Whitsunday Islands
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2007
1
60
72
Trip End
Aug 25, 2007
Airlie Beach,
Queensland,
Australia
Sunday, July 27, 2008
We found a hidden spot by the quay where we slept in the Falcon, for one last time. Thank God.
We got up and it was still rainig and went to check in for our boat. Calum and I decided to go for the cheapest 2 night sailing trip of the Whitsundays on the Tongarra boat, a catamaran that takes 18 people. We checked in and then had about 5 hours to kill before it left so went and chilled out on Airlie Beach, the sun was trying to shine and it wasn't raining for a change. We had our last card games with Christoph and said goodbye, he was a really good guy to travel with and thanks to his car we got to see so much more than we would have done in our short time in Queensland. The first day on the boat was actually the best in terms of weather and the sunset as we sailed out over the flattest ever sea was lovely. We met some really nice German girls immediately after getting on the boat, they were the only other people roughly our age and the two of them were also on a gap year, they were really good fun. There was a big group of french guys who were also great fun and about 10 big scary irish girls who drank beer for breakfast and winged about the weather and refused to snorkel and complained about the boat and generally pissed everyone off. The boat was pretty budget, but thats what we expected and the food was awesome, we got to sleep out on deck which was cool and although it rained, you have to make the most of situations like that otherwise you just make yourselves depressed. We thought it was an awesome trip, the skipper, Benny, was an absolute ledgend and the one man crew, Dave from England, was also a really cool bloke. We stopped on Whitsunday Island on the second day and saw the beautiful Whitehaven Beach and sand belts, it is an awesome sight even on a cloudy day, the contrast of the bright blue water and the white white sand is idilic. We also snorkelled on a coral reef just off hook island, the coral was stunning and the fish were also amazing, looking from the boat you can see nothing but as soon as you get your head under you are suddenly surrounded by these bright colours and strange shapes and movements, its a really special experience. We also spotted a few turtles from the boat as they came up to breathe and saw humpback whales a couple of km away, a really cool sight.
It was one of the Irish girls birthdays which involved much drinking, mostly goon (this cheap boxed wine I have been going on about) consumed through a snorkel pipe. The following day was stormy and savage hangovers put the girls in an even worse mood. We visited an aboriginal cave on a bush walk on Hook Island and then headed back across to mainland. It was apparently the roughest crossing of the season so far, I actually really enjoyed it, the french guys and us put waterfproofs and snorkel masks on and went and stood on the front of the boat, riding the big waves and generally getting drenched by the warm sea water.
Our bus for Townsville left at 2am, which meant we had about 10 hours to kill in the rain in Airlie Beach, we decided this was bad so managed to change it to 8pm. We had a few beers with Sophia and Sadie, the german girls, and randomly met Suzanne again!! She joined us for some drinks as did Christoph and we were a bit gutted we had moved our bus forward in the end.
So we arrived in Townsville at anout 12.30am and got a taxi to the airport, which didn't open until 3.30am. We sat outside with an American guy who was also waiting for it to open and played some cards. We got in at about 4 and went to sleep in the corner, woke up just in time for our flight at 7.
