and provided a nice schedule.
    Anchor BarWater view from the Anchor Bar

    Airie Music Fest

    November 9, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    We arrived just in time to experience the annual Airlie Festival of Music (8-10 Nov). We visited 5 bars with bands, but regretfully took very view pictures

  • Australia 2024
    The view from our balcony . . . those doors open up wall-to-wall!
    This cheeky little guy visits 2-3 times/d (presumably looking for food).Shoreline along Mount Rooper Walking TrailView from the beachView from Lookout PointLookout at the end of the pathBack at the beach...It's called 'Coral Beach', but we're calling this a coral graveyard.Some really interesting coral has washed up on this shore...The rocks on this shore have the most interesting lines; seems to suggest thousands of years of agePark informationSecond trailPosted signLots of butterflies

    Mount Rooper

    November 11, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    A little relaxation on the balcony followed by a nice little hike in/around Mount Rooper.

  • Australia 2024
    8a: Coffee in hand, heading to the ferry at Port of Airlie.
    Cool ferryA rather non-stressed captain :)Views from the outbound ferry ride....Approaching Hamilton Island MarinaAlong our bus tour, we stopped at the lookout area at One Tree HillOne incredibly beautiful locationHow's that for a driving range!Most workers live on the island in cramped facilities (2-3 people/unit)There are 2 shuttle buses around the paved side of the island. (the rest requires 4WD vehicles)During lunch we watched a couple birds battle for a branchHamilton Island Yacht ClubGoodbye HamiltonChannel markers guide us backBack to AirlieA few feathered friends welcoming us back

    Day trip to Hamilton Island: part 1 of 2

    November 13, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Our trip to Hamilton Island included a beautiful ferry ride (~50min) from Airlie, a kayaking outing at Catseye Beach where we saw the before-and-after effects of the tidal swings, and an island bus tour. However the tidal effects were so interesting that we separated our pics into 2 footprints: ferry/island tour for part 1 and kayaking/tidal effects for part 2.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    The canoeing group that allowed us to join them
    Canoed off the shorelineCanoeing setup areaPreparing for the 'launch'; our group filled 2 boatsMore preparationFirst rest stopOur Olympic driver avoided a potential collisionWe chased this boat all dayPhoto bombed wedding pictureVisited the Boat Haven Harbor

    Outrigger Canoeing w/ local club

    November 15, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 82 °F

    During one of our walks we saw a sign promoting outings with the local canoeing club called The Whitsunday Outrigger Canoe Club. After contacting the club, we learned they offer Friday evenings for 'social canoeing' and invite beginners to join them in their outings. We have been seeing their boats in the bay the last couple days, so it was very cool that we were able to join a local club outing.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Preparing the Kayaks
    anticipationAnd we're off starting with all smiles!Approaching White Rock Reef (basically a little rocky island)Stinger suit. Sexy.Climbed to the lookout of the tiny islandView from the lookoutPanoramic view from the lookout along with the path we took to get thereJanine climbed barefoot (flipflops wouldn't cut it here)(mw) Perhaps I should have helped . . . 🤔Returning to Shute Harbor

    Guided Kayak Outing to White Rock Reef

    November 16, 2024 ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Signed up with SaltDog Kayaking for a Half day inner island turtle tour.
    We were picked up and driven to Shute Harbor provided our instruction and off to Turtle Harbor in the hunt for Turtles. We left during high tide with a 5,000 person cruise ship in the area, creating a lot of ferry traffic. This caused the water to be clouded, so we only say one turtle :(

    We loved the experience of being in a sea kayak and will need to go again.

    An additional bonus was being able to try a stinger suit for a short swim near turtle island.    Read more

  • Australia 2024

    Catamaran Sailing - Day 2

    November 18, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    Morning snorkel in a bay on the north side of Border Island. As you can see from the pictures the water quality was a little cloudy. We were told the water quality changes with the weather.

  • Australia 2024
    6:30a breakfast followed by ~7:30a departure
    Watch full video to see above & below water views of our curious, fishy friendsWe're going to visit the most photographed spot on Whitsunday Island: Hill InletVery popular placeBetty's Beach in Whitehaven Bay1'Hooks' provided to hang your backpack whilst you're roaming the island to reduce damage to natureFrom the lookout we could see a group (aka: a 'squadron') of manta rays swimming around.Hill Inlet. Just breathtaking.Sunset from our departureThe 29m Solway Lass anchored next to us

    Catamaran Sailing: Day 2

    November 18, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    We had a little fun with the fishes before taking off for the Whitsundays.
    Today we visited the Whitsunday Island - Hill Inlet!

  • Australia 2024
    The Solway Lass during the daylight
    Passengers from another boat. We were happy to be on a smaller boat without a crowd.Looking southward on Langford Island watching the cross-currentsThe longer we were there, the more the island 'surfaced' due to the tidesCheck out all the Sting Rays (hint: they look like black rocks)View from the lookout point on LangfordStill at the lookout pointOur transportation to/from our boat driven by our fearless captain.Inflatable SUPs --- not quite as stable as the solid-board models.Captains viewChill timeShould you let the him win? Hmm.....🤔Meet Petie.

    Catamaran Sailing: Day 3

    November 19, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Waking up on the northwest side of Hook Island. We took a short ride to a snorkeling area shown in the previous footprint. Then, we powered to the NW side of the island to check out fish and an underwater sculpture of sting rays. Even though the captain fed the fish, it was enjoyable to be surrounded by them. Afterward, we powered to Langford Island Reef to hike to a local lookout. Afterward, we went to Caves Cove on the west side of Hook Island to pull out the stand-up boards. Everyone had fun riding the 5 SUPs. The final stop was to Nara Inlet: a secluded bay on the south side of the island to spend the night. We were visited by a cockatoo (named Petie), who is apparently a 'regular' with the boat crew, which provided some fun entertainment as he pursued snacks with the captain.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Up and running!
    Matilde had a hesitant (yet ultimately successful) first SUP adventure.In the end, Matilde was smiling.Simon was a pro.Simon demonstrating great balance to raise to standing from a knees position.Tyler (our boat captain) took Felix out for a spin.Guillaume decided SUP's might not be for him.Simon (left) relaxes while Mike works out how to stand up.Success!Mike really got the hang of it!Simon was just enjoying the day...As noted earlier: 'stability' is not a strong point for these SUVs. But Mark still rocked it!Freya gave her board to Matile & decided to just swim.Father & son (Guillaume & Felix) enjoying a new experience.Guillaume then took his younger son, Otis, out.All smiles 😊😊

    Catamaran Sailing - Day 3

    November 19, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Couldn't resist adding a few extra inflatable stand up boards pictures. Everyone had a fun time. Having said that, I would definitely try one before making a purchase. These were inflatable stand up paddle boards & were a lot more difficult than others I (Mark) have tried in the past.Read more

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