Arilie Beach and The Whitsundays.

When we arrived in Airlie beach we was all set for the Whitsundays sailing trip and took a walk along the jetty to check our boat the Avatar. She looked very small and I was beginning to wonder where 16 like minded reef goers and three crew were all going to stay!! I think we were so excited about the trip that we completely over looked Airlie beach but it looked like a really beautiful place and my only regret was that we didn't have more time to explore it. However after seeing the boat we decided on an heading back to our digs early to make the most of the fact we had a TV in our room. We soon discovered Ozzy TV is utter crap, no corrie, sex in the city or anything good so won't be paying extra for a TV again. Oh I know I should be busy looking under rocks for spiders and up trees for koalas but just sometimes I need my fix!!!

Any how the next day we headed onto the boat armed with stinger suits, (deadly jelly fish in the water so have to wear lovely figure hugging show off every mouthful you have ever ate stinger suit thingy) Camera, small bag of clothes, bikini and big box of wine. One on the boat we realized there was more room than you first thought and we even got given a private bed. We spent the day getting to know all the other Avatar sailors and it turned out we had a lovely group of people. Strange as we were all a mix of singles, couples, nationality and different ages but we really mixed well and met some great people who I hope to keep in touch with. I'll take this opportunity to say that we keep meeting so many nice dutch people they are a good bunch random comment but so true. We sailed in the afternoon to White Heaven beach an idilic beach in on the great barrier reef. The sand was so beautiful and white and the water was perfect we spent the afternoon walking around exploring and chilling on the beach. There was so much going on in the water we just watched it for hours. There was loads of stingrays and even some very small sharks in really shallow water so close to us it was beautiful. That night we munched, got some tunes on the go and made the most of the bring your own booze situation. Once the sun went down thats when we really were amazed the stars were absolutely stunning. I'm not sure on the exact science but because of no light pollution when your out at sea and because of where we were in the world the sky was just full. Later on that night when me and Andy couldn't sleep because it was too hot we grabbed our pillows and laid on the trampoline with the waves lulling underneath us and the night sky above and watched the shooting stars. It was perfection.

The next day was spent in our oh so sexy stinger suits doing some snorkeling. We anchored down and the captain introduced us to his special friend Elvis a massive Napoleon fish who was huge and would take bread straight out your hand, he had massive lips like he was puckering up for a kiss. Every one was busy taking pictures from out of the boat when the captain said we could get the snorkels and jump in. Andy and I was in first and Andy managed to cop a good feel of Elvis as he was so friendly. The rest of the reef was full of fish much smaller than Elvis but just as beautiful. The staff were so good they would come and pick you up in the boat if you didn't fancy swimming back but I decided I would take a swim and as Andy was still busy kissing the fishes I did it solo. As i swam looking down I realized how quickly the reef drops away and all of a sudden I had a wake up call when I couldn't see any fishes any more!! I swam pretty fast back onto the boat after that. I just got that o oh whats down there feeling and I didn't like it!!!

The next day we did even more snorkeling and went to a place called turtle bay where we got the chance to swim with some turtles, it was really magical and afterward we sunbathed on a sand bar near by. I think the best part of the trip was just being able to relax on the boat sunbathe and look out to the sea. Also I should mention the cook made us roast beef it couldn't get any better! Except for the fact we ran out of sun cream it really was perfect. Can't put it into words how much I enjoyed it we will definitely be booking another sailing trip for Fiji!!!Once we were off the boat we had to give the post sailing party a miss as we had to get straight on the bus for a 10 hour drive to rainbow bay. One thing I didn't mention was that on the boat there was limited water so only 30 second hose down allowed. Also as it the reef you can't use any shampoo's or body wash as it damages the fragile reef so 3 days of no hair washing and lots of salt water, we were looking and smelling great and an over night bus drive later we were even better! I guess thats real traveling!!