Australia - Whitsundays onto Cairns

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The Whitsunday Islands are just off of Airlie Beach, the north east coast of Australia. Our trip was a two night sleep-on-boat sailing adventure where we were showed around the islands. Definately one of the highlights of travelling with beautiful sights, we recommend you perhaps google Whitsundays to get a rough idea of what it's like, and when you do don't be suprised if you get swamped in a wave of jealousy. Afterall, you should be jealous.

Our first day was short, as we simply spent most of it getting on the boat and settling in and sailing to our first destination, we also had our first snorkel spot where we saw some lovely fish and coral, however the boat had an early night - we were both exhausted from the previous night. The next day however was particularly brilliant, multiple snorkel spots where we decided we were glad we invested in renting the stinger suits as there was jellyfish EVERYWHERE! We also parked up on a small sand island in the middle of the reef. By small we mean probably about 100m x 30m. This place was a pretty popular hang out for the local green turtles, and we saw plenty as we snorkelled around.

Our skipper Wozza was also a bit of a legend, that night he introduced us to snorkel bongs - basically you wear the mask and snorkel and have a drink poured into it, genius. Apart from his knowledge of drinking irresponsibly, he also knew a fair bit about the area and wildlife. Thank god. Perhaps his most impressive moment was when he whistled a sea eagle over and threw a chunk of meat into the air which it caught. All caught on camera folks so be excited to see that. That evening (shortly after some snorkel bongs) we also had a humpback whale emerge a matter of metres next to our boat, which was great as until that point we had only seen whales at a distance. However the next moring on our journey back to Airlie beach we saw at least five! We could only get about 100 metres away from them, but it was worth it seeing two whales race and breach out of the sea simultaneously. Also caught on video camera, excellent.

After one more night in Airlie Beach (great place, hope to go back at some point!) we moved northwards to Magnetic Island, which is a ferry trip from Townsville. Pretty awesome place but little to do, felt like a three day holiday. We hired a car out between five of us one day, which only came to about 15 dollars each for the day and drove to the Fort walk, basically an hour and a half trek to a nice viewpoint, but the best part of the walk is the ability to see wild koalas! We saw...one, but that will do. He was asleep...he woke up and sneezed a bit then went back to sleep...Yup

Other than chilling out in the day, and attempting to get a sun tan top up before going home to see all you white folks, the atmosphere was very relaxed until it got to the evening. There is no bars or clubs but the hostel, Base (brilliant place, hut dorms, palm trees, swimming pool, on the beach), put on good evening entertainment. One night there was a pool tournament, of which just about lost in the quarter finals for. The last night, perhaps our greatest in Oz, was when almost everyone from Airlie arrived (will miss you guys!) so we all had a gigantic one. Unfortunately the theme that night was...cross dressing. Just a heads up for when pictures -do- go on facebook, the potential prize was a 50$ bar tab. So parents don't be too mortified, we clearly had very valid motives which you can be proud of.

On our way to Cairns we visited a croc farm. Fed some kangaroos, saw an emu, stroked a dingo, watched keepers feed crocodiles, and saw and learn't about a casowary, the most dangerous bird in the world.

We stayed at Gilligans in Cairns (checked out this morning) which is actually a brilliant hostel, felt like a hotel and has its own nightclub. There was a ministry of sound Trance Nation night last night which were still suffering from, and we hope to recover with an all you can eat chinese tonight.

The end of Oz Experience, and we're home in three days! Sad times

Also we wish a happy birthday to Will's dad John today, hope you have a good day.

Love Will and Tom x

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