From Cairns to Airlie Beach

23rd August- 9th September

After a 10hr coach journey, we pulled into the drop-off point around 6.15am at Cairns. Being in Cairns before I knew where to go so i made my way to the hostel Jamie had been staying in and there he was, sat at side the campervan getting charge on his phone as always. This was around 6.30. By 7.30 I was boarding a boat to the Great Barrier Reef. Jamie was going to do his advanced dive course with another lad who worked for the agency he booked with so he was able to get me on the boat that morning with just a simple phone call. Although the boat ride was the worst i've been on, the day was really good. I got to do snorkelling and 2dives at 2different locations along the reef. Didn't see a great deal of life however there was plenty of small fish and I did get to see a sea turtle on my second dive which was good. Just for the experince of diving the reef and seeing just what lies beneath you in the ocean that nobody ever thinks about.
After 2days in Cairns it was time to set off on the Thursday 25th. However there was little problem. During breakfast Emily managed to lock the keys in the van! We hadn't even left the hostel and this had happened! After Jamie and I tried breaking into the van using the techniques seen on the 'Fast and Furious' films we decided to call a locksmith. This took literally 10seconds for him to open it and cost us a much valued $50. Not a good start.
We finally got round to the departure around 2pm. Our first location was to be Mission Beach. Along the way though we did stop at some waterfalls in a National Park. We pulled up around 4.30 at Mission.
It was our first night in the campervan and we were parked no more than 10m from the beach. Doesn't get much better than that aye. Jamies managed to rustle up a decent meal using rice, kidney beans, tinned veg and then adding a curry like sauce. Anyone knows me will not I dont do spices but when travelling, its a case of 'survival of the fittest' and 'who dares wins' so although it blew my head off nearly, it went down.
The first night in the van was good, Jamie slept on the air bed leaving Emily and I to share the double bed. Much to my suprise I slept like a baby but we was all up at 6.30 as soon it was light.
The day was our first offical day travelling on the road and we did in style- no other than a 14,000ft skydive landing on the beautiful beach of Mission. I'll not lie, i was a bit edgey especially the point where we took off in the plane and as I though we was reaching some height as we was in the clouds nearly, I saw on the instructors watch that we was only 1000ft up. Jesus we had go another 13000 times more higher!
The jump though was amazing though. It has to be the best thing i've done to date. The experiance of it was great. The view, the fall, the landing all great moments. I'm definately doing another one in the near future.
The next morning we was up and on our way to the next stop- Townsville. It took around 3hrs to get there. Apart from there being a bit of town centre and an esplande, there wasnt really anything there. Just a typical coastal town.
Sunday 28th, we was packed at ready catch the ferry to Magnetic island which is only a 20min boat trip off the shore of Townsville. I'll not mention to much about the moped incident however it did cost me $200 to sort it. Apart from this we did have a good few days on the island. Jamie and I did a night dive which was different and then the next day we all went and explored the island where we got to see rock wallabies, wild koala's and of course, more beaches.
From Magnetic Island, after spending another night in Townsville, we made the drive to Ayr. Very much the same as Townsville in terms of the town centre however the beach was about 20km outside the centre. Here, Jamie was meant to be doing a dive on the Yongala which is a shipwreck off the coast and is rated 1 of the top 10 dive site in the world. However as came to it, the dive was cancelled due to the weather at sea. We did spend 1 day with some of my friends from Lindeman. A group of French people including Maud was making there way up to Townsville so stopped off for the night in Ayr with us.
Once we knew Jamie's dive was cancelled we left staright away as there was just nothing at all to do for another night there. We made the 2.5hr journey to Airlie Beach which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.
Here we did 2 whitsunday trips. The first 1 was a day trip called Ocean rafting which took us to the Whitsunday Island itself and to the Hill inlet lookout which is an awesome lookout view. Then onto a bay off Hook Island where we did some snorkelling and there was plenty life here and good coral. We also got to a whale jumping out the water and playing about which when you see for real, is an amazing view.
The second trip was The Clipper. This is a party boat we had booked with our package and was 2days, 2nights at sea. What a trip this was. So much fun (and goon) from start to finish. The main day was spent at The Whitehaven beach, diving and also catching some wrays from top deck. We also got to see one the best experinces ever. 7 whales together came swimming towards our ship, under it and then up the other side. Now not many people can say they've seen that first hand.
By night though was a different story. Once them boxes of goon came out there was no going back. To cut a long story short, the night consisted of lots of drinking games, lots of nudity and me having to lick/ suck vegemnite from Emily's belly button as did Jamie with another girl. Overall this was a really good trip and I would reccomend it to anyone travelling to go do it.

So that is what we have been up to since leaving Lindeman. It can be a bit repetitive some times as it is just beach after beach but when I look at what i've done in this time, it really has been an awesome start to our travels and cannot wait to go further down the coast.
Until then- Bon Voyage...