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Published: June 12th 2008
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Well the next major stop on our trip was Arlie beach and a sailing trip in the glorious sun around the Whitsunday Islands. At least thats what we hoped for but unfortunately the weather had turned and the rain was well and truely down, as depressing as it was after spending 3 months in Perth and only having 2 days of rain we couldn't really complain! It turned out to be a bit of an adventure!
We booked a 2 day 1 night trip on an 80ft sail boat. Day one rained the whole day, but we had a good gang of about 20, including 9 irish on the boat all around the same age so we managed to have plenty of craic. We got kitted up in the rain coats but still managed to get drenched with the rain coming from above and the sea's splashing us from all other angles. We stopped on some of the islands and went for a trek, they were still amazing even in the bad weather and we managed to have a few gaps in the rain. Whitehaven beach was amazing with its incredibly fine white sand and clear blue water. We also
went snorkling off one of the islands which had some great coral and a resident turtle. That night we all huddled under a canopy on the boat and managed to drink a decent amount of alcohol and have a laugh, the weather had calmed a bit, the calm before the real storm. Later that night there was serious thunder and lightening as we all tried to sleep in our tiny little beds, the wind was unreal even though we were in a sheltered bay. The next day we heard over the radio that lots of boats back at Arlie had been wrecked and one of the boats out at the islands, which we had looked at booking, was now a shipwreck, the people on it having to be rescued at 3am by helicopter! Sailing home that day was fun as the wind was so strong we really got to see the boat in action, all sitting over on one side whilst it sailed through the huge waves, reaching Arlie bay sunburnt?? and soaked from the waves! Because of the weather it was all a bit of an adventure and thanks to the good gang of people on the boat we
all had fun. We stayed around Arlie again that night to meet up with the gang from the boat for some grub and a few beers.
Next we battled our way down the coast headed for Hervey Bay. The weather was still stormy and constant rain, our camper managed to make it through a few floods and not get flattened by the road trains passing us out despite the dangerous conditions. Our friends from the boat weren't so lucky as none of the tourist buses were running due to the floods so many got stranded in Airlie. Along the way we stopped off in Bundaberg, famous for its rum. We're not big into our rum but the tour was really interesting and we couldn't pass up the chance to sample a bit as we where passing. Dispite the rain and the rum we managed to reach Hervey Bay in one piece and booked our trip to Fraser Island, a 2 day 1 night trip. This again turned out to be a bit different to what was described in the brochure!
The weather luckily had cleared up when we started out on a big 4x4 bus with about 12
people on the trip. Once we reached the island the driver / tour guide said we had to change buses as there was a problem with the current one. We changed to a massive 4x4 coach and headed off around the island. After our first stop the guide realised this bus also wasn't working right, the battery wasn't charging and as they had no more buses on the island it meant when ever we stopped at a place to see something he had to stay and keep the bus running, so as we wouldn't get stranded.
It was a cool island to see, completely made up of sand and with a rainforest in the middle, the highway was the beach (70 km's!), if your walking on it and get hit by a car, its not the cars fault seemingly. We spent the night in very fancy tents with proper beds and wooden floors, a bit of a treat after the campervan. The camp kitchen had a resident snake waiting for us when we got there, at first we didn't think it was real. Day 2 we hiked inland to a massive sand dune which had trapped a lake inside
it, pretty amazing and great for a cooling dip. Then we headed off to another lake for lunch, this was up a winding sand track throught he rainforest with just about enough room for our massive coach. We had to stop at half way up to move a tree which was blocking the track, some how one of the lads managed to get a big piece of it stuck right in between his big toe and the one beside it, chaos ensued, the driver/guide immediately tried to contact base via radio & sat phone, when neither worked we put the guy on the bus and had to continue up to the lake for somewhere to turn around. Before we reached the lake the guide decided to try and turn the bus on a large bend in the track, bad idea! Next thing we know the bus gets bogged down and we are all now stranded in the middle of nowhere! Cue more panic from the diver. Long story short, we eventually got someone on the radio and they came to gather up the injuried party and bring him to the beach to be flown to the main land to pull
the tree out of his foot and we managed to dig out the bus and head up to the lake for lunch. I thought it was pretty funny not sure the guide was enjoying it much though. The remainder of the tour passed off smoothly and we returned to Hervey Bay for another night before hitting the road again in our trusty van.
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