Arriving in Airlie beach we checked into our hostel (Beaches) and arranged with the group to eat at a bar called Moroccos where there was a Karaoke night too. Not our cup of tea we thought (at the time). It turned out that the bar wasn’t that busy so it was pretty much only the 25 of us there with a few others dotted around. When it was time for karaoke we both decided that if we don’t do it now we probably never will. We went up separately and sung solo! I sung ‘Living on a prayer’ and Steph belted out ‘Nine to Five’! There was rather a lot of cider involved to get Steph up on stage but what a great night it was. My singing on the other hand was as Steph put it, “inversely proportional to the volume of cider drunk”. I sung a few songs in total and the ones at the end of the night were very very bad!
After the karaoke we headed for one of the local night clubs (Mama Africas) had a few cocktails and danced the night away!
Friday 4th December – Had a lovely lie in and headed down to the lagoon with everyone from the oz bus. Played mini ball in the pool and had a good day of sun baking. We ate in Beaches again and headed up to Moroccos for the 2 for 1 drinks between 10 and 11pm and a wet t-shirt competition!
Saturday 5th December – Got up late with james a little worse for wear and trotted off down the lagoon again with our American friend Stepheny to chill out in the pool. Not much to report really. Lovely and hot again, a very chilled out day.
Sunday 6th December – Another lazy day! All there is of interest to write about today is that we booked in for our Whitsundays sailing trip and was given a tiny handbag to pack all that we would need for the three days into it. I worry how small the cabins are going to be! There are only going to be 14 people in total on our boat and we are both starting to get excited about it now. We also had a great fish and chips dinner. We only bought one portion and it was more than enough to feed the both of us.
Monday 7th December - Today we did literally nothing! Steph wasn't feeling too good so we sat around, watched some tv and then wrote the blog! We are itching to get moving now as doing nothing means wehave time to think about home and our friends and family and Pussy Cats and we miss them! :-(
Tuesday 8th December - We got a shuttle bus at 8.30 to take us to the Marina in Airlie Beach where we were catching our boat Southern Cross. The boat is a 20 metre yacht which took part in the Americas cup about 30 years ago beating 32 other boats to get there!
We all had jobs on the boat, some to pull ropes to hoist sails, others to press switchs - James and I got to share the job of steering this morning!
When you get sailing to boat leans onto quite an angle!
Our first stop of the day was to snorkel or dive in Maureens Cove. James opted to dive but I decided to snorkel as I was feeling pretty sea sick yet again! it was very pretty but we were a little disappointed as like Cairns it didn't seem to quite meet our expectations. As it is jellyfish season here every time you get in the water you have to wear stinger suits (very thin wetsuits) to protect you from the jellys. After lunch we went for another snorkel in Luncheon Bay before settling down for the night on the boat. We saw a huge fish in the water here which was very cool! We both had a very restless night as the boat was rocking quite a lot and I tried sleeping on the deck (too hard) and in the bunks (too hot and rocky)
Jellyfish (harmless)
Wednesday 9th December - This morning we set sail and headed out to Dunbell Island for a snorkel and it was FANTASTIC! IT finally lived up to our expectations and it was the most beautiful underwater world - plus we got to see Nemos cousin!
In the afternoon we sailing to Whitehaven beach (around 97% silica sand) which has to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - I will let the pictures speak for themselves!
After the beach we sailed some more and saw an Eagle come down to catch a sausage the captain threw off the boat. We then moored up for the night again, turned the lights off on the boat and watched the stars - beautiful. We were even lucky enough to see a shooting star!
Thursday 10th December - Today we went to Tongue Bay and snorkelled around there and we got to see a sea turtle!!!
In the afternoon, after a snorkell at Black Island we headed back to Airlie beach arriving around 4.30pm. We checked into our hostel and then finally got a proper shower (we were only allowed 30seconds each day on the boat!) Tonight we meet to rest of the boat for drinks at a bar in the town before heading to Kroombit cattle station tomorrow on the OZ bus.
Our route round the Whitsundays
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