Back To Brisbane After 3 Days Sailing & 3 Days Driving

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Hi all,

Back "home" in Brisbane after 3 fab days on The Clipper sailing the Whitsundays and 3 not so fab days driving Louis the 2,000ks home. Unfortunately the weather during our sail wasn't terrific, monsoon is the word the springs to mind, but we had lots of fun anyway. The spirit of travelling to the far side of the world and tasting so many different cultures was quashed by the fact that over three-quarters of our boat was Irish...there were more accents from Cork, Dublin and Kilkenny than there were foreign but at least that meant the boat was good for a bit of craic.

The trip was birilliant, the food was fantastic (always an important factor where Im concerned), the crew were great, the island, White Haven Beach, that we visited was amazing and the snorkling was lovely...I'm sure everything would have been even better had we gotten a bit of sunshine but sure you can't have it all. I shared a "cabin" (a room about half the size of our bathroom in Brisbane!) with two lovely girls from Austria who I had met in Rainbow Beach. We were, however, at pains to spend longer than necissary in the room....I don't think all 3 of us could stand up in there at the same time!

Apart from the heat in our cabins our nights were fantastic...sitting out on deck in the rain with a beer looking up at the sparkling night sky or peering down at the water, picking out the sharks and the stingrays from the fish. Ofcourse the weather did make things a bit unstable and there were a lot of fishies fed by sea-sick Irishmen! Back on shore we all headed out for a cheap meal and some drinks before going our seperate ways the following morning.

I thought the journey back down to Brisbane would only take two days but as luck would have it I got sick on my second day travelling and had to book into a hostel for the day. Trust me spending a day alone in bed, a thousand miles from everyone you know (and the far side of the world from yer mammy), with no phone signal and absolutely no energy isn't a pleasant experience. But its all good now and more importantly I made it back to Brisbane in time for Neds big birthday and Australia Day. A great night was had by all but I don't mind telling you that Aussie Day is no rival for Paddy's Day!

As part of my birthday pressie for Ned me her and Lynn headed over to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today and had an absolute ball! The weather was perfect and Ned even got to hug a koala!

Still haven't organised my flighs home yet but the way things are looking it'll be sooner rather than later that yous all get to buy me a pint! :-)

Hope everyone's keeping well! Message me any gossip!!

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