Barrier Reef

Gary.
We have been in Airlie Beach which is famous as the access point to the 74 Whitsunday Islands now for 3 nights. We have had one day sailing for 10 hrs around the islands and swimming on the untouched White Island Beach. It is famous because it gets no jetsom and flotsom as the tides around don't come into the beach so it's pristine, except for boating tourists. Yesterday we motored 65 miles off shore to The Barrier Reef to a huge permanent pontoon which has the most amazing facilities. You could dive, snorkel, water slide, be massaged, glass bottom boat and semi submersible while out. We had 3 hrs there as it takes 2.5hrs each way. We saw some wonderful fish and coral and got some great professional pics. The pic of Kate behind the rasse(fish) is as it was. The rasse is 1m long x 60cm tall and Kate was about 2-3m behind it. A good 11hr day so an early bed last night.
We camped up on Saturday night at a speedway meeting which was a good way to combine the two. J&K enjoyed watching the m/bikes, m/bikes and sidecars/quad bikes and go carts racing on dirt for 3hrs. Jen cowered inside the camper quite delighted to get caught up with a diary and avoid the meeting.
Queensland is covered in sugarcane, bananas and mangos(60p each) with small railways all over transporting the cane to the processing mill. We have also bought Java bananas which are huge and taste quite different to the bananas we get at home.
Kate has a mango obsession which fortunately is cheap fodder.
We had an excellent dinner out last night which is only our 3rd since arriving in Aus.. Upstairs dining overlooking Airlie water front, no side to the building more tent like so airy. J&K had steak, dessert and a drink for £3.50, guess where we are going tonight?
Airle is absolutely moving with boats and yachts which provides a good gawk for Jack and I up and down the pontoons, drooling. We may come back in Jan on a 3 day trip which sails around the islands and you live on-board. Snorkelling and swimming as much as you can take. J&K certainly fancy it on an older clipper with lots of room and tarzan swings off the mast. I think J fancies a bit of pirate walk the plank treatment.
We have had an easy day today catching up on school, e-mail and internet related stuff. Some camp grounds have wifi internet access which means that you can connect up from your camper without having to move anywhere. We watched a film tonight outside in the campground free naturally, J&K delighted.
Moving south tomorrow and we aim to be in Brisbane around the weekend as we have a few camper showrooms to visit. Having had our toilet replaced for the 2nd time it lasted 4-5 days and has since given up.
Just had 2 possums running around our camper, J&K straight onto the case with the torches.
Kate reporting.
We went on a catamaran called Camira and we saw the Whitsundays and Whitehaven Beach. At eight o'clock we were on Camira and ready to go with 70 people on the 85 foot catamaran. After 30 minutes we arrived at Dreamtime Island and on the way people had been making use of the free drinks. At Dreamtime Island we picked up a few people. We set off again and had morning tea and then we keep on going until we came to Whitehaven Beach where we went swimming and played beach games for an hour it was great fun in the water with a football. Whitehaven Beach was so white and clean that it reflected the sun and the sand was not hot! We had lunch back on board that was great! Adults thought it was great because they gave you free wine and beer. Then we went to the snorkelling site that had a few fish but nothing else and it was rubbish. We came down the Whitsunday passage and a sort sail and then it was back to Airlie Beach.