Trip to Oz Part II

Noddy Terns are rampant on Heron Island.


Another beautiful sunset, this one was taken on our last night at Heron. We took the sunset cruise.


The most amazing things happened at night. The Mutton birds come home from a full day of fishing and fill the island with their haunting cries and the Greens and Loggerheads come ashore to lay clutches of eggs. It's not a good idea to take flash photography of the turtles at night, so we did not get any pictures of them coming ashore, but whenever we went for an evening stroll on the beach, we would spot around a dozen or so either swimming or shuffling onto shore. This is a picture of a couple of turtle tracks.


We left Heron Island and took a train north to Airlie Beach. We arrived at 4:30am, way before even McDonald's thought of opening. So, we spent some time taking in all the info on the dangers of the stingers we may encounter.


Airlie Beach is a relaxed beach town with an element of fraternity/party house feel. We stayed a couple of nights before our sailboat, The Whitsunday Magic, was ready for our 3 day/night tour around the Whitsunday Islands. This is on our balcony where cockatoos like to come and hang out.


Ahhh, pure relaxation on The Magic. She's built for comfort, not speed.


Here we are maxing and relaxing, another few days of having everything catered for us. The meals were gourmet and delicious. We also met very interesting people from Paris, Munich and Dallas.


We went on a few snorkelling trips off of The Whitsunday Magic where the coral was unbelievably colorful and gorgeous. This is the last picture with the digital camera in focus:(