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Thursday 07-10-2010
We went to see the campsite reception this morning to pay and see what offers they had and found a really great 14m catamaran "On Ice" to sail the Whitesundays on. The girl at the reception was really helpful and found this one with good stanby rates. It only takes 10 people and has possibilities to snorkel, paddleboard, windsurf, kayak and ofcourse sunbath and look at the islands. We decided to not look further and take this one straight away, especially cause it was leaving today for 2 nights 2 days. We went into town to have a look around. I really like airlie beach, it has a cairns feel to it. Relaxed and laid back. It even has a lagoon where we had a swim. We actually had a bit of a workout by doing laps! After the lagoon we went to the office to check in for the sailing trip. We found that the woman at the office wasn't that nice and were really hoping that wasn't an indication for the trip itself. We went to the bottleshop to get our own wine, no alcohol provided on board so we had to get our own. We got our first goon today, for those of you who haven't been to Australia, goon is boxed wine and is usually really cheap, backpacker wine with a good headache the next day. We decided to get a more expensive one so the headache would not arise. We'll see what happenes…we also got some timtams, because you have to have timtams!!!! Again for those of you who haven't been in Aussie land. Timtams are really really nice chocolate covered biscuits! We got our stuff packed and got dropped at the meeting point. We waited there for an hour!! We were an hour early and at 4pm we were greeted by Luke who took us to the catamaran. We left for the islands and did a good 4 or 5 hours of sailing. And as it gets dark at 6pm we had an amazing sunset and sailing in the dark. The sky out here is ofcourse amazing. We are now at Tongue bay on the Whitsunday isle and I'm now laying on a water lounge floaty thing (hmmm that sounds weird but I can't really explain any better) because Chrissa and I decided to sleep on deck! Fall asleep under a starry sky, who doesn't love that…?
Friday 08-10-2010
Woke up at 5:30 this morning and I could actually just lay there and watch the sunrise…it was absolutely amazing coming up from behind the island. After breakfast, 8:30 we were taken to the shore by the dingy and walked to the Whitehaven bay lookout. It was a pitty there were allot of people there, the first time it has been this busy somewhere! The view was spectacular, different colored sands and the beach was as white as snow with the amazing turquoise sea. After we walked to the beach where we had a nice refreshing swim in such crystal clear water!!! We lay on the beach but did have to move every 10 min due to the tide coming in…We all walked back through the forest and got picked up again at 10:00. We headed for our next destination which was a really nice long stretch of beach and anchored there to do some paddle boarding. For all of us it was our first go at it so we had some explanations and then got going. Its really fun to do, you have a nice sturdy windsurfing board and a long paddle and while standing on the board you paddle along. We did a drift paddle along the beach, and had loads of fun, I even managed to do a headstand on the board! After paddleboarding we had a go at windsurfing and it went quite well with me. It was as if I never stopped :D Had a lay on the beach and watched other people try to windsurf. Had a laugh at some of them…We got back on board and headed for our next destination: pinnacle bay/woodpile bay where we had a snorkel. At first it didn't look so impressive but as we got to the next bay the really nice corals emerged and the fish were abundant. Got some good photos. After we sailed to our night destination and the evening didn't end to late cause everyone was tired from the sun and the activities. I did have a nice chat with the captain, Luke and the went of to bed…this time indoors as it was allot more windy and there was a chance of rain. The Whitsundays are amazing, the islands are so nice and peaceful, the beaches are gorgeous and the sailing here is perfect. What an amazing trip this is!
Saturday 09-10-2010
During breakfast we sailed to Hamilton Island to snorkel, this is a bay where the rich and famous actually also go snorkeling…it's just behind a 5* resort where, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Russel Crow have stayed. The snorkeling was quite nice but the water was a bit murky due to the winds. I didn't last to long as I got cold quite quickly. So I sat on the beach with my wetsuit on and tried to warm up. After snorkeling we sailed to a small sandbank about 4m across and 40m long in the middle of nowhere in between the islands. That was so amazing. Got some sun and after that we got going again. This was the last stop of our trip and we were now heading back to Airley Beach. We had a great sail back with 15 to 20 knots. After we got back to the marina we called the campsite we stayed at before and they picked us up. We got in the car and at that moment we received a text from Kate that they were heading towards Eungella national park to the lonely planet campsite. We decided to head there aswell. We were advised not to drive to the town of 1770 because we would have to drive at night and on that road there would be quite a few kangaroos. I don't think our car would survive that so we decided to make a stop and ofcourse we wanted to meet up with Kate, Andy and maybe Matt, if he was still with them. We drove into Eungella and found a first campsite, there we looked for them but unfortunately they weren't there. Ther was an amazing view so I took some pictures. We decided to drive on to the lonely planet campsite. As we got there it said no car and 500m further the campsite would be. We didn't see the rang rover so we had a bad feeling but we decided to take a look. It was a nice walk and we saw a wallaby on the way but unfortunately they weren't there either. We had heard earlier that there was another campsite 30min further on called Eungella dam campsite and decided to drive on. The sun was slowly going down and we did want to reach the campsite. After 5min the road was off road and I had a great time driving this road. 80/100km per hour made me feel like an off road rally driver. Good fun!!! The only hazardous part was the huge amount of cattle/cows on/beside the road. Luckily I avoided all of them. We got to the campsite before dark and this is a huge campsite with lots of places to put up a tent. It is all around these big lakes. We searched everywhere but unfortunately no Kate to be found. We decided to camp here anyways…no point in trying to drive back in the dark and the campsite is so amazing, totally remote and it has a great view. We got the tent up just as it was getting dark. There are no facilities here so it was once again cheese, crackers and wine. Luckily we had eaten really well on the Whitsundays trip. We built a little fort for our candles cause this is probably the windiest place we have camped. It is actually the first place we felt really cold. Long jeans, long sleeves and my fleece, windbreaker jacket!!! It's an early night as we are planning to get up very early (5:30) to drive down to 1770 and first check the campsites on the way back to look for Kate and Andy.
