Well.......fellow blog readers, having discovered that Greyhound bus journey's over 15 hours are not the best for the back, mind, stomach or anything in fact we arrived at our half way destination point to Airle Beach "Hervey Bay" this is where we spent the next few hours bidding the time in an air conditioned coffee shop brousing at all the books and sipping latte's before we completed the 17 hour trip, now us both having 2 seats we finally arrived at 06:00 in the morning!

This also being the first place we have had to put our rucksacks on the backs and walk to our hostel instead of being picked up by the little shuttle services.......oh how we enjoyed this half asleep!!!!

Checking in at our hostel for the night before going on our Whitsunday's trip; "Magnums", can only be described as a jungle with lots and lots of wooden shacks/apartments rammed with backpackers and whilst strollling through to our room we were greeted by the hugest snake digesting a turkey in a gutter!!! Yes a turkey! Very random! And not the nicest thing to view! Much better than Australia Zoo though!

The day was then spent sunbathing at the lagoon and packing for our boat trip, we also had to discover that Good Friday in this particular Oz state ment you couldn't drink alcohol until midnight unless you had a meal?! God can you imagine that rule in the UK....no more Friday night after work drinks!!! So we thought we'd attempt to stay up till after 12, but a nice meal later (little cheap treat) and a bottle of Joe's Diner's finest house reds we actually ended up in bed! Bless!

Excited for the day ahead.....we off loaded our big rucksacks and took our day bags, got supplies i.e. Goon and Chocolate! for the boat and jumped on the shuttle to the marina! To then find out that out of 28 guests 24 of them were to be girls!!! Hannah and I thought this was actually quite amusing and funny to watch the other girls faces of utter disappointment!

Whilst boarding our home for the next two nights.....a 83ft maxi racing yacht named "British Defender" we met our crew; Neil (Skipper), Aaron (Deck Hand) and Terra (Host), all of which seemed awesome! Hannah and I obviously spreading our love, were immediately volunteered to have one of the double bunks instead of a single......"do you girls mind?"........"of course not we've bonded enough now, Hannah almost helps me with my contact lenses.......?!" Don't worry though Andy, not THAT bonded!
Anyway, our little double didn't have the most of leg room,, to be fair you could'nt even put your knees up! We were lucky enough to have a hatch next to us as a window though, which helped at night when the heat was immense!

Leaving the harbour and socialsing with the 22 other girls and the minority of boys we were finally heading out to the "Whitsunday Island's Baby!". The journey was actually quite choppy with the yacht healing over quite considerably, with us all up on the high side, the i-pod plugged in blasting AC DC we were out in the ocean loving it!!!!! Spray and all!

A sail or few later, some hosting and de-hosting, using "the guns" aiding with the winches and grinding we arrived at our first snorkle destination! Then a further brief or two later by Aaron we were out as snorkle buddies fully embracing the great barrier reef at its best..........Nemos and everything! So colourful and peaceful, what we had been waiting for! To top off an amazing day, we both were then able to watch the sunset from the ocean still snorkling......how we felt so lucky and at one with nature at its best! Even better still Nachos were waiting for us when we got back on board!!!!!!!

A short motor round to the next bay bought us to our mooring for the evening, where we were treated to some excellent quisine of Spag Bowl, salad, bread and even dessert!!!!! The question on everyones lips......"where on earth is all this food coming from and stored for that matter?". A few mugs of goon later we were well acquainted with our fellow crew members and sat under a huge canopy due to the word we hate to mention Rain! Fun was still had by all and excitment of what day 2 was to bring was also on our minds!

"Breakfast!".......06:30!!!! Well, we were up anyway having had a rather cosy nights sleep, and were now motoring along before the sails were up and we were on our way to White Haven Beach!!! Not before a nice snorkle stop first though. Hannah and I, the ever enthusiasts were first in our rather sexy stinger suits and fish/turtle hunting! "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"

We were lucky enough to see some huge Hump Moari wrasse's who decided to circle us for ages, the friendliest fishes ever, they just couldn't get enough of us!

Some more rain showers later, it cleared and a hearty bbq of sausages and salad was enjoyed before we ventured to the most talked about 'look out' eagerly awaiting our chance to take "THE PICTURE" you see everywhere! We then spent the afternoon on White Haven Beach discovering thousands of the funniest blue crabs and generally having lots of beach fun!

Aaron having a slight problem with the tides and and the tender, the meeting point changed slightly to a small wade out to sea and a hilarious bumpy, bailing out journey back to the yacht! That night was more of a party affair on board, with the drinking games "German Porn Star" (will explain another time!) in full swing and some tasty punch the deck became a rather funny dance floor!

Feeling bright and breezy the next morning and with the sun shining down on us we had the most brilliant sail back to the marina! The music and banta couldn't of been any better! Hannah's volunteering herself to aid with the mooring up, and given one simple instruction of throw the line when I say didn't quite go as planned which amused a lot of people, especially the crew! Arrh Bless! A for Effort though Han! We wanted to stay on longer and had made some really cool friends (Jenny and Joe!) on board, we therefore planned to meet up with them for some post sailing beverages later on!

"Beaches" was our new hostel in Airle Beach for the next couple of nights and here we had a post "British Defender" meal and drinks, followed by some dancing to live music in Paddy Shennanigans!!! All good fun!

The next day or so the weather was seriously on our side and we were able to make the msot of the lagoon.....that evening was also a rather special evening for us, thanks to Andy!!!!! We were two very lucky girls who were treated to an exceptional meal of lamb and veal, accompanied by a beautiful bottle of red in Capers restaurant!!! Thank you Andy for the Easter treat, it was very well received, we were the envy of every backpacker at Airlie!!!! What a great way to finish our time in Airle and the Whitsunday's! Some dancing in Mama Africas later we were very satisfied!!!!

The following morning bought us yet another Greyhound journey to Townsville; our stepping stone to Magnetic Island and the Full Moon Party!!!!!!