Catching Up

We are in in a place called Bundaberg where we are again in a McDonalds (love the wifi) awaiting an evening beach trip to see some turtles come ashore and lay their eggs.

Airlie Beach was a ton of fun. We settled in a caravan park after determining that the concept of free-camping on the beach was an urban myth perpetuated by the local tourism bureau and caravan renters association. This particular park had some rather colorful inhabitants that Chloe soon became acquainted with at the daily feed



After a quiet day of checking out the local market and hanging out at the local lagoon (strangely there is no actual "beach" at Airlie Beach) we embarked on a fantastic two-day adventure. Day 1 had us joining Ecojet Safaris for a day of jet skiing along the coast and up one of the local rivers. Heather and Chloe shared a ski and Chloe even took "the wheel" for a while!






Day 2 had us head back out to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkeling. Unfortunately Heather and I seem to have had a psychic stomach transplant, and she had a toughtime with the rolling waves. After getting outfitted with our gear and stinger suits (yes - that's me in the neon pink. There is nothing wrong with wearing neon pink) to protect us from the sun and the stinging jellyfish we dove in and again experienced the wonder of the aquatic world that calls the Great Barrier Reef home.





We then continued our journey south but went inland a bit to have a look at the Outback area of Queensland. In a town called Emerald we saw a 23 meter tall (on a easel) painting of Van Gogh's sunflowers and decided to finally embrace free camping by spending last night parked on a street in Blackwater Asutralia