We arrived at Proserpine airport in tropical heat (after Hutch had
been told off on-board for not taking the security briefing
seriously!) and had to jump on a transfer bus, but only after dealing
with the unnecessary scrum of impatient travellers which has become an
unfortunate trademark of travelling in Oz, which basically consisted
of the friendly but massively cheesy driver whittering on for an hour
for the drive to Airlie Beach, when all we wanted to do was catch flies!

By the time we had checked in at Nomads we were well starting to feel
the effects of having been up since 230am and experiencing quite an
adventurous day by anyones standards! We somehow managed to summon up
the motivation to do a batch of laundry before we went to bed, and
have a pot noodle whilst we mulled over the news that our troubles
seemed to be following us in that our bus up to Cairns had been
cancelled! We really felt like we were due a break at this point but
didn't have the energy to worry about it and instead just went to
sleep blissfully in what was actually one of the nicest dorms we have
had!

We had a bit of time on Thursday morning to check in and sort
ourselves out before heading down to the marina for 2pm to meet the
crew and get ready to set sail. However even this didn't go off
without a misshap as we walked for 10 minutes in completely the wrong
direction (maybe my map reading skills haven't improved after all -
there were only 2 choices!) and ended up having to rush what should
have been a nice leisurely walk to make it on time!

Anways, within an hour the sails were up on our boat, The British
Defender, and the crew and fellow passengers all seemed nice and as we
lay there in the sun with our legs dangling off the edge of the boat
it was a pretty sweet feeling that only 36 hours ago had felt a
million miles away as we were beginning our bizarre trek to Brissy!!

After some high speed cruising and tilting we stopped for a snorkel on
the fringes of the Great Barrier Reef, where Hutch in particular
seemed pretty taken aback by the fact that as soon as you jumped in
you were surrounded by tonnes of colourful fish!

Once we had dropped anchor and tucked in to some awesome food (which
to our pleasure was quality the whole way through!) we cracked open
the goon and pretty soon had some drinking games going below deck. It
was a good job we had a strong night cap though as it was SO hot and
stuffy overning, with no breeze despite having a bed next to a little
hatch!

Friday was an absolutely brilliant day and kinda made all the extra
cost and hassle we had to go through to make the trip all worthwhile.
It started with an early morning snorkel (seeing some slighty
perturbingly large batfish swimming round the boat) and then some more
serious sailing which this time was actually a little bit too serious
for us as we both started to go a little green!

Luckily it didn't get any worse and once the waters turned a bit
calmer we were able to blissfully soak up the sun on what was fast
becoming an absolute scorcher of a day. Lunch calmed us down further
still and then in the afternoon we made our way over the Whitehaven
Bay for possibly the highlight of our time in Oz so far. The view
from the lookout where you could see the blindingly white silica beach
and the swirls of different shades of blue and turquoise stretching
from the sea up into the bay were stunning, and we were so lucky to
have such good weather for it whilst we were there. We had a couple
of hours actually down by the beach (looking hot in our stinger
suits!) and 'cooling' off in the crystal clear bath like sea and we
felt like we were in a pretty special place - no wonder Whitehaven has
been voted the best beach in the world!

Back on board as the sun started to set we cruised by some of the
islands that make up the Whitsundays and settled in a really nice bay,
and reflected on what had felt like just such a good day, and by
looking at some of the people around us we had done particularly well
to have escaped without having got sunburnt! The evening was a lot
cooler than the one before with a nice breeze blowing across the
water, and the night was more about staring up at the stars than
drinking all our goon!

The last day just consisted of gently sailing back to the marina at
Airlie Beach whilst sunbathing on deck, and it was a really nice and
peaceful couple of hours. By the time we arrived back we were pretty
sad that it was over but walked back along the colourful boardwalk
feeling like we had done something that little bit nicer and really
enjoyed it!

Back in Airlie, we eventually confirmed that our bus up to Cairns was
actually now running again!! Nothing ever seems to be straightforward
at the minute! Although we were actually slightly disappointed not to
be able to stay another night in Nomads, on the plus side it meant
that we spent the day being homeless and taking all our essentials
down to the nice little lagoon where we spent the afternoon chilling
out and having quite a nice day, even if we did feel a little bit
silly having to shower in the public outside ones right by the pool!!

The day ended with a reunion of all our fellow passengers at Beaches
for some food and a few beers before we regrettably had to leave them
all behind at 8pm (we had checked and rechecked and rechecked again
the time of the bus this time to avoid a repeat of previous cock-ups,
although we did nearly wait outside the wrong bus stop instead!!) to
catch our overnight bus - we can't wait until we get to lie in a
proper bed!!