The Whitsundays are great, and Port Douglas is only 18miles to the reef. Forget what you hear about coral bleaching. Its only bad in the far north, far from civilization.
come to northern W.A folks. You can dog paddle out to the Ningaloo reef off the beaches - in some places its only about 5 metres off the beach edge at low tide and heaps of small, bright coloured reef fish here. And of course if you have fins, snorkel and mask - then you get to see the much bigger fish. No paying for charter boats and much of the reef is in a National Park which has many camping areas (even for caravans).
We were there last year and no signs of any bleaching other than the pale skinned 19 yr old pack packers in their bikinis (some go nude or topless in line with what they are used to in Europe) - not that I looked of course lol
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
