Airlie Beach

Everyone told us we had to see the Whitsunday Islands, but after 2 cruises in one week and between seasickness and gravol withdrawal, we didn't feel up to another boat trip.  We'd planned to take a shuttle over to the nearest island and camp out for a night, but as it gets steadily hotter, we didn't think we would survive a day in our tent with no air conditioning.

Further, coastal Queensland is suffering through an unprecedented hotspell and drought and bushfires are breaking out all over.  Eungella National Park (reputedly a sure bet to see the elusive platypus) and Finch Hatton Gorge, two parks on our itinerary, are closed due to fires.  However, Australian fires are not like British Columbia fires.  They seem to be mainly grass fires, and though it's hazy the smoke is nothing like we experienced at home.  The main highway remains open and there's only a few rural road closures.  Evacuees are in the hundreds, not the thousands. So we keep driving north.

We stopped for lunch in Carmila, where a bushfire was burning and saw a few firefighters around.

Towns were were few and far between in this area. We stopped for an excellent bacon and egg and Wichita at this gas station in Carmila, where we met a woman who had worked in Watson Lake, Yukon in her 20s.  She quit and hitchhiked to San Diego.

We decided to stay in Airlie Beach (gateway to the Whitsundays) for a day despite not going to the islands.  When we arrived at our caravan park

we found this curious bird nesting next to our cabin.

The bush stone-curlew, also, appropriately, known as the thick knee.

The male would growl at Leo when he got too close to the nesting female.

All night long we could hear them wailing at each other.

There were a lot lots of these fancy  Plumed Whistling Ducks wandering about.

We got up the next morning at 5 in the morning to beat the heat (it was already 27 degrees) and make a short hike up Airlie Creek track.  The tracks in nearby Conroy National Park are closed due to fire hazard.

This cantelevered house was perched over Airlie Creek.

This proved to be a very birdy walk and we saw 7 new species, including several supposedly common birds we hadn't yet spotted.

First new bird of the day, the pied butcherbird

Fortunately we didn't encounter any plants answering to this description

By 9 am we were done, and retreated into our air-conditioned cabin for most of the day with a short foray out to do some shopping in downtown Airlie Beach.  It turned out to be the busiest and most touristy place we've been to, the streets were full of young weekenders in skimpy clothing.

At 4 pm we ventured out for the daily bird feeding,

We were a bit disappointed at the lack of diversity at the feeding station

and later in the evening we took a dip in the swimming pool (it was too warm for me).

Other than that the day was spent napping and catching up on this blog.