Sailz Boutique Holiday Villas Airlie Beach

... Island in a 4 wheel drive bus...it is basically a sand dune and the driving is over very rough terrain . We were thrown about all over the place but had great fun doing it. Swimming in freshwater lakes, driving on the beach and exploring the rainforest where there are Taipans,death adders and pythons as well as funnelweb and redback spiders all of which are deadly...not to mention the incredable number of sharks on the coastline.....lovely ...

... that day. With bags in tow I made my way to the marina and met up with the other passengers and crew. Was anyone carrying bananas with them? We were asked. Because if so we would have to leave them ashore or eat them before getting on the boat. Bananas, it was explained, are bad luck on sailboats. This is because Australian vessels importing and exporting from neighboring Asian countries used to carry large shipments of rice and bananas. If there was a problem and the boat started to ...

... dive masters).

Une fois les règlements du bateau expliqués et la décharge de responsabilités signée, on a fait un 4 heures de navigation sous un ciel étoilé. En buvant notre bière sur le pont, on eu la chance de faire un plus amples connaissances entre nous. Avec plus de 7 cabines pour les invités, j’ai été « matché » avec Trisha (Américaine) et Elisa (Espagnole) dans une chambre grande comme ma main. Pas besoin de vous dire que le ...

... sea it was pure rainstorms! the yacht tipped all the way to one side and the captain was dressed in head to toe waterproof clothing - it felt like we were in perfect storm! i thought we were going to tip over! it was pretty scary! we just sailed through the horrible weather for hours seeing nothing. when you went inside the motion was so terrible that the entire boat fell seasick!! it was so choppy and wet and really wasnt a good experience! it was such a shame!! the weather eased ...

... snorkeling you could stay out there for days. Even a few showers while snorkeling didn’t spoil what was an amazing day. We headed back to shore and had some chocolate cake and warm drinks on the way.

On our last day in Airlie we spent most of the day around the lagoon before heading out for some lovely fish and chips in the evening. After which we headed out to a few bars for some drinks and watched some the football highlights from the weekend much to Lee’s delight.

... clearly, it was just incredible. I wish I could've got a photo, but my camera's just not good enough. Dammit. The other passengers on the boat were all great fun, and we all met up in Airlie Beach town for a meal the night we got back to shore. After three days on a small boat, we all had wobbly legs and felt like we were still swaying! The best day of the trip was the second day, we spent the morning on Whitehaven Beach marvelling at the almost pure silica sand ...

... track from the ferry was soft sand and so pretty much straight away a jeep got stuck and we were stuck in a queue! Not long after we got stuck..... fun and games!
Lake Wabby involved a gruelling 45 min walk to get there... gruelling as you're walking uphill through sand! Awesome though... you get to the top and it's like being in a desert..... run down the sand dunes and you're in a fresh lake full of catfish.... cooool!!

Then it was off to find a place to camp for ...

... bottomed boat from which you had a good view of the coral and fish with an accompanying commentary which was a good intro, snorkelling, an underwater observatory from where you could watch the snorkelers and swimmers and the highlight of our day, an intro scuba dive. We were very excited but R was pretty nervous beforehand however our instructor, Dan was very matter of fact and put us at ease. We were given all the equipment and shown how to breathe as ...

... a 2 hour horse ride through the ranges which back the coastal strip. The was a very pleasant interlude, we climbed to the top of the range, (so much easier on a horse than on foot!) where there was a lovely view over the bay. We were also lucky to see some Prosperine Rock Wallabies which are specific to the area and are endangered. An enjoyable afternoon but doubtless I will pay for it later. From here I take a short detour inland to Eungella on the track of the elusive platypus.

... competitive game of beach volleyball. It was a tough contest, full of booming serves, long rallies and diving saves. It didn’t matter who won because the spirit of the game was the only winner on the day. Of course I’m only saying that because my team lost. But I’ll put my hand up and take the blame – my upper torso is at least six shades whiter than everybody else’s (a side effect of ...