A day + 9 - 9 December - Ocean rafting

This was the first excursion we scheduled the day before and we had a shuttle pickup at 9h30. This was a kind of all-in one excursion that we did because we wanted to visit the famous Whitehaven beach, with its pure silica sands! The package included also a snorkeling stop for about 1h and a short bushwalk in the island up to the photoshoot point.

The trip was done in an high powered 450 horsepower semi-rigid boat about 7 meters long called Wild Thing.






The crew, Jas and Shane were very friendly and professional in its explanations about the Whitsundays and we had a very nice description of the islands that we passed.
This was the general map of the area displayed on the shirts of our captain.




So we had the snorkeling stop about 40 mins of leaving the mooring.



However the water was very "cloudy" due to the recent rains and high tides (4m) and the visibility was only about 2m...
Still we saw lots of fish and diferent corals and even a giant shell.












I won't post more underwater photos from today because they are not really worth it...

After we left the snorkeling site we went for the bushwalk and to the Whitehaven beach. We landed on the northern tip and from there we started the trek






During the trek I had the chance to taste the Green ants, that the natives use as a source of nutrients and can be caught in the trees. They tasted "lemony" ;-)














And of course we met the most abundant wildlife in the island...yes....spiders...more of the gold orb weavers..




















Even an arachnophobe like myself has to admit they have amazing colors and patterns...and since they lay very still in the middle of their web I could appreciate them from "safe" distance while Filipa was taking this great photos. Just some more facts about these spiders: the name comes from the golden tinge their webs have and these big ones are the females. The small ones that surrounds them are the males and a female can have up to four males...and of course if hunger strikes she eats them..

From the top of the island we can see the whole bay that I've already shown you in yesterdays post. The different shades of blue/green are really amazing!






This bay is also a nursery for Lemon Sharks and Manta Rays and we manage to spot some small sharks ( about 60 cm) just 2-3 m from us gliding in the warm water.

We had our lunch then at the southern end of the Whitehaven beach. Instead of sand it has only pure, very small, silica grains, that are so reflective that the sand is never warm to the point of scalding the feet. However, they said to us to put extra sun block because there we would get burned from all the directions! The silica sand is also great to clean all metals and it is a perfect skin exfoliating agent. But they warned several time not to take the sand away, since the fine and criminal charges for being caught with even 1g of Whitehaven silica, are even heavie thanmto be caught with cocaine! They are also extra careful not tomleave anything behind and the signs say to take nothing and leave behind just footprints.






There are also plane and helicopte excursions to the beach







And this is one of the local fishes that are constantly swimming around us






Another local species are the Monitor Lizards, called oguanas by the locals






The ones we saw were 80-100cm in size with sharp claws and they stayed near the lunch sites since they are used to eat some leftovers that people throw them.

To finalize I'll just show you the jellifish protective suit that we all use everytime we are in the water, the Stinger suit







This compete lycra suit protects not only from the jellyfish but also from the stinging sun while we are snorkling!

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A day + 8 - 8 December - Arriving at Airlie Beach

After a 1h30 train ride from Neranga to Brisbane Domestic Flights Airport (thanks to http://www.airtrain.com.au/ the transfer was quite easy) and a 1h20 flight from Brisbane to Proserpine Airport and another 30 mins bus transfer we finally arrived at our apartment in Airlie Beach with its
amazing view






After we settled in and schedule the trips for the next days at the hotel reception we decided to visit the downtown area. After arriving there we saw the nice artificial lagoon, that is the only completely safe place to swim in Airlie Beach













And why is it dangerous to swim at the beach? Again the dreaded jellyfish season






And just to show you some more detailed descriptions:













And every site has vinegar to inactivate the stings in case someone gets stun. You just need to rinse abundantly with vinegar...and dial 000 to call assistance







To get some food for the next days we went for the Bicentennial walk, a nice 2.5 km walk up to Cannonvale that is mostly done by the sea in a wooden plank walkway






At the middle of the walk we got this information sign:






So in the next days, we will be also discovering what the Whitsundays have to offer us!

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A day + 7 - 7 December - Surfers Paradise

Our friends, Dominik, Miriam and Federica, vacations were coming to an end and they had to get back to Canberra so me and Filipa changed to an hotel at Surfers Paradise for the day and that night.



Booking.com iPad app managed to find an hotel for the night about 40 AUD cheaper than the average price so we were quite happy. The hotel was about 200m from the main Surfers Paradise shopping/eating area so we went for a walk at the beach before getting lunch. And finally we got some sun!






Although it was still a bit cloudy a 1 hour walk got as a slight sunburn!
But as soon as we arrived tomthe shopping area the rain started to pour again...but that doesn't stop some people of having fun




or even the Aussie Christmas as they were decorating the streets




Shells as a Christmas tree decoration is very common formus right ;-) ?
For dinner we went to this very small family run restaurant since I was in the mood for noodle soup.







