Airlie Beach, Day 5, February 22nd

 I spent over  an hour blogging the events of this day and when I was within minutes of finishing the entire thing disappeared. I then spent another hour trying to figure out where the post had gone. No Luck!! I am about to start over but you know this will not be as good as the Pulitzer Prize winning one that disappeared.

This is Wednesday and the clouds are rolling in quickly. We have an excursion so as is our habit we ordered room service so we would not be rushed.

Then when it was time we made our way to the Provence dining room to wait till it was time to board the tender. Because this is Wednesday we hid a duck along the way. We hid it in the library.

We knew from the forecast and the dark clouds that it was going to be a rainy day so we dressed accordingly. We each had a red and white CANADA umbrella as well. Ken had a poncho and I had my blue rain jacket. We were called around nine and we made our way to the tender. Fortunately we were scheduled to use one of the big catamarans. The ride was much more comfortable except for the fact that it had begun to rain. It was coming down in torrents. We were on the top open deck and the rain was being blown sideways and coming in through the open sides. When we arrived at our destination the rain was really coming down, it sounded like thunder pounding on the roof of the boat. It was so bad that some of the passengers decided to stay on board and return to the ship. But we were brave and so we continued to the terminal.

Our excursion was a bus tour of the city and area with photo stops. The rain continued sometimes in torrents and sometimes just downpours. Needless to say the photo ops were omitted. At least people tried at one but it was impossible to photograph anything.

The bus was new and modern but it leaked. The area around the emergency exit in the roof would just gush water when the bus turned a corner. Fortunately that exit is in the middle of an aisle. It could have been worse.

The driver told us about the area and its history as we drove along. The area is mainly agricultural. They raise sugar cane and many fruits and they also raise cattle. They have many deadly snakes and the water has dangerous jellyfish and salt water crocodiles.

We were let off at the top of one of the main streets where we could do some shopping. I was on the hunt for a Xmas ornament. In the first shop I went into I found the best ornament yet. It is a very detailed Koala with a baby on her back. She is wearing a Santa hat. I love it.

It was still raining but sometimes not quite as hard. At one point when crossing a street I was in water up to my ankles. I did manage to get a couple of photos as we made our way back to the ship.

We were lucky in that the cat was loading and we did not have to wait. By now we were so wet that it really would not have mattered. Thankfully the air and the rain water were warm.

When we got back on board we quickly got into some dry clothes and went topside to eat. On our way to Horizon Court we checked and the duck was gone.

There were four couples at the dinner table tonight. The other 3 were from the US, one from Indiana, one from Florida and one from California.

After dinner we went to the hot tubs in the conservatory. It was a wonderful evening. We had the area all to ourselves because it was show time and we decided to skip that.

We sat on the deck and enjoyed the remaining bit of sunlight. 

Tomorrow we are in Cairns and it is supposed to rain. Let's hope they are wrong.