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?Whitsundays Day 1Duncs and Wes rolled into the bus station 10minutes after me and we headed for the hostel. After a browse around (it looked like a promising place - lots of bars/clubs and a Magalauf feel to it) we stocked up with beers and checked in at the Marina for our tour of the Whitsunday Islands, which would last 2nights and included a scuba dive.Our boat was called Pegasus and 22 people were on our trip. The boat wasn?t that big for the numbers and our room was tiny (see pics). You couldn?t actually climb into the bunk beds, you had to slide in sideways, like you were going to kip in a bookshelf. This was very cosy and I felt sorry for the poor American woman, Susan, who had to share with us!!Once we were on the way we got talking to some people on the boat whilst drinking a few beers and watching the sunset. Susan turns out to be a ?d*** Doctor? or a surgeon who specialises in the penis! She was a bit older than us and we did get proof of this aswell but it was too soon to grill her with the questions which instantly spring to mind. There was also a young Irish couple, Ian and Stephanie and 2 Germans, Jens and Fast Eddy. All of these were so nice and we could tell straight away that this was going to be a much better group than Fraser.Dean, the scuba diving instructor and vice skipper was pretty hammered by the end of the night and ended up telling our little posse at the front of the boat that as English and Irish , we should stick together and watch out for the germans! The boats chief, Molly told him to forget about all that stuff but he replied ?no, I like the English, they did a great job annihilating those Germans in the war??.then he went to bed. It suddenly became clear why he had been talking to the foreigners like nursery kids, when they clearly spoke perfect English (?to-morr-ow we, yes we, go schnorkelling?)! This was defiantly going to be a fun trip!As I was going to bed, Jens and Eddy came to get me because they herd splashing at the side of the boat. When we got our torches we saw that a dolphin was swimming about, which was cool. A good end to a good day.Whitsundays Day 2The best day of the trip and probably my life I think??.Woke up at 6am to go to White Haven beach. This beach is officially listed in the top 10 in the world and its perfect. We were the 1st boat group to get there and the pictures speak for themselves. From the observation deck in the woods you could see across the whole bay and the water was so clear that the young sharks and stingrays were visible. When we got onto the beach itself you could walk up to the stingrays in the water and get pretty close before they swam off. However, inorder to get in the water you have to wear a stinger suit, which is like a wet suit, for protection from deadly jellyfish. For some reason I was given the same size as Duncs and Wes (both midgets) and couldn?t get it over my shoulders at all (see pics), which was funny. In the end I settled for an off the shoulder look, so at least my balls were protected.After the beach we went snorkeling on the Barrier Reef! It isn?t the barrier reef proper, that?s a little bit up the coast, but the coral is connected to it, referred to as part of it and is apparently much the same. The fish were amazing! The skipper was throwing bread in for us and having them swarm around you is a weird feeling. At one point the skipper threw bread on my head and all the fish went for it. I could even feel them slapping against my face!!After a bit of snorkeling we were called up for our scuba dive!! There were 4 in our group, me, duncs, wes and Stephanie, none of us had done it before. Scuba diving is actually more tricky than it looks and you have to master a few techniques before you can do it (clearing your visor, taking the mouthpiece out and putting it back in etc etc). Luckily we didn?t freeze up and passed this in the shallow water before venturing out further from the beach. We got out to a maximum depth of 8 metres, which was deep enough for me to not be able to see the surface of the water.Because we were diving around the coral (your not allowed to touch it, so we had to as beginners) there weren?t as many fish as there were when we snorkeled. This didn?t matter anyways as I was too concerned with doing it all properly and doing things like breathing, to fully concentrate properly on the view. We did see some lobsters hiding in the reef though, that was pretty cool.After the dive we were well chuffed with ourselves and looking forward to celebrating at night. Before we could anchor for the night the skipper showed us how he can get Eagles to swoop for meat out of the water, which was amazing. However, the meat drew the attention of a Reef Shark and Madagasger fish, so we got to see that aswell, bonus! Shortly after seeing the shark we were asked if we wanted to don the stinger suits again and go for a dive off the boat. Apparently we didn?t have to worry about sharks (?) so it was OK. I