As we glide serenely through calm seas off the Australian coast, my mind tends to wander to some of life’s big questions like “Why do people jump in the air when they get their picture taken?”

Yesterday was our mid-cruise stop at beautiful Airlie Beach. By more or less general consensus, our little group has agreed to catch the 9:30ish tender boat to shore and “just wander around for a bit”.  We had previously ruled out the catamaran trip to the reef (“leaves way too early”), the high-speed jet boat adventure around the bay (“what if we hit the rocks?”) and even the more sedate two-hour segway tour of the township (“what’s a segway? is it some sort of animal?”)

It’s a short, air-conditioned shuttle bus ride from Airlie Beach International Cruise Terminal to either the town centre or the beachside markets. Half the group choose the town with its strip of tourist shops and cafes.  The wiser half listen to their wives and head to the markets, a whole 300 metres down the road.

When we all reconnect about thirty minutes later under some shady trees near the beach, we watch as a couple of passengers we recognise from breakfast stroll down the beach to a spot where they can take a picture with the ship in the background.  To our surprise, the lady starts jumping up and down, waving her arms in the air like a crazy cast-away who’s just spotted a sail on the horizon.  The sound of her partner’s instructions floats across on the breeze – “Higher. No, more to the right. No, my right …”  

Further up the beach, a group of sarong-clad ladies catch the bug.  As we watch their efforts to get the whole group in the air at the same time, and facing in roughly the same direction, one of our gang tentatively suggests “wouldn’t it be cool if we did one of those pics of our group?”

This optimistic proposal is met with a few blank stares and comments of “not with my knees”, “not with my bladder, “I haven’t jumped since I was in high school”, and the final clincher of “would we all jump together, or do we do it one at a time, and do we look at the sea or face the shore?”

Ah well, this beach is beautiful, but there are way too many tourists in town, so maybe we’ll just head back to the ship for a late lunch.