The food was actually very good and tasty!

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The Whitsundays

Just a quick preview from today's report







These are panoramas from the photo shoot point on the northern tip of whitehaven beach.

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Quick travel report

Before continuing to report what we did yesterday (7th December) and today (8th December) here are some pictures earlier today to show that we finally saw the australian sun without having any rain today!

Here am I at the balcony of the appartment we are staying




And here is Filipa when we went down to Airlie Beach central area



The sun is so strong here that just 2 one hour walks ( yesterday and today ) left us with a bit of sunburn! (i.e. we started to work on our tans ;-) )
Tomorrow I'll try to see if I finally manage to update the blog with the daily adventures since we will be taking our first excursion on th Whitsundays area, and we will visit the famous Whitehaven beach! Let's hope the weather holds!

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A day + 6 - 6 December - Noosa beach and National Park

The day started with me and Dominik droping Derek at the Gold Coast Airport since it was time for him to get back to Singapore and then back home. We changed the car rental to a smaller car, and went back home to decide what to do for the day. After some consideration we decided to take a 3 hours drive up North to Noosa Beach. While in Portugal a 3 hours car drive seems an eternity, in Australia is simpky around the corner. I have to admit that I wasn't to keen to spend a total 6 hours in a car for visiting something for around 3 hours only, but I'm glad the rest of the group convinced me to go.

On the way to Noosa we stoped at Caloundra to have lunch as we (or at least me and Filipa) were starving. We were in mood for nachos and used maps app in iPad to found the nearest Mexican restaurant. But when we got there it was closed and we ended up having lunch at Nando's. This chain of restaurants is what passes for portuguese food in Commonwealth countries : Chargrilled barbeque chicken woth piri-piri ( which they call Peri-peri by the way...)




And yes Filipa is holding a "galo de Barcelos" that also has the table number...




The chicken was actually nice but we have much better in any "Churrascaria" in Portugal ( and much much cheaper...)

After lunch we hit the road again and went straight go Noosa beach



Like the Lonely planet guide says if Byron Bay is the hippiest spot on Gold Coast , Noose is the hippest. The downtown is full of haute couture stores and exquisite looking restaurants and bars. But the beaches there are another surfers mecca.

At the beach enjoying the few sunny moments that managed to escape the constant showers through the day were people playing cricket



Passing the main Noosa beach we went to the Noosa National Park to take another walk and watch the surfers. We saw surfers of literally all ages, from 9 to 60! And the older ones (over 50 yo) were a significant number!



And here are some of the photos we took from the surfers














These are just a few of the many photos we took from the surf and we will share more when we will be able to upload them to Picasa Web Albuns.
The day light started to wane and a strong rain had us on the run back to Noosa as the day drawn to an end.



Before the 3h drive back home we dryed ourselves while having some coffee and desserts at an Aroma's restaurant/cafe in downtown Noosa. There me and Filipa had a Mississipi Mud Cake ( dark chocolate ) and a Banana Cheesecake that were one of the best cakes we ever had!

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A day + 5 - 5 December - Brisbane

Since the bad weather continued in the Nooby beach where we were staying, we checked the weather report and decided to go and visit Brisbane, one hour car ride north from whee we were.
Twenty minutes after we left the apartment we had the first taste of Sun for the day




It was short llved though since the clouds came back... When we arrived to Brisbane it was lunch time and Dominik took us to this nice turkish restaurant




Although was raining was very nice to have lunch outside protected from the rain.

After lunch we went to Brisbane Botanical Gardens and before arriving we crossed the Public Park where they have this nice public swimming pool




The photo doesn't do justice to the size of the pool, which had lifeguards and rescue service. It is at least three times the size of what you see in that picture.
After that we crossed one of the many bridges of the Brisbane rivers and we arrived at the Botanical Gardens








The gardens occupied a large are and were full of interesting species. It was there we saw the Gold Orb Weaver spider we posted on the Spiders special report.
Here is one of the plants we admired




There were also very funny looking birds


And of course the ever present Ibis birds



You can see these flying around everywhere in the cities here in Queensland.

And of course there where this gigantic threes all over the place. the one in the next picture is from the Ficus family







After we left the gardens we headed to the Brisbane downtown are with its tall modern architecture buildings contrasting with some colonial style ones











And here is the downtown skyline from the other bank of the river




We really enjoyed visiting Brisbane since It seemed a modern city with very nice relaxing nature places! How cool would it be reading papers in the Botanical Garden? The lucky guys from the School of Business from one of the Universities in Brisbane can do it since their campus is at the Botanical Gardens! And one other university has its campus in the public park ;-)

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