Airlie Beach and Whitsundays

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We left Cairns and headed straight for Airlie Beach, because few of us had flights to catch in the next few days to go back to various places, so there was not much sight-seeing time between Cairns and Airlie Beach, ideally would have loved to stop by Townsville for a few days to see the Magnetic island and do some scuba divings around there or even a sky diving adventure on Mission Beach... Might come back mid next year and do a longer trip...

The drive from Cairns to Airlie beach takes about 9 hours, we got to Airlie Beach about 11pm and we headed straight for the backpacker hostel... If you are travelling and knowing that you will arrive at a town late, past 6pm, if you want to stay at a backpacker hostel for the night, it is better to give them a call before hand, to let them know that you are coming, because most reception at backpackers close early, say after 8pm, though some do stay open till 9 or 10pm... We stayed at X base hostel, which cost $26 per person in shared dorms, pretty cool place, has a swimming pool and a good bar infront of it, they do cheap dinners, for $10 you can get a parma with a beer, they might throw in a free drink card with you accommodation as well.

We booked a 2 day 1 night whitsundays cruise, so after a night's sleep, we went to Abel Point Marina, our boat was called WINGS EXPRESS, don't ask me how they got the name... really nice boat, there were 25 passengers and 3 crew, of which 6 of us are travelling together, me, Alexandra, Martin, Cata, Alejandro and Stephanie... There were 2 others Julie and Nina, we were suppose to book the same cruise as them, but we only had time to do the 2 day 1 night, rather than the 3 day 2 night trip, otherwise would have been so fun with 8 of us, all on the same boat. At the Marina, we met Raphaela and Jeanine, who Alejandro and Stephanie knew from Melbourne, they all went to RMIT as exchange students together, such as small world... The cruise was absolutely great, we got given 3 meals a day, all great food, thanks Ben, you are a great cook! We stopped by at endless beaches to do snorkelling, so relaxing... I didn't do any scuba diving on this trip, because the visibility is not so great, though if you want to dive, for certified divers, WINGS only charge $50 per dive, which is really cheap... The beach in the Whitsundays is so nice, we wrote my favourite saying CHASE YOUR DREAMS on the beach and took a picture of it, let's hope we all can CHASE OUR DREAMS...

Alejandro had his 22nd birthday party on the boat, lots of vodka... was a really fun night, not sure what time everyone went to bed, well past mid-night I think... Our cruise had the most awasome group of people, there were 2 Americans from California, very laid-back guys... good value... There were Timna and Danielle from Israel, they were really cool to hang out with, great sharing our adventures stories, hope you guys will come back and see Western Australia, truly a place not to be missed... and Bo and camilla from Denmark.


The cruise was way too short, I really hoped that this cruise would last for weeks, because the place was just awesome, great people and I loved the boat.... Me, Alejandro, Stephanie and Jeanine actually spoke about perhaps we can one day buy our own boat, Alejandro will be the captain, I will be in charge of the scuba diving, Jeanine and Stephanie will be the party palnners on board... $2.7 millions is all we need... ANY SPONSORS out there??? Willing to sponsor our dream??? Who know, we might get rich one day... Would be so cool, if we could really have a boat to take tourists around!

Had farewell drinks after we got off the boat, at Down Under bar, which was just infront of my hostel... was fantastic