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Published: October 13th 2008
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After the late arrival we had a few bits to sort - check in for our boat - Walzng Matilda and purchasing some sun cream - we were advised to buy factor 30! we brought some 15 aswell (just in case!)
After a chilled out day preppin up the following morning we set sail, arriving at the mariner before 8am. I felt like a bit of an alcoholic though, we sat waitin for the bottle shop (off licence) to open - it was 8am!
Forgot to say when we checked in we were given a small green grocery bag each to place our stuff into - no other bags were aloud - a tad small we thought!
After we had purchased our day supply of alcohol we sat waiting for ‘someone to find us’ after that was what we had been told by the (not every helpful) women at the travel agent! Slowly more people arrived sporting the small - very nice - green grocery bags. After a while all 14 of us sat around - the green bag pose! - when Damien arrived - Damien was our host on board, cooking our meals, cleaning, unblocking the (rather small) toilet -
fingers crossed this wouldn’t be a requirement on our trip - and helping the skipper along the way. Damien was sporting some seriously cool blond dread locks and some equally smart Oakleys - imagine the stereotypical ozzy surfer dude, Damien was that guy!
We followed Damien to our boat, before we could climb aboard we all had to remove our shoes - they were not permitted on board - I was wondering why the surfer dude had arrived on bear foot - now I understood!
So after a safety talk from the skipper - a French man named Fabien, Damien gave us a quick introduction to the boat, basic do’s and don’ts really, then we set sail. The first day was spent predominantly sailing out to the Whitsunday Islands, with a stop off for a bit of snorkelling along the way. Prior to jumping into the water we all had to don some rather fetching wetsuits, or as Damien called tehm stinger suits - great! To our surprise the coral was much more colourful - better than what we had seen whilst snorkelling at Cairns. Oh and we didn’t see any stingers or jelly fish!
We moored up not
far from the Whitheaven beach, ready for the following day. The bay where we had pitched up wasn’t too great - the water was quite choppy and by the time the steak had been cooked my appetite had reduced - not good! However I didn’t want to let the side down so ‘forced’ the steak down, and even managed to squeeze a small 2nd helping in - maybe my appetite hand gone after all!
So after the grub we had a chat we some of our fellow sailors, some Canadians - by this time the 6 germans on board had become very friendly sitting together at the far end of the ship - face bothered!
After a terrible nights sleep in our ‘snug’ bunk beds we got up and headed to Whitheaven Beach - wow! The sand was so white and remained cool at all times - this is due to the sand comprising of 99% silicone, something for you fact fans out there!
After a couple of hours on land we headed back o the skervey seas, aaarrrr! (thats supposed to be a pirate voice, but you knew that!), heading for our next moor point. Along the way we
stopped for some snorkelling, Yoli and I weren’t feeling up to it so we headed to the beach - land lovers!
The day sailed past (sorry for the pun) really quick and before we knew it we were mooring up for teh second and final time. Although I say it sailed by - there was about an hour or so where the sera was terrible, lunch was on the brink of making a reappearance! Thankfully that didn’t happen and we moored up in a nice bay where the sea was nice and flat - a good nights sleep lay ahead of us!
Once Fabien had parked us up dinner was on the go - I felt ready to consume some serious grub at this stage, unlike the previous night! After dinner was consumed me and yoli had a few games of cards, during which I felt it rude not to have a couple of beers!
We woke on our final morning aboard teh Waltzing matilda after a surprisingly good nights sleep. Today we were sailing back to Airlie Beach, but before we reach our final destination we stopped for another beach/snorkelling break. We donned the stinger suits once on
land and went snorkelling - we even remembered the waterproof camera this time! After a wee dip we led on the beach to do some sun baking. After a while i decided to go for a bit of a walk, climbin some rocks around the coast line, much to yoli’s delight!
The trip from the final stop off back to dry land was fairly good with no real bad ‘turbulence’! Once back, we had a long afternoon / evening ahead of us - we landed about 4pm, but weren’t catching our bus until midnight - rubbish! We gave mum a quick call ‘whos calling at this hour’ -we had interrupted the pre-work busy period, but she was ok when she knew it was us (I think!). We gave Grandad a call - it was good to speak to him, he was chuffed we were ringing from the otherside of the world!
Once we’d called home we grabbed our bags from storage the long evening commenced! This was made even longer when the bus was half hour late; it then took the miserable so and so a further 30minutes to get everyone on board - not happy! The situation worsened when
we realised we weren’t even sitting together - 13 hour bus ride not sitting next to each other - I was over the moon! Only jokin!
We finally reached Hervey Bay at 1.30pm - knackered! So much for saving time getting the night bus, never mind we made it ready for Fraser Island!
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