Goin' Downtown

Karen and I decided to go downtown today. Usually going downtown means the Thurber Raiders won a big football game and the bus took the downtown route back to the high school. I hope that happened on Tuesday night. Today though Karen and I caught the train and headed for the "river walk". It's a neat place to wander for sure. There is even a man made beach that has lifeguards. The kids on Spring Break were taking advantage of the opportunity to hit the water. The shops down town were crowded with holiday shoppers. Wall to wall people. I love to watch the people in the crowd.

Confucius and I were having a discussion about the big games in Australia this Saturday.

The hibiscus are everywhere and beautiful.

The man made pool/beach near down town Brisbane.

Karen and I take munchies when we tour to save some money. Imagine a chicken caesar at this restaurant, $22 per order.

Spaghetti and meatballs is cheap, right? Not.

An Aussie Tall Tale

Karen and I are getting used to the "figures of speech" that our Aussie friends use. Check this out:

I put my togs on and jumped in the tinnie. The lumpy seas ensured that there might be some drama as I headed for land. I threw in my life jacket so I would not fall off the perch. I reckon I had to get to land or I would dip out. I had to ensure that I had all the bits in my pack. I did remember that I left some stuff in the boot. I hit the skids and turned the tinnie around. I jumped back in the tender and headed for my car and opened the boot. I spewed a bit but my mates yelled at me that I was late so I told them to stick it up their clackers.

Cheers

Bob and Karen

...perfectly clear, right. Back to the pool.

Endless Aussie Beaches

If you want to see endless beaches, head either up the Gold Coast or down the Sunshine Coast from Brisbane. Today we hit Noosa and the beautiful beach there. Yep, you could tell it was Spring Break. Lots of kids and families at the beach. The condos right on the beach were only $550 a night. They were full.

We could see Fraser Island right across from our location. Fraser Island is a World Heritage Site that is the largest sand island in the world. Karen and I hope to get there in a few days.

We are keeping track of high school football back in Red Deer. Hunting Hills and Thurber both won last night. Karen and I had big smiles.

The main beach at Noosa.

Karen and I went for a walk along a boardwalk and trail along Noosa National Park. It protects a large track of ocean front from developers. It's quite rugged.

Bob, Mark, Mary and Kate hangin' at the beach.

Off to a Rainforest and Self Serve Fruit Stands

Mark and Mary suggested we go for a bush walk today in the hills just off the coast near Surfer's Paradise. We drove to Tyalgum and tramped on a well used trail that included a natural bridge. This was located in Springbrook National Forest. I certainly could feel the humidity as we wandered along. We decided to head to another trail head to see some waterfalls while keeping a close eye on the building thunderclouds.

On the way to the next trail head, we stopped at a self serve fruit stand. There were bananas and pawpaws in the basket. The self serve consisted of baskets of the available fruit, an equal arm balance, two bricks (one was 1kg and another was 2kg) and a spot to leave your money. We bought 2 kg of bananas and a pawpaw which apparently tastes like a mango.

By the time we got past the fruit stand we decided to have a coffee break and then the skies opened up. A deluge can flood roads in minutes so we hit the M1 and back to Brissie. The torrential rain made driving a bit dicey but we arrived back in good shape.

The trees are massive.

The Natural Bridge was just behind us.

Mary and Karen selecting the fruit to weigh.

Note the bricks that are used as counter weights on the equal arm balance.

Small bananas called Lady Fingers

This fella stopped by to visit while we were having a cappaccino later in the day.

I love cappaccino Aussie style. It costs the same as a long black coffee.

Some Fun Images While Sailing

Jules loved to shell hunt along the beach. Karen and I did not want to touch the shells because some can make you sick. We did not know the difference.

Glen at the helm. You can tell that he loved the ocean and sailing.

Karen looking down Whitheaven Beach.

This picture is for our friends Jim and Doreen. After many a canoe trip, our hands were blackened from cooking on an open fire. On this trip our hands were squeeky clean.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Mark and Mary wandering down Whitehaven Beach.

...not a care in the world, well at least for a few hours.

Great Barrier Reef Fish

Snorkelling the reefs in the Whitsundays was indeed a very neat experience. There were so many different fish species. The fish and coral kept Karen and I entertained for hours. One day Karen was snorkelling for almost three straight hours. She was almost white when I made her hit the beach and warm up. We both gulped our share of salt water. Burp.

The ocean was so warm. We just wore our swim suits (Aussies call them togs). We saw some people in wet suits and others with a stinger suit on (a lycra one piece suit). There are few jelly fish this time of the year so Karen and I opted to just wear our togs, no budgie smugglers (speedo) on me. That would have sent all the fish to another reef for sure.

A parrot fish.

These guys came to visit us right at the sailboat.

Angel fish of all sizes were all along the reef.

We Are Back from the Whitsundays!

Karen and I are back to Brisbane after a long drive back from Airlie Beach. We saw miles and miles of Australian bush and many sugar cane fields. Our sailing trip was fabulous. Being in the sub tropics on a sail boat is definitely one for the bucket list.The last week has been amazing in so many ways. The 5 posts below will give you a feeling of what we did. We will add lots of detail over the next few days to go with the pictures. Get a coffee and take a journey with us to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands. We wish you all could have been with us.

