Advertisement
Published: February 18th 2010
Edit Blog Post
The Whitsunday Magic - Not quite the Star Clipper - but same idea! We first enjoyed 2 nights at Airlie Beach (Sunlit Waters Resort)
Airlie Beach has a huge lagoon where we swam in crystal clear waters with plenty of space and no fear of jellyfish, stingers, or sharks - we ate well, seafood mainly and drank in open air bars with music and TV's sometimes at the same time! Aussies love their sport - its always on and now the Olympics in Canada are included too!So there is no getting away from it!
Beautiful beaches here too, but this is the Coral Sea now, not the Pacific Ocean and very different - no surf and a strong possibility of Stingers Jellyfish and Sharks- so I will not be going into the water. People think I'm mad not to take advantage of the beautiful turquoise waters, but with my luck, I will not be taking any chances- if anything is going to happen to anyone, it most certainly would be to me!!
We came on board The Whitsunday Magic 0n Monday 15th Feb at 4pm. We were welcomed with a drink of iced water - which was actually very refreshing (although
it was champagne on the Star Clipper!!)I was glad when the bar opened and I could have my 5pm G&T which was even more refreshing!
On board we were introduced to 5 crew members and the Skipper and 22 other guests.
It was a bit like a Social Work Child Protection meeting where we all had to say who we were and where we came from!!- 'Hi, Im Mary Stephenson and I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland'
. There was a selection of nationalities from England, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Holland and Austria and a mixture of ages - which is great and lots of people to get to know!
We spent a pleasant evening sailing to an inlet where we anchored for the night. We had supper on the boat - not entirely inspiring but after a couple of glasses of wine - who cares?!!
The one disappointment for Rob and one or two other musical people on board, there was no guitar.
Tuesday morning dawned bright and warm and sunny and some intrepid people, Rob among them, took to snorkelling and diving with the blonde, good looking and French, Thierry, the dive instructor!- Not me though- I
had a wonderfully lazy morning on the sunloungers on deck, reading and talking to a few other 'cowards' or sensible people who were not taking any risks and didnt want to be bitten on the bottom by a reef shark (which happened last week to an unfortunate lady in the same waters!
However, later on, we had the opportunity to go in the glass bottomed tender, to look at the Coral- It was fabulous, but a lot less colourful than I expected, beautiful forms and shapes, and our guide, Dave, the Ships First Officer, was able to name them for us.
Dave also gave us a guided tour through the Southern Hemisphere's night sky- The stars were beautiful and so bright against the black, black sky.
The Whitsunday Islands are beautiful too, and we sailed in and out and round about them. They are hilly, mainly forested - more rainforests - with volcanic cores sticking up above the hills here and there. There are miles and miles of white beaches and bays, with bright, white silica sand - no internet and no mobile phone signal!
Sometimes the boat motors, but I much prefer it when the sails are up and
we are sailing in the wind - the wind and waves are music to my ears and so relaxing.
I should not have been concerned about the lack of a guitar. Rob certainly was not deterred, and happily entertained the passengers and crew, by just singing unaccopanied, with occasional tunes on his harmonica. Everyone seemed to enjoy it but all were too shy to sing!
This, of course, did not put Rob off as he was more than happy to do the entertaining himself!
Speaking to our fellow passengers, it became clear that many young people take extended holidays to come to Australia and they plan to be here for at least a couple of months but usually more.
Some have their jobs to go back to and others have resigned and will get another job back home, when the time is right- It seems like a good way to live your life and see the world!
The food on board improved greatly after the first evening, and in fact, we all ate very well. I'm not used to lunch, but the salad buffet which was laid out at lunchtime was very appetising. We had lots of lovely
seafood. prawns. calamari, reef fish etc - all delicious.
We met many very nice people over the 3 days. Barbra made us smile and laugh out loud the most! What a character she is! She had come to Melbourne to visit her cousin and had 'hijacked' her daughter who was travelling alone in Australia for a few months. They were having a trip together on the Whitsunday Magic before going their own ways. Barbra was going back to her home in Southern Ireland and her daughter was continuing her travels.
Barbra had to frequently disappear to the bow of the ship, to 'protect the ship' for us! and have a smoke!
Last night when it was stormy and rainy, she would don a yellow oilskin, which was at least 5 times too big for her small frame, and leave the bar, returning 10-15 minutes later, looking like a North Sea Trawlerman - wind swept and drookit!
On our last morning when the purser came on deck to tell us it was time to settle our bar bills (groan...) Barbra said 'That's easy - Im not paying!!'
A fellow passenger was a keen crossword solver and frequently worked from a
magazine. Barbra seeing the magazine lying on the table, politely asked 'G' if she could 'do' one of the crossword puzzles. 'G' generously said 'of course'
Halfway through the crossword 'G' suggested Barbara should buy a magazine as they were only $6 and gave hours of endless fun. Barbara retorted very quickly 'Sure and why would I want to waste $6 when I can use yours?!!' - I think 'G; did not quite know what to make of it!!
Barbra kept us all amused with her quick witted, funny, dry quips and 'craic'
The barman, Brian, a lovely, young, soft spoken Irishman (a backpacker in real life) took a lot of good humoured stick about his home town in Ireland which Barbra and her daughter assured us was 'a bog' and constantly refered to as 'Ballygobackwards'!!
As the evenings wore on most people went to bed by 10pm but, of course, Barbra, her daughter, Rob and I and Brian, the bar man (who kept the bar open till 3 am if guests desired) stayed up late, having our own little ceilidh -with lots of craic(chat) interjected with singing from Rob and a bit of Van Morrison on the CD -
Good fun times!
After these wonderful days, we have our last 10 days in Oz. We go further North to Townsville then Cairns but as it is the rainy season we are hearing about big floods!!
It will probably get even hotter and more humid as we get closer to the Equator!! After that we head to New Zealand and the motor home!! We have had good practice at living in very close proximity in our little cabin on 'The Whitsunday Magic' so I'm sure we will be OK!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb