Escape to Airlie Beach

 

Good morning Whitsunday islands!  We woke expecting wind and waves but got calm instead.  These are just a few of the 74 isles and islets that make up the Whitsundays.  I had hoped to be going out to a gorgeous sandy beach today but that tour got cancelled last week.  So I booked the Royal Caribbean Great Barrier Reef tour with Karl as an alternate, then yesterday that one got cancelled.  My refundable onboard credit account looks pretty flush right now.

One more early shot of the islands near our mooring.  I was surprised at how tree covered they were.  Airlie was one of our tender ports so I'd been wearing my  "good energy" necklace again to help create some positive vibes.  And it worked!  You can see what a lovely day it was.  Here's one of the large Airlie Beach tenders that came to pick us up at Serenade.

One of our fellow cruisers who took a flight out to see the Great Barrier Reef was kind enough to share this photo her husband got of Serenade from the air.  

One of the things about this lovely stretch of sand is that you don't see anyone swimming in it.

And here's the reason why, there are some pretty nasty jellyfish that ply these waters.  There are two kinds of jellies, first is the Box Jellyfish, which is larger and the most lethal.  Their stings create what look like burn marks and the venom can rapidly cause a victim to lose consciousness and stop breathing..  The other type is an Irukandji, a small box jellyfish that is less than an inch in size.  and can cause nausea, muscle cramps, vomiting, and severe anxiety among other things.  Symptoms may take 30 minutes to start.  No thank you to either one!  Notice on the left of the sign there is a bottle with some vinegar in it to quickly try to treat a sting.

Those who do go into the water to swim should wear "stinger suits", all of the tours we heard about that go out to the reef this time of year require you to wear these.  This is the worst time of year for poisonous jellyfish.

 

As we walked the boardwalk we came across this statue and then down below it someone had arranged these rocks into a heart.

The rock heart went right along with the Airlie Beach sign that claims that this town is the "Heart of the Reef".  My selfie skills are getting a little better.

Not far from where we were dropped off by the shuttle were these lovely public pools.  Unlike the pools next to the beach in Newcastle these were freshwater.

There were shallow and deeper parts in the pools so it was a great place for families.  Part of it was available for doing laps as well.  I texted Lydia and sent a photo to tell her we'd found another place for her to do laps and her response was "y'all are having my ultimate swimming dream!"

Be ready for a lot of flower pictures in this post, there were so many beautiful varieties and colors around that I just kept taking pictures.  These Plumeria smelled as good as they look.

I'll give you one guess who was immediately drawn to this building.  He said if he could only have a pair of shorts out of a fabric just like this he would be thrilled.

I really felt like we needed another selfie here.  It's just too bad you can't see Karl's fish shorts along the fish wall!

Karl's knee was hurting but I wanted to walk a little further down the boardwalk so he found some shade and I wandered a little more.  These fiery Jungleflame flowers were abundant.

Many of the houses in the area we were in looked like these.  Our shuttle bus driver from the port told us that population in Airlie has almost doubled since the Pandemic, lots of newer homes up on the hillsides.

Looking back towards the first beach we'd come to, such pretty views.

And here was another, looking in the opposite direction down the path a ways.

These pretty blossoms are called Coral Vine or Queen's Wreath.

The flower on the upper left is called a Purple Alamanda, below it is some Bougainvillea.  I still can't find the name of the blossoms on the right.  I have seen those in so many places but they aren't the flower that my phone tries to tell me they are.  One of these days I'm going to meet someone who knows what they are called! 

I made my way back to Karl, then took off again to go find a place to buy a towel.  Usually when we get off the ship they have towels and water that we can take along with us but today we got sent to a different tender exit with no water and no towels.  I quickly found a place with towels and also got my Airlie Christmas ornament along with a couple of bottles of water so we were set to take a dip in the lagoon. 

This facility was just a lovely place to spend an hour or two.  It was still pretty early when we got there, a little before ten, and there weren't any crowds.  We parked our stuff on a bench in the shade and got ourselves into the water.

I know, another selfie!  I just had to prove I was there.  I kept my hat on because even though it was early the sun is strong at this latitude and we had to be mindful of our sun exposure.  I got a little bit of burn today but not bad.  We'd just lounge in the water, then get some rays, then cool off in the water again.  We saw people we knew passing by, chatted with a few,  but no one else got in the water besides us while we were there.

I found it interesting how specific this sign was for keeping safe while swimming.  There were plenty of lifeguards around if you needed them.  We decided we'd better get to some shade so we didn't get burned, so we dried off with our new towel and then wandered around town a bit to find somewhere to eat.  There is only one main road in Airlie Beach for businesses and you can walk from one end of it to the other in about 15 minutes.  It's really a lovely place, lots of eateries and shops.  We just ended up eating at McDonalds for simplicity's sake.  We met LeaAnn and Chuck there and walked around with them for a time before we all headed back to the shuttle and the tender.

While we were strolling we saw several of these Sulphur-crested Cockatoos just hanging out up in a tree.  

This flower was a new one for me, a Spider Lily.  Karl thought that they looked like they could be jellyfish.

When I saw this flower I thought it was some kind of a Bird of Paradise, but when I looked it up it's actually a False Bird of Paradise, also called a Golden Torch.  I know, I go crazy with flower pictures but I can't help myself, I adore the variety and the uniqueness of so many that I see.

One more shot of the beach.  Around that point is where Serenade was moored.

I had to add this photo of LeaAnn for two reasons.  First off, we both bought the same hat while we were out and about.  I decided I needed one where the brim didn't flop around whenever it was windy, and since they were "buy one get one half off" she decided to get one too.  This hat will keep sun off our faces and our necks.  Second reason for the picture, she's holding up her arm to show me the makeshift camera cover that she came up with because she lost the actual cover for her new 360 camera.  She bought it after playing around with Karl's 360 and it's been a running joke between the two of them who forgets to take the cover off more often.  

Just one more Plumeria photo because I love them so much.

And one more view of a couple of the small Whitsundays in the distance.  This really is a lovely part of Australia.

Our last stop before getting to the shuttle was this memorial to those who had lost their lives in 1970 when Cyclone Ada devastated the area.  Just as a reminder, cyclones are the hurricanes of the Southern Hemisphere.  This one damaged 90% of the buildings and destroyed all of the marine fleet.

As a result of Cyclone Ada new warning systems were implemented and better plans put in place to help with recovery.  They had just had almost two weeks of rains here in Airlie before today and we were told the sunshine was very welcome.  I was just grateful we could get into Airlie Beach to do some exploring and enjoy their lovely lagoon.  It was definitely a day where lemons turned into lemonade, we loved Airlie!