Sunday 10-10-2010
Had a crappy nights sleep as it was very windy and coming in on my side. Got up at 5:30 and drove off to find "The Beast". We were driving towards Eungella town when we hit thick mist/clouds. That was a new experience, quite scary but no problems at all. We got to the first campsite and expected to see the gang there but unfortunately they were nowhere to be found. So we drove on to get to town of 1770/Agnes Waters. This was going to be a long drive so we switched quite a bit to stay alert as the roads aren't very interesting. The only cool thing is the roads signs along the road like: "Rest or R.I.P", "Fatal crash zone ahead", "Are we there yet mum?" "Only two hours to rocky kids" and there was a sign saying "Trivia questions keep you alert", the next sign was "What is the highest mountain in Queensland?", and then a sign with the answer which ofcourse I've forgotten. We got to Agnes Waters at 15:30 and went straight to the visitor information. The woman there was very friendly and sent us to a $5 campsite. It didn't have any electricity only outside BBQ's a few toilets and an outside shower. Primitive but as we found out a short walk to a really nice beach. We went to town and got some BBQ food. The woman from the info center had also told that in town of 1770 there was a nice point to go to with a good view of the sunset. We drove up there and due to the clouds the sunset wasn't that exiting so just across from there we got a drink at the restaurant. I was allowed to charge my camera battery which was really nice. We went back to the campsite to make some dinner and after we watched a movie on the hood of "Merlin" again.
Monday 11-10-2010
Today were going surfing, Jippie!!! We went into town and found it was time to treat ourselves to some nice lime cheesecake and a banana/chocolate muffin which were absolutely amazing. That's what you get when you don't treat yourself often. We went to the surfshop but it was still closed so we decided to look for internet. We went to a travel agent and they were very friendly. Chrissa booked a motorcycle tour and they let us use the internet for free. While checking my mail I heard a excited screech coming from Chrissa. She had just received an email saying that her book, which she published when she was 17, was going to be translated into English and distributed in the U.S. She was over the moon and we decided we had to celebrate tonight. We had to quickly go to the surfshop as the lessons were about to start. When we got there it was getting busier and busier and in the end there were 20 people there for lessons. I started talking to two guys and one came from Holland, near Uden, 29 and his name is Remi. He also ended his relationship, quit his job and went travelling. How familiar is that. The lessons were going to start so we walked down to the beach where we got a rashguard and a surfboard. In pairs we had to carry two boards, teamwork that is. As the lesson started it was pouring with rain but that wasn't really bad as we were going to get wet anyway! We got the whole explanation of the board, the paddling, standing up and the rules of surfing. We then had a go at paddling and standing up on the beach itself which must have looked real funny for other people watching us! We were in the second group to get into the water but after 15min it was Water time…we got in and started trying to get through the waves. The break was very late, close to the beach which made it very difficult, as we saw with the first group where many got smashed. I was the only girl who actually made it out far and that was a really good feeling. The only pity was that I couldn't get up…I could catch the waves but trying to stand up was not my thing…every time I couldn't find my balance and I never got to standing but had loads of fun. The instructors said we had very harsh conditions to go surfing due to the current and due to the late break but that did make it a challenge and I had so much fun…again, again, again! When we were walking back we started talking to Remi again and decided to get some lunch together. We went to the restaurant we had some drinks at last afternoon at sunset and had some nice food. We had to decide what to do as the weather wasn't getting any better, it was still pouring down. At the tent we had no facilities so we decided to get some goon and try and go to the hostel Remi was staying at. Chrissa went to check her email again and Remi and I got some goon, 4l Coolabah Rose at the bottleshop. We went to the hostel and they didn't even notice we weren't staying there. Chrissa and I actually had a shower there too. We drove the car back to the campsite and walked to the hostel to start the celebrations…we ended up playing a dice drinking game "Mexicanen" which was so much fun and at one point a guy called Jake from Illinois joined us. We cooked dinner together and after continued the drinking game. At midnight Chissa got really tired and we headed back to the campsite. As the guys were real gentlemen they walked us back because it was a really dark road and we had forgotten our flashlight. A German girl tagged along and we ended up being really happy that they walked with us as it was a really sketchy, scary walk back.
Tuesday 12-10-2010
We talked to David a guy from Cornwall this morning. He is in his 50's and was in the royal navy and now enjoying his retirement by travelling around. A really nice guy. We went into town and got a fruit smoothie to feel a bit healthier. As we were sitting there writing our journals someone said "Hey there" and as we looked up Andy was standing in front of us..and then Matt and Kate were also there!!!! They had arrived last night and had seen our car this morning in the town so they decided to find us. That was so unexpected…so much fun. We had lunch and went to a new campsite "Southern Cross", they were staying at. Didn't do much more than that today, just a lazy, catching up day. Watched No Country for Old Men which I ended up not really seeing as I slept through half of it. The weather isn't good at all so we couldn't do much anyway.
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