Getting Ready to Sail

It's a long drive from Brisbane to Airlie Beach. I reckon it's almost 1200 km. We picked up Mary after she dismissed her grade 4s for Spring Break and started driving north towards Airlie Beach. The traffic was bumper to bumper because it was the start of two weeks with no school. Traffic finally settled down and we stopped at Childers for the night. You might recall that there was a terrible hostel fire that killed about 20 backpackers in Childers. We were in a hotel right next door to the disaster. After a beer we hit the sack. Saturday was long. We drove through a lot of bush and farmland. The farms grew sugarcane, bananas, pineapples and mangoes. We finally got to Airlie Beach late in the afternoon. We meet up with Glen and Jules, friends of Mary and Mark who are experienced sailers, who would be joining Mark, Mary, Karen and I on our catamaran for the next week. We ate out and experienced service and food at its worst. Mark arranged for us to stay in a cabin at a camp. The couch was covered in bugs that quickly got all over our gear. Poor Karen was not amused.

Sunday morning we loaded up and headed for the marina at Airlie Beach. Cumberland Boat Charters was all ready for us. We started to load our catamaran at 8:30 am. Karen and Mary hit the grocery store while we got briefed about our boat. The briefing took almost 2 hours. We finally loaded the food and then we were off for another briefing about sailing the Whitsundays. We were given a short navigation lesson and then we headed out. We were given a hands on overview of the sails, radio, washrooms and how to anchor. Finally we were off.

It was a perfect day for sailing. The wind was mostly at our backs. Up with the main sail and jib. We were excited and luckily we had Glen and Jules to help us try to get it right as sailors. After 3 hours of cruising towards Hook Island we anchored up at Stonehaven Bay. We had a lovely evening in the bay. After a short swim off the catamaran, we barbequed supper. The sunset was amazing and shortly after dark, the wind came up BIG time as a storm blew in. It thundered and rained all night.

The thunder and lightening continued in the morning. The weather settled down enough for us to move to Butterfly Bay where we hoped to snorkel. Karen sailed the boat. The ocean swells were big for us sailing rookies. We finally anchored up and waited for our opportunity to snorkel along the reef in Butterfly Bay. The showers settled down so we got our snorkel gear on. Just as we started to dive, another shower rolled in. We decided to still snorkel. It was our fist experience with snorkel gear and it was no problem. I only gulped down a few gallons of the Pacific. The coral and fish were amazing although the storm churned the water up a bit and the visibility was not perfect. All 6 of us snorkelled until the weather really wound up. Sigh.

After a showery evening and "bullets" (heavy wind gusts), we went to our berths hoping that tomorrow would be a nice weather day.

...thankfully it was!



Our catamaran! It had 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms with showers, a spacious galley that had a very adequate kitchen area.

Hauling the gear to the boat. It was 30C and 85% humidity. The sweat was rolling down all of us.

Karen looking at the "Bible" called the 100 Magic Miles of the Whitsundays.

A map of the Whitsundays.




Mark and Mary

Glen and Jules

Bob and Karen

Life on the Catamaran

We quickly got into a bit of a routine on the boat. The sun was up a 6 am so we quickly followed suit. Breakfast was bacon/eggs, toast or pancakes. We dranks lots of coffee and Karen had a kwells (motion sickness pill) first thing. The ocean swells only churned up Karen's stomach when she tried to read. We watched a couple of movies on the television on the boat. We were in bed no later than 10 pm. It was dark by 6:30 pm each night.

It was always warm. Karen and I never wore a sweater or coat. It was always in the midtwenties celcius even when it rained.

We had to anchor by 4 pm each day, then it was Happy Hour.

We sailed every day. We did have two diesel engines so we could motor when needed. They came in handy several times.

A typical breakfast with some "Canadian" maple syrup packaged in Australia.

Jules and Glen cooking breakfast.

Karen working on supper.

Jules on the radio. We had to check in twice a day to give Cumberland our location and plans.

Our sleeping quarters. We had a port hole right above us. Lots of room, yet cozy.

Whitehaven Beach

We spent two nights anchored in Nara Inlet because it was well protected by the south east wind. Our first night there, we motored and sailed to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is on Whitsunday Island and it is beautiful. Miles and miles of beautiful fine sand. We anchored up just off the beach and swam in to shore using our flippers. The beach was incredible. We all went for a long walk. That felt really good. The sand is so white and so fine. There is so much space and so few people. We camped at Tongue Bay after our day at Whitehaven. Lots of tour boats stop for a few hours at this beautiful place.

Applying lots and lots of sunscreen was the first order of business every morning.

The radio crackled just as we got to Whitehaven Beach with a message. My daughter Shannon and her fiancee Alan are now officially engaged to be married. That made our day. It's amazing how news can travel around the world.

Whitehaven Beach is a piece of heaven.

The Gang at one end of the endless beach.

What a beautiful place. We had miles of sand untouched that day to walk along. The sand dunes behind were a protected area.

Snorkelling at Manta Ray Bay

Karen and I agree that snorkelling was a highlight for us. We snorkelled most days until we were too tired to continue. We spent two days at Luncheon Bay and Manta Ray Bay snorkelling. The water is incredibly clear. The fish and coral were amazing.

A hump-headed maori wrasse came to visit right at the boat. This one, I figure, is about 40 pounds. There were several in Manta Ray Bay.


There were so many tropical species of fish in the area. These pinnate batfish would come right up to the boat looking for a snack.

Karen snorkelling! What a blast!

I loved to snorkel with the maori wrasse. They were quite friendly. If you ignored them, they would come up to you. They were very curious.

The yellow tail fusilers were everywhere. It was the neatest feeling in the world to be swimming around like you were in a giant aquarium.

Checking out the coral and fish

Karen spent many hours in the ocean chasing fish and looking at the neat coral.

Jules and Glenn snorkelling and snuggling!

Mary and Karen hamming it up for the camera. Thank goodness we took our waterproof camera. It provided some great pictures for our blog!