Mission Beach, Airlie Beach & Whitsundays (Scotty's Hostel).....

Hi peeps, sorry for the lack of blogging - been having too much fun to sit down and write for hours! (Or i have just been lazy)

So after having fun in Cairns, I got on the bus and headed down to Mission Beach. I arrived at Scotty's Hostel which is in a really really quite beach town out in the open. Straight away I knew I would love the place - really friendly staff and guests, just like a little family.

I got talking to the 5 guys who were working there and travelling together - Jono, Rambo, Luke, Jimmy & Jay. They said that I could work there for as little/long as I wanted as the the girl who cleaned the kitchen was leaving that day. I accepted and my duties were to wake up at 6:30am everyday and clean the kitchen for 2 hours in exchange for free accomodation (in the smelly boys staff room) then I was free to do whatever I wanted for the rest of the day. I planned to stay for 3-4 nights but ended up staying 11!
MNy days consisted of cleaning with a hangover, showering, eating, sunbathing, swimming, eating, napping, cooking dinner for the boys cause they are rubbish, getting drunk and playing silly drinking games, sleeping and starting all over again :) sweeeett!

The two main things to do in Mission Beach is Skydiving and White water rafting. I didnt get to do either, although I booked to go on a skydive , but we had a cyclone attack the east coast for a few days and the weather was too windy for me to go - it just kept getting cancelled.

My next stop was going to be Airlie beach but i had to wait until the cyclone had gone before I moved on as they had a power cut as the weather was so bad. Once it had cleared I said goodbye to my little temporary home and headed off to Airlie for the Whitsunday Islands Sailing trip.
After a 9 hour bus ride me and my backpack settled into a 17 bed dorm at Airlie Waterfront Hostel. Didnt do much that noght, just had a look around town, had some food and went to bed.
The following day I checked my bags into storgae and boarded 'The Clipper' sailing boat along with 55 other backpackers ready to go explore the the islands.

I met two girls - Tasha and Florence who were travelling together from Cambridge, we clicked straight away and stayed togther for the whole 4 days until they went north to Cairns.

The 1st day on the boat was the day to get to know the crew and other passengers. We had a lovely dinner and got drunk on the top deck and everyone listened as I sung all night long till 2am with an Ozzie who played guitar - great fun.

Wpke up at 7am and after a hearty breakfast we set off to go and see Whitehaven Beach. We got off the dingy and walked up the hill of the island to the lookout point where we could see Whitehaven beach. Such a beautiful view! We then walked down to the beach and sunbathed and messed around in the gorgeous waters.

We went back to the boat for lunch and set off to Blue Pearl Bay for some snorkelling on the reef. Me and the girls got into our sexy Stinger suits and strapped on our snorkelling masks and jumped into the sea.

After being told we might see some reef sharks, sting rays and jelly fish, I think it was safe to say that I was crapping myself a little bit!
We didnt see any sharks amongst the beautiful coral, but us 3 screamed and and nearly cried when we saw a Parrott fish which has teeth! I think I have turned into a bit of a wus!!
The crew from the boat decided it would be funny to throw fish food directly on top of me and I had literally about 200 fish swimming into my face.

We got back onto the boat at 5pmish and we all took turs jumping off the roof of the boat and going down the slide into the sea. I had a much needed little nap until dinner time and woke up to the smell of fooood!

On our last night anboard the boat we did pretty much the same - played drinking games, the crew got us all playing simon says in fancy dress clothes and I think w all got to bed at around 4am.

Most of us woke up to a hangover and decided to stay in bed whilst the rest had breakfast and did a bit of swimming - but we didnt miss out on much as it rained. At 12pm we were back at Airlie Beach. Tash, Flo and I checked into the same room at Beaches Hostel and then went and sunbathed by the lagoon for a few hours. We had dinner and started drinking goon ready for our last night together. We went to a few bars and finished up in a club called Mama Africa. Tash and I managed to keep dancing until 5:30am when the music stopped - how sad!

The following day Me and the girls went for a much needed fry up and spent the day chilling out by the lagoon. i said my goodbyes to them that eveing as they got on there bus to Cairns. We miss each other already but will be meeting up in Thailand and travelling with them for a few weeks!

Just had a 22 Hour bus ride from Airlie Beach to Byron Bay - not very fun, but had to be done. I love Byron!! Just going to go and check into my hostel now, so will catch up wth u all soon - i'm sure this will take you about an hour to read any way :)

Love you all xxxxxxxxxxx