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Hey guys - sorry for the ultra late posting!!!! Some nice bedtime reading for you all!!!
...We were fairly glad to be on our way to Airlie after getting stuck in Cairns for an extra couple of days, it wasn't the best weather to begin Australia, however we did get a couple of nicer days towards the end allowing us to do Cape Trib and the Reef, not the best conditions but nevertheless very enjoyable still. Anyway due to all the flooding, a couple of our bus's got cancelled from cairns and as soon as they started running again we were on the first bus out, especially when it was meant to rain quite hard again the day after. After a nice 12 hour bus journey through the night, which was very quiet thankfully, we arrived at Airlie instantly thinking we were going to prefer it here compared to Cairns. The weather was nicer and the town had a great relaxed backpacker vibe about it right on the sea front with a huge beautiful 24hour man made lagoon, a lot nicer than the one in Cairns we thought. As we pulled into the bus stop we saw Magnum's, a popular hostel so we decided to check it out. As it was coming up to valentines day we decided to upgrade for a couple of days and splashed out on a double room up until our whitsunday sailing trip, which started on the Saturday (valentines day). It was nice to have a fridge and air con as well as Queensland is very humid at this time of year.
Once settled we popped to the supermarket and had a quick look around town, quickly followed by a dip into the lagoon, it was so refreshing. We stayed there for the rest of the day and the day after, just relaxing until late at night. The lagoon looked really nice at night with the flood lights lit up. There was a beautiful little bay behind it, which had yachts anchored up and it was very calm and relaxing. All around the lagoon were free barbeque hot plates for the public so we were straight onto that idea, and went and got ourselves a load of rump steak and chicken, a greek salad and some baguette and other nibbles, our first barby in Aussie, it was amazing as we havent had steak in months (except in Cairns). Hopefully the first barby of many (you cant beat a good barby)!!! We finished the nights of with a few beers in the Magnums bar, a huge and really popular bar with a live band on most nights. There may have even been a few trips to McDonalds to feed the Western hunger after South East Asia. We're still quite proud of ourselves that we didn't give into any fast food joints over there.
Anyway the day of our whitsunday sailing trip quickly arrived, we were so excited. Our boat was a Maxi Yaught, which is a racing boat, named the Broomstick. It had won many competitions before retiring in Airlie. It was very well kept and modern and while on the sailing trip we knew we had picked the right boat from looking at other tour groups. Our group consisted of 25 people, a fairly small group, which is what we wanted. There are party boats that go out with at least 50+ people, one mad drinking sesh but we wanted this trip to be a little more special as we had heard such great things about the Whitsundays and we were seriously not disappointed!! Once we had stocked up on some booze it was time to meet at airlie harbour (2pm) to set off. We were all issued our stinger suits to protect us from the deadly jellyfish (box jellyfish, a little worrying)and then we were on our way. There wasn't a huge amount of wind but we managed to get the sails up, which we all took part in hauling up the pole and the engine was turned of, great!! Our first stop of the day was ravens cove just of hook island, which is good for snorkelling. Kate and I were straight in and even though you have the worry that there are jellyfish around nothing stops you haha. We went of exploring around the cove and saw a number of fish, I wouldn't say it was our best snorkelling but it was still great and the surrounding scenery was gorgeous. After about an hour we all got back on the boat and sailed to where we were stopping for the night, Nara Inlet, a sheltered bay on Hook Island where the water is very calm to anchor up. Again it was absolutely stunning and the sunset was one of the best we have seen so far. On the way to Nara's Inlet we were all relaxing on the top deck when suddenly a huge Macktuna fish (cross between a mackerel and a tuna) flew up right onto the boat about 80cm long and fell straight down the cabin hole into the bedroom making a huge thud. The 3 deckies Jeff, james, and Adele thought someone had stacked it and were running around trying to find out what had happened. Once they knew knowone was hurt and that it was a fish that made the noise they couldn't believe how high it had jumped, doing some serious damage to itself. Normally they would have thrown it back in as fishing around this area is forbidden but it was in pretty bad shape so of came his head and James gutted it and put it on the barby that night marinated in Lemon and Black pepper sauce, amazing. The best bit was we had loads of roast chicken and stuffing as well, so the fish was an added bonus!! The first night was really good and we all sat drinking goon (the worst wine imaginable, but sacred to backpackers as its cheap) getting to know one another, really chilled out, just how we imagined it was going to be.
