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Day 77- We were up really early and very excited for our boat trip, so excited that we turned up 30 minutes early and were the first ones there. Others started to arrive and somebody came to make sure we all turned up, we were then take to our home for the next three days- SV Whitehaven. She was beautiful and only 35 years old but designed to look a lot older with timber features and some nice big sails. All of our shoes were taken and put in a box and we were all briefed before departing. It took around 2 hours to arrive at our first destination which was Whitehaven beach itself. The waters were unbelievably calm, we hadn't seen anything like it before, so much so that Eve wasn't even sick! We were dropped off at Tongue Bay and we walked through bushland to reach the lookout points over Whitehaven, we were very lucky to witness an usually low tide, so the beach was huge and sprawled in different patterns. From here we tracked back a bit and then headed to the beach itself. The sand was fabulous, bright white and as fine as flour. We walked down to the water and chatted with Ian and Laura- an Irish couple we got speaking to. We didn't swim as we had to don a wetsuit because of the jellyfish- not that any had been sighted yet but more of a precaution since some of the little b*****s do cause fatalities. We then read our books and I had a kick-about with Ian, it didn't take long for me to build up a sweat and give in to the very tight wetsuit and take a swim- it was worth the struggle. By this point it was time to trek back and wait for the tender to take us to the boat. We then had tea, coffee, biscuits and cake, followed by a tray of cheese, crackers and sausage then shortly after we were given delicious dinner of Thai curry and rice. Considering we already had a big lunch of sandwiches, we are starting to discover that you certainly get value for money in terms of food on these trips. As we were waiting for dinner we got to enjoy an amazing sunset at our location- Hook Passage for the night. We cracked open our 'goon' (cheap boxed wine) and mingled with a Dutch couple- Peter and Esther, we then made our way to the bow of the boat and spoke to an Austrian Couple- Markus and Kathy. A few of us ended up talking til late about British comedy and as more goon flowed and Eve and others went to bed we ended on African politics.
Day 78- Up at the crack of dawn thanks to a combination of heat, light and noise, it was very hot in the open planned boat which utilised every possible inch of space, it also housed the kitchen so the crew were preparing breakfast at 6am just under our heads. Not a problem though as it was glorious so we sat with a cuppa and admired the rolling ocean drift past us. Our first stop of the day was at 8am at Mackerel Bay where we kayaked and snorkelled. We kayaked first and after being dropped of at the beach we pushed them in the water and set off in search of mangroves. We paddled around the headland which was quite choppy and in the bay were lots of mangroves for us to discover, we ducked underneath them and swooped around them having a right laugh and then went back to the beach to snorkel. The tender took us out to the shelf and dropped us in where the coral was supposed to be best. It was great, not as colourful as the Great Barrier Reef but still some brilliant coral. After a while we spotted a turtle and it was huge, we swam with it for about 5 minutes and it was amazing. The next stop was Luncheon Bay where we had a quick snorkel and here the coral was really shallow and got really close to it, the small problem here was that some of it was sun bleached with it being so shallow meaning it loses its colour and can die off but for the most part the colours were spectacular and there were loads of amazing fish again. Back on board we had lunch and stocked up our energy supplies ready for the final snorkel. We arrived at Blue Pool Bay and while jumping down from the sun deck Eve took the skin off her foot, nothing too nasty but enough for her to decide against jumping in the salty water and there was a few other girls staying on the boat to sunbathe. Luckily for Eve there wasn't much on offer here, the tender took us to the shore and we swam from there, the coral wasn't as colourful and not as many fish, in fact we only came to this spot as we were so ahead of schedule and there is only one real reason to visit the bay- Elvis. Elvis is a massive Napoleon Maori Wrasse fish (Google it!) and was great to swim along side him. Me and Ian spent a while following him and then jumped back on the tender. We were greeted by tea, coffee, biscuits and cake again, soon followed by our cheese, sausage and crackers, we then manage a shower before arriving at Stonehaven for the night. After another fantastic day we had spag bol for dinner and sat with a few others and drank our goon.
Day 79- Another early morning and onto the deck for breakfast and our morning brief. We had one last site left and it was Langford which is a sand cay surrounded by reef. We lay on the sand for a bit and read our books, I had a kick around with Ian and then decided it was time for a snorkel- Eve was still concerned with her foot so stayed on the beach. I went out myself and was hoping to see a turtle as some others had earlier, I was out for about 45 minutes and couldn't find one, I managed to swim with a Cow Tail Ray which was great but I was now shattered so went back to the beach. Soon after we were picked up and on our way back to Airlie Beach. We had the time of our lives and was a fantastic experience we thoroughly enjoyed so were quite sad to be back on dry land, although the respite from the constant rocking was nice! Our night bus wasn't until 11:45 so we went to Peter Pan travel agents and caught up with important things on the net such as e-mails and football scores. It closed and we headed to Beaches as the tour company reserved a table for everyone to meet up. We were the only ones there at first but people came in dribs and drabs until almost everyone was there. We got discount on food so I got chicken parma and Eve Thai beef salad and we were also given some free jugs of beer. It was a nice way to end the trip and once we were left with the boring ones we b*****ed off to the lagoon where we washed in the sinks and then caught our bus to Agnes Water.
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ann purdy wow... reading this when the rain is lashing down.. the sky is black... you have made my day.xxxxxx