Airlie Beach

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12/05/09 Tuesday Day 270
Nothing much to report on Airline Beach. Arrived here in the afternoon. We thought the caravan site was a short walk to the turn. It turns out it’s a short bus journey but it’s not so bad as the bus stop is right outside the door. We checked in and headed back into town on the bus to check the place. Typical beach town really but nice all the same. They also have a lagoon in the middle of it where you can swim or just lay out for the day. The town is small enough too so it didn’t take long to walk around it. There’s loads of pubs and restaurants here too. Tomorrow we go on a Great Barrier Reef Adventures tour, being collected at 7.10am. Yet another early start, but this one should be well worth it!

13/05/09 Wednesday Day 271 A day to remember
Early start this morning. Collected at 7.10am to be taken to Abel Point Marina. Our cruise today is to the Great Barrier Reef. Weather wasn’t good. Very cloudy, no sun and very rough seas when we were crossing the shipping lane. The tour company have a pontoon in the outer barrier reef in Knuckle Reef, some 100 kilometres off the coast. Here you can go snorkelling or scuba diving, either as an intro dive (by holding the instructors hand) or as a certified dive if you are already trained or just sit around. We decided to have a go at the intro scuba dive and boy did we pick a good one. After putting on the gear and heading underneath the pontoon to a kind of pool area to practise breathing and stuff, I started to become petrified. I couldn’t seem to handle the breathing at all and this was even without my face in the water, just to mouth piece! I was so close to not doing it at all but luckily we had a really good instructor and with enough of encouragement I finally got the breathing under control. All I can say about the dive is that it was amazing. Definitely worth it even though the whole time I was still petrified. We even got to see and touch a Napoleon Mauri Wrasse. Just look it up on Google. It’s got a fine pair of lips!
After the dive we changed and had some lunch on the boat. After that we were going to chance the snorkelling but it was getting very windy and choppy outside so we decided against it. Instead we went in their semi sub boat and had a look at the reef in a much drier capacity!
Crossing the shipping lane on the 3 hour journey back was quite a wild ride, with the boat rocking from side to side. After getting dropped back to the caravan park, we got changed and headed out in the town. Not a bad place to go out in. It’s a real backpacker place so there’s loads of places to go drinking.
14/05/09 Thursday Day 272
Since yesterday’s trip didn’t include a stop at any of the Whitsunday islands, we decided to go on another tour, this time visiting some of the islands. First stop was Hook Island. Here they split the people on the boat into two groups, one group going snorkelling and the other going in a semi sub boat. We went snorkelling first. This was yet another first for the both of us and it was also amazing, not quite the thrill of scuba diving though. Both of us put on lifejackets and even though I can swim I was feeling particularly lazy today so I went with one too. It’s way easier anyway with one. There’s still some cool views when you’re snorkelling. One of the tour guys was feeding fish from a small boat so we went out there and swam around loads of fish. I also took some photos with my underwater disposal camera. God only knows how they’ll come out! After changing back into our civvies, it was time for the semi sub boat. Basically it’s a boat with an underwater observatory. Since we had this done yesterday, we didn’t get as much a thrill out of it as the other ohh’ers and ahh’ers did!
After Hook Island we had some lunch on the boat as we headed for Whitehaven beach. The sand here is amazingly white. There’s nothing on the beach, i.e. shops, etc and the only way to get there is with a tour. That’s why the beach is in such amazing condition. There’s also amazing views. So after spending an hour wandering around there it was back on the boat and headed for Long Island Resort where we spend another hour and a half wandering around, catching up on some badly needed rays! Once we were collected from there it was another short boat trip back to the mainland.

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