Thurs 17 Sept

We had to move campsites today so we got up early and moved the van to the free carpark by the bus station and went to wait for our pick up for our Whitsundays boat trip. The boat we were on was an ex-life raft with huge yellow floatable sides which cruised along on top of the water at top speed! It was very bouncy over the waves and we had to hang on tight, but it was great fun. The skippers were real jokers too so they made the trip even more entertaining for us. We were chuffed to see a couple of sea turtles on the way to Daydream Island resort where we were picking up other passengers. When we were almost there one of the skippers stuck his cell phone to his ear and pretended to talk to his mum. She was telling him there had been sightings of mermaids by the island so he was getting all excited telling us to keep our eyes open. We pulled up to Daydream Island a few minutes later and sure enough there were 3 mermaids sitting on the rocks by the island! (We were told later that day that these cost the resort around $170,000 each. Yes, they weren´t real mermaids!)

There are 77 islands which make up the Whitsundays and 7 of these have resorts on them now. Hopefully there wont be anymore resorts built as it spoils the islands which are absolutely beautiful before the tourist industry takes over them.

Our first stop was around an hour into the trip when we stopped on Whitsunday Island and did a short bush walk to the Hill Inlet Lookout. We saw our first snake out in the wild when I nearly got too close thinking it was a lizard - I moved pretty fast when I realised it wasn´t! We had a fantastic view from the lookout of the famous Whitehaven Beach - well known for its gorgeous pristine white sands and turquoise waters (see photo to this blog). The sand on this beach is made of silica and is incredibly soft. It doesn´t get hot with the sun and it can even clear away scratches on glass and pollish gems and jewellery if you rub it carefully over them. We were only allowed on part of this beach as the sand was so soft in other parts that it was almost like quick sand and we would have been sucked in.

We had some lunch on the beautiful white sand and a short sunbathe before moving on. One of the skippers had been telling us stories of the wild eagles which fly overhead looking for food. As we were having lunch one of them came hovering over our group and the skipper whistled to it so it came nearer to him. He then threw up some bread and it swooped down to catch it. He did this a couple of times trying to keep the bread out of the annoying seagulls´reach! It was amazing to watch this wild bird come so close to us for food.

We hopped back onto our life boat for another thrilling ride to our first snorkel site. On the way we were told that we´d be passing through ´God´s Washing Machine´ (aparently named this as God himself decided!) It was a small part of the ocean where a few different currents meet and bash together causing waves and rough movements in the water. Most boats go around this part but we were going straight through the middle of it! It was very very bumpy and we got a bit wet but it was great fun and we even saw another huge turtle on our way out which popped its head out of the water for just a few seconds.

We had around 40 minutes of snorkelling time in the first location. There was some beautiful coral and loads of pretty fish which the skippers kept throwing fish food at so they would come to the surface of the water. They thought it was especially funny to throw in the food as all of us were swimming over the fish gawping at them, as they would then all rush to the surface for it, knocking into us all and sucking on our arms and legs as we all squeeled at the strange feeling! Then big daddy fish came - he was huge, enormous, half the size of me and twice as wide! He was bright blue and had big Mick Jagger lips and he was very tame and friendly and would come up and swim in the middle of all the snorkellers. He would frighten all of the other fish away which meant that he was boss! He came so close we all were pushing and shoving in the water to get close to him and stroke him. I managed to get close enough to touch and he was all slimey. He actually took food right out of the skippers hands. We were told after getting back on the boat that it wasn´t good for the fish when all the millions of people who go snorkelling in that area reach out to touch him as the oils and sunscreen from our hands will slowly block up his scales and eventually kill him. We wished he had told us that before we´d got into the water as Im sure nobody would have tried to touch him at all knowing that.

Our second snorkel location was just as impressive and we even spotted some ´brain´coral which we´d been told about on our Great Barrier Reef trip. It looks just how you would imagine it to look.

The ride back at the end of the day was a bit on the chilly side being on an open boat and being soaking wet from the sea. We dropped a few people back at Daydream Island and as we cruised around the mermaids again there was a woman with long flowing hair bathing waste deep in the water. The skippers shouted ´wow look at the real mermaid in the water!´ which made everyone turn to look and laugh. It was quite funny, poor woman would have been wondering why we were all staring and laughing at her!

We got very cold on the way back so spent half an hour sitting in the sun at the lagoon warming up and drying off. We moved the van to our new, very small, campsite and discovered the lights still didnt work properly after a full night´s charge, so we had to leave the engine running for half an hour while we made dinner so we could see what we were doing!

Friday 18 Sept

We left Airlie beach after breakfast and stopped at the lagoon in Mackay for a couple hours break. We shopped for a bit and I lost my star from my wrist piercing as I was trying on clothes ´-( We drove on to Rockhampton where we planned on spending the night. We pulled into quite a nice campsite, the bathrooms being very clean which is always a plus. By this time I´d almost got this showering lark down to a fine art - that being trying to balance all my dry stuff on pegs and sometimes non-existant dry benches, trying not to get any of it wet while trying to keep my soap dish, razor, bottles and stuff off the minging dirty floors. Then trying to get dried without touching the dirty walls and floors, or picking up mounds of someone elses hair on my flipflops, balancing while trying to dry my nicely cleaned feet and stop them touching the floor. There´d not been so many incidents of losing my balance, hitting my head off the wall and then balancing on my head against the wall, still trying to keep said feet clean and away from other people´s muck! We found lots of mozzie bites on our arms and legs that night - need to get some more Vegemite down us to stop them biting!

Sat 19 Sept

We left the campsite and had a wander around the town of Rockhampton. There wasnt a lot to do there, it was very quiet and there weren´t a lot of people around, so we got back in the van and headed to Agnes Water and the Town of 1770. There was nothing much at either of these towns either, they were really small and everything was closed by the time we got there and it was only 4 pm. We decided against staying at the only available campsite with cold showers and long-drop toilets and travelled on to Bundaberg, the home of Bundaberg rum. We eventually found a campsite after getting lost a few times and luckily got the last free spot for the next couple of nights. We looked forward to a day off travelling the next day.

Sun 20 Sept

Sunday is usually a very quiet day in Bundaberg with not much going on, so we decided to visit the Sunday market which was being held at the local school. We spent an hour or so wandering around the stalls in the baking heat and then we went to the Big Barrel ginger beer factory. We tasted 10 or so different fizzy drinks and came away full of bubbles and burps, feeling a bit like Charlie and Grandpa Joe! Well it was necessary to make room for the rum we were to be tasting at our next stop, the Bundaberg Rum Factory. We had a tour around the factory where we tasted molasses (which is a byproduct of the processing of sugar cane into sugar) which is used to make the rum. It was a very sticky, sickly sweet syrup but tasted quite nice. We also had a couple of free taste tests in the bar after the tour which we enjoyed more than the tour itself!

We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach so we drove to Bargara and settled into the sand. But it turned out to be a bit windy and after 20 minutes of trying to shield our faces from the flying grains of sand, we gave up and left the beach covered in it!