Aly's Blog: The rest of the story

Yesterday when we were out on the reef snorkeling we had to wear these ridiculous spandex suits. It is jellyfish season and near the shore they can be very dangerous. Not so much out at the reef, but I suppose for insurance purposes they have to insist. Seriously, it looked like the "Telletubbies Go Snorkeling" with a hundred people in the water dressed in baby blue, pink, green, yellow or orange suits from head to toe, including gloves. I couldn't bare to take a photo of us it was beyond showing. I do have photos of the groups in the water for you (see yesterday).

At dusk this place turns into Transylvania, honestly. The bats come out and fly around - and they are huge. There are wild kangaroos or wallabies (not sure which one, they look small) start running around and across the roads, there are large furry things that climb trees about 5x the size of a squirrel, the parakeets start squawking and flying and I am sure many other creepy crawlies. Driving in an open air golf cart is not that comforting even with the front lights on! Just putting the kids to bed and found a very tiny lizard on the wall. Don't think it will each much over night and was so scared it ran behind the TV cabinet before I could attempt to catch it.

Hamilton Island really seems to have sustainability down. They have their own desalination plant, rock quarry, plant nursery, roads department, fire department, state school and much more. They attempt to be completely self-sustaining from the main land. This island is part of the Whitsunday National Park and can only be developed 27.3% (not sure who came up with that number?) which has apparently maxed out here. There are gum trees all over the island looking very distinctive from the rest as they loose their bark and are almost completely smooth and white.

This morning the boys went ATVing on a little kids track - one of the many pay activities available here. They were the only two at the time and that worked great for them. 15 minutes went very quickly and Kyle was disappointed in not being allowed to roam the hills freely and make jumps but had great fun all the same on 50CC Kawasawki 4-wheelers.

When we arrived it was high tide and the beach had crashing waves with lots of rocks not far in and a little steep. Don't judge by that! Today we walked on the beach at low tide and after those rocks it is flat, gorgeous sand for over a mile and only at that point is the water up to my neck. It was great fun to walk so far out and play in the light waves that were coming in between the islands. We haven't snorkeled off the beach here just yet but hear that just at the end of the shallow sand it is pretty good. Maybe for tomorrow.

We also tried a new pool today that is absolutely huge! It's roughly a circle with a swim-up bar in the middle. The entire pool is up to my neck with a ledge around the edges so great for jumping in and diving for objects, refreshing too at the perfect temperature. We came back and swam in our complex pool for an hour after that and then headed in for early dinner, treats and two movies we rented from the store down in town.

Just before bed we went for a drive up to the lookout point to see the stars. Absolutely gorgeous night sky here - would have attempted a photo but the one bright light on the gazebo interfered greatly with that effort. We recognized Orion's belt but that was about it. Going to download the app on this iPad to more of what stars are in the southern hemisphere but need to get to WiFi for that.