don?t know what has got into me because I?m usually scared of the deep sea, even in the UK, so I seem to have conquered that fear. The boat is pretty high out of the water, so diving was actually a bit scarier than I thought it would be. It was high enough to hurt, even when you landed nice and flat.After diving, we were told that dinner would be a roast?..result!!! Before dinner we had a few beers whilst the qualified divers (Susan and Ian) went for a night dive - sickos. Me and Wes swapped clothes for the night so I could sport his University tennis team gear - I had told him all about wanting to go to uni stateside and we?d joke about how many university teams and nicknames I knew, I?m a american uni sport geek so it was good to finally find someone else who knew what I was on about. He got to wear the precious Abercrombie hoodie.After dinner I decided enough was enough, and it was time to ask Susan (the d*** doc) all the questions we?d been storing up. Some were pretty gruesome but it mainly consisted of whats the biggest/smallest, is the rumour about black men being bigger true (apparently not) and many sicker ones than that. It kept us occupied for a good hour or 2, poor girl.By this time we?d had a fair bit to drink and drinking games were kicking off in the main cabin, so we got stuck into a good game of Ring of Fire, which is a sure way to get wasted. As we had been together for a few days, it was cool to know everyone on board and we all got on really well. During the game the skipper got completely wasted and cam up with this gem from nowhere ?I?m a real aussie and I F-ing hate f*****s? (repeat x10), true professionals this lot. When we asked him if he ever got too pissed to get back to shore he said, ?I always get home because my 1st mate?s a f-ing legend?. We wernt too worried, quality stuff.Me, Wes, duncs, Ian and Steff were laying on the deck at about 3am saying how it had been one of the best days ever, when Susan put the icing on the cake. Out of nowhere she appeared and feel down an open hatch on the deck and dropped 1 floor down into the boat! It could have been really serious but it didn?t stop us all laughing??so much so that I got cramp in my stomach and struggled to breathe. Infact I was so pissed I thought at first that another blonde girl had fallen through (assuming susan had gone to bed) and had in fact landed flat on Susan as she walked to the toilet. It took a while to sink in. Eddy said he had a better view - as he came out of the toilet downstairs a woman feel through the roof and landed at his feet. Brilliant!I will finish off the Whitsundays update shortly.....
Final day Whitsundays - with Lee off to earn his fortune at poker the burden has fallen to me to update our recent activities. I should mention that the Irish couple on our boat are from the same small town as my family and Ian went to school with my cousin, so that proves what a small world it is! Although irish in Australia are as common as Polish in England so I was bound to meet someone from Skerries.
We were up early again for more snorkelling, and amazingly Susan only had a grazed knee to show for her six foot freefall the previous night. We saw some huge parrot fish and loads more colourful nemos. We kept noticing that the large fish stayed at the bottom while small ones swam in and out of their mouths, apparently they have a mutually benificial relationship where the small fish eat off the large fishes teeth and at the same time the large fish get their teeth cleaned (David Attenbourgh eat your heart out). After that we headed back to shore and the wind was strong enough for us to sail without the motor, so it was all hands on deck for the boys as we had to pull ropes and show all our nautical skills.
Once back on dry land we arranged one last night out with all the other sea dogs as a cheap meal and free drinks were laid on at a local bar. Before all this lee and I foolishly decided to shave our chests as a tribute to our departing travelling companion Wes who keeps all his body hair trimmed (enough information). I was sad to loose the chest wig but hopefully it will grow back soon as Lee and I may get a few strange looks with two guys with shaved chests sun bathe together and rub lotion on each others backs, certainly not the look I'm going for but I can't speak for Lee. Our night out was good fun, Airle Beach is a lively resort and typically the Irish bar was at the entre of the action. Everyone ended up staying in our room, even Susan the surgeon decided to take my bed and for go the nice hotel she had checked herself into. With my bed occupied I passed out on top of Wes, and it must have looked comfortable as Steff and Ian then passed out on top of me. We had a good photo of it on our room mates camera but unfortunalety (or fortunatley for me) we forgot to get it. All in all a very messy night but one of our best travelling as it was good to go out with a group of people you actually like.
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