All beds were down in the cabin and kitchen area, a little cramped to say the least. After retiring at about 1am for an early start the next morning we both found it impossible to sleep due to the humidity so about 3am went up on top deck and slept under the stars, which was nice but still really uncomfortable, there was definitely going to be some preperation for the next night lol. It didn't help when at about 4am it started to rain on us, however it did clear the air a bit, allowing us some sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day we were up early for the famous Whitehaven Beach (rated in the top 5 in the world). After an hour or so sailing, the yaught anchored up at a small bay called Hooks Passage.From here we had to do a short walk over Whitsunday Island to gain access to a viewpoint. We saw the famous Whitehaven beach and surroundings and it was absolutely breathtaking - surprisingly like you would see on a post card. The waterpools amongst the sand swirls due to low tide made it look amazing. We were really happy that we had gotten good weather for this part of the trip as we havent been very lucky so far, due to the cyclone that hit the east coast, however it was perfect. In peak season it would be even more beautiful but we had blue sky's with puffy clouds so thought ourselves lucky. We walked down to the beach, with our stinger suits at the ready and saw tons of stingrays. It was crazy, you can get so close to them!! Once you have seen one you seem to see loads as they seem to stick together. We even saw a small reeef shark, which was personally our highlight. The water was so clear and the Silica sand was so soft almost like flour. We took a few pictures and then headed through the water to see what we could see, truly an amazing place. After a couple of hours we decided to head back up to the lookout now the tide had started coming in and we spotted an Iguana in the bush, it was cool but we have seen so many now we are getting use to them. Probably like the aussies with Kangaroo's haha!! Anyway once our time was up on Whitsunday Island we got the speedboat back to the yaught and had some lunch, followed by a sail to Mackerel Bay, the furthest side of Hook island and then Tongue bay of Border Island. It was here we had some chances to dive and snorkel. We decided against the dive as the water visibility up at the reef wasn't the best so we snorkelled instead.The second site had large rock formations in the water with big drop offs, you would be on top of the reef one second and the next thing you new you wouldnt be able to see the bottom, a little spooky!! It was cool though and Chris and Richard dove down as deep as they could but still couldnt reach the bottom. Ben another lad came back from the dive and didn't see much except a black star fish, but again he said the rock formations and little crags they went through were really cool as he hadnt dived in a site like that before. After a long day and a couple of hours snorkelling it was time to relax and chill, dinner again went down very well, steak was on the menu. They always seem to do to much so Chris ended up gettin 3 pieces of steak and cleared up all the slops haha. While I was eating my dinner on the deck, I heard spalshing in the ocean ... it turned out to be a fairly decent sized reef shark, just over a metre but there only small. After that we got out the big flash lights and just sat on the edge of the boat drinking, shining this light on the water attracting loads of fish, small squid and freaky orange eyed fish!! It was really fun to watch as the animals seem to be alot more active at night.We ended up sitting their relaxing for most the night and then hit the sack about 1am. We set up our beds on the top deck under the stars thinking there would be no chance it would rain as the sky was so clear. We were going well up until about 4.30am, when it started to rain. We were getting such a good nights sleep compared to the night before as well but it was cooler down in the cabin so we got back to sleep alright. Everyone rushed in throwing their mats behind the kitchen counter. Little did we know james our decky was sleeping behind there, so he got a nice surprise haha.
On our final day we were up and ready early again, we had to be back at Airle for 12pm so today was just a final long sail back. After a bit of teamwork the sails were up and we were of, however not gaining the speeds I was hoping for due to lack of wind. However on the way back we did see a pod of Dolphins in the distance. Once we had cleaned up we checked back into Magnums absolutely shattered, so after an afternoon sleep we had a late night swim at the lagoon. That afternoon we had also booked the Crocodiel Safari tour on the Proserpine River for the next day so we were looking forward to as we didnt get to do it up at Cape tribulation.
The next day we went to the Crocodile Safari, situated between the conway Range and the Great Dividing Range. We were a little unsure what to expect, as the Safari is in a natural environment and so seeing Croc's isn't guarenteed.. but it turned out to be awesome! We saw 6, huge croc's - between 3 to 4 metres long!! The tour guide seemed to recognise them all, and knew them by name - which somehow made them seem less threatening (off the top off my head one was called 'Gloria' - quite the contradiction.. and the other 'scarback', because he had a war wound on his back!). He showed us where one of the female crocodiles had set up her nest, and in the distance we could see a big pile of leaves and sticks etc.. it was quite surreal! We even got a chance to hold hollow crocodile eggs. Once the safari had finished we had a big all you can eat bbq lunch - gorgeous! Once it had settled, the second part of our trip was to spot wildlife out in the bush - on a tractor which pulled about 5 trailors, which we sat in. We saw lots of Wallabees and different birds. The wallabees were really cute, alot smaller than Kangaroo's! The guide told us about how useful certain tree types were (e.g tea trees) to Aboriginals. After the wildlife tour, we had awaiting fresh tea and damper.. it was so so good!!! A scone like bread with butter and jam, made how they do in the bush. The tea was made by fresh tea leaves, in a big pot over the fire. To get all the sediment to the bottom, our guide swung it round his head to commpress all the crushed tea leaves to the bottom, crazy - but amusing nonetheless!! As we had checked out of Magnums, we were homeless until our late night bus. We headed back down to the lagoon for a bbq, accompanied by a Domino's pizza to treat ourselves, oops!! Once again we visited the lagoon for a late night swim and got a fresh shower in the public facilities before getting our late night bus to Town of 1770/Agnes Water to ride the streets on motorbike choppers (Harley Davidson replica's!) We can't wait...
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