Whitsunday Lodge Bed and Breakfast Airlie Beach

... soft sand. One piece of useful (or less) information for you - The Hubble telescope lens was made from the sand on this beach! Again, it was just a shame we couldn't jump into the sea without our
stinger suits on!
Another sunset on the boat with a few more drinks than the night before which meant we were all dancing to Grease on the front deck within a few hours (who said this wasn't a party boat?!). It's quite funny that there were English, Aussies ...

... Once again I didn’t do too much there other than relax and eat. Finally I decided to head way up north (but still not all the way) and sail the Whitsundays, a 'must-do’ according to everyone who has done it. After what I realized was my 11th flight of the trip, I arrived in Airlie Beach and tried to choose one of the countless Whitsunday Island tours offered in town. While there were countless tours offered, I could ...

... and a few drinks for a nightcap.

The snorkeling was amazing. Though not technically part of the Great Barrier Reef, many of the islands in the Whitsundays are surrounded by fringing reef of equal splendor. In fact, it can be argued that the snorkeling and diving here are even better than at the reef, as was attested to by a few of the passengers on board who have experienced both. Because the Great Barrier Reef is in open water, the quality of the experience is ...

... comment that 'the reason its so light and small compared to every one elses is because most people have jeans as well as pyjamas'. I've been laughing about it ever since! :D

It's been good, everyones off sailing either today or tomorrow and then leaving I'll be here until the 4th (which is not good seeing as its so expensive) until I can meet G man in Townsville for the full moon party. Then up to Cairns do a few things and take off to SE Asia and live like a king for a few months!

... chase some fish around with the underwater camera and got some good snaps. Then, Whitehaven beach hooray! The dude who booked our trips could only describe the sand as being "****ed up" and we didn't argue, it's ridiculously soft. Apparently it can whiten your teeth too but all I got was a gritty mouth. Stingrays were hanging around in the water too!

Night time brought more mayhem, I think it was Erin and Caroline who kindly ...

... someone had taken a chunk out of his massive ginger fro/perm and we were told when we left the harbour it was a fun boat not a booze cruise. After Breakfast we were dropped off on the next beach by 8am so you can see why we wanted some sleep. We took some snorkeling stuff but LJ wasn't feeling to great and after the first few people came back and said that they couldn't see much we just relaxed on the beach. The 6 star resort I mentioned yesterday was directly ...

... a harbour and real beach...
That night they cooked hot dogs and the goon-drinking reached a new low - they served me some red goon in a plastic bottle which they'd cut in half... nice!
We were drinking in their dorm as they had a balcony and I didn't.... they also had crazier dorm-mates..... an Aussie footie team from Melbourne who were in and out of the dorm in fancy dress, walking round naked.... shaving their hair off in an attempt to fool bouncers into letting ...

... impressive, although it was missing vital ingredient for James...shade! Spank Me was less of a party boat than the name suggests...mainly because most of the peeps on there were European girls who were fairly quiet but the crew were a good laugh and kept us entertained during the sailing (I even had a go at steering the boat!)....we went to some amazing places out on the islands and did loads of good snorkelling ...

... it would be this totally manic party time, and it definately was really chilled out. It's not that I had a bad time, far far from it, it just wasn't exactly what I expected. But I guess the thing about it is things like that are so dependant on the group you have, and I guess mine just wasn't the partying kinda group!

Anyways, the first day we went to Frasers we hit up Lake Wabby, a really nice freshwater lake near a ...

... was taking place in the gardens. Picked up by shuttle bus at 4.10. Proserpine Airport is small and the departure lounge on a hot summers evening was a grassy enclosure alongside the runway. It gets dark about 5.30. The incoming plane was half an hour late, but with a fast turnaround and a good flight we were back to Brisbane about 8.15pm