Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Kat here now, so Nush left you saying that we caught the bus down to Airlie Beach where we arrived late afternoon, and luckily Nat and I managed to book up a Whitsundays and Fraser Island package immediately that commenced the following day! Nush decided against it as she was very conscious of her lack of money, so she chose to wait and do a one day whitsundays trip instead to help the budget. We didn't do too much in Airlie Beach as it was quite late already, but we did get to see the lagoon which was pretty. The package we got was organised by the hostel we stayed in as 2 nights accommodation was included, but unfortunately it was the party hostel so it was a fairly noisy night! In our room there was an Irisih couple who'd just returned from a boat trip on an old wooden boat, and they'd had bed bugs - great! So Nat and i set off on the Wednesday morning at about 7.30, and along with 20 other passengers boarded Siska, an ocean maxi sailing boat that was to be our home for the next 2 days. It was a good size, althought obviously the beds were quite tiny (Nat thought hers resembled a coffin). Although there were only 3 members in the crew, we were well looked after and had some lovely meals.
I also managed to have a good chat with a couple of French women, who were really impressed by my French (don't know how) and i even ended up doing some translating for them when the skipper gave us instructions! It did get quite cold on the boat whilst we were sailing as the sun was blocked out by the sails, but it was a great experience and really reminded me of being on my uncle's boat (although the English coast doesn't quite compare to Australia). Our first stop was the beautiful Whitehaven Beach with gorgeous white swirling sands, where we stayed for about 2 hours before we were picked up by Siska. We then drifted along watching the sunset, and as the sun disappeared we were driven inside by the bitterley cold weather! Aftera few card games one of our friends Phoebe found a bed bug on her pillow, which ironically enough put people off playing drinking games and sent them to bed instead?! Luckily Nat and i didn't see any critters though, and i had a lovely night's sleep gently rocking on the water.
The next day we all woke up early, and most people went snorkelling, but i chose not to as my foot was still healing from Thailand, and the decky had said that the sea water there contained a lot of bacteria as it was so warm. Nat a great time though, and had fish coming right up to her face as well as some jellyfish! Off the side of the boat we also saw some bat fish which were massive, and at one point a dolphin swam right alongside us, turning over and showing off. Nat and I found this amazing as neither of us had seen a dolphin in the wild before!
Our last stop was another secluded beach which was also a lovely sight, and then we had to start sailing back to Airlie Beach. It was a great trip and we met some lovely people - definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far!
Meanwhile Nush had been chilling out in Airlie Beach with some people we'd met in Cairns, and she would be doing her Whitsundays trip the next day. Nat and I didn't stop in Airlie Beach for long though as we had to get the night bus straight away ...
Nush here, as Kat said her and Nat did a 2 day stay on a sailing boat on the whitsundays. I unfortunately could not afford this and so decided to do a one day trip instead with ocean rafting, But il get to that in a sec. It was also convenient as i had met some peopel in Cairns who offered a spare bed for 4 nights in there camper van for free! so i cruised around with them for a few days, basically just driving from beach to beach and camping up ther to soak up the sun! I booked up my trip for the forth day and hopped on the ocean raft (which was the day tour) which is what i can only describe as being a speed boat and a raft stuck together! and becuase it was fast it meant we got to do a lot in a day. We went to a secluded beach first where we trekked up to a lookout, where we were to find a stunning view over looking some of the islands, with perfectly white sand and blue sea! Unfortunately my camera didnt work so i havtn got any photographic evidence of this :( next we went to whitehaven beach, one of the most popular beaches. Here we stopped for a spot of sunbathing and lunch. After this we went on to 2 different snorkelling sights where we could swim and see the reef. it was amazing the fish swam right up close to you and the different colours were just fantastic!
The day after this i hopped on the bus and made it down to Hervey Bay where i would do my Fraser island trip....
- comments