Where's the Beach?

I'm sitting the dining area of the Airlie Beach YHA, a youth Hostel, in Airlie Beach, Australia. My trip here was interesting, as was this first day. I boarded a plan from Brisbane and flew 1.75 hours north to Proserpine (pronounced Pross-a-pin I believe) airport. There was no real airport, just a Morten building with two ticket counters and a sitting area outside to wait for your plane. They pulled our luggage up to the building and let us go nuts getting it off the cart outside.
After a 35 minute car ride with 7 strangers, I was dropped off at the YHA, in a city that is maybe a little bigger than Milo. The main drag is pretty small, but it has a lot of businesses waiting to part you from your money. My key didn't work in the door, so I wondered around while the locksmith came to remove the super-glue from the lock (ha ha).
Today I went on a "Croc Safari" down the Proserpine River. We went on a tractor ride through the flood plains to try and see some wildlife before heading down the river. It was no surprise (to me at least) when we arrived back at the camp an hour later having only seen some Ibis (a bird that is every where), some other birds and a couple of toads. I managed to see the back of a kangaroo briefly as it hopped out of site, but that was it. For a while I felt like Ian Malcolm, the character from Jurassic Park. I almost raised my hand midway through the "safari" and asked, "Now, will there be any actual animals, on the wildlife safari? Any animals? Hello?" This little joke entertained me for the next 2 hours (seriously-I laughed to myself for a while).
After lunch, we jumped on a little boat and went up and down the river looking for crocs. We did see about 5 or 6 and a baby croc, so that was cool. The river we were flows into the ocean, so the guide said that the water also contained sharks, sting rays and jellyfish. Why is everything in this country dangerous??
After my contact fell out half way through the boat ride, I held it in my hand until we returned to Airlie Beach about 2 hours later. It was fun though and the Jurassic Park joke got me through the day. Tomorrow I'm off to see some islands and the reef!
Be good, have fun and God Bless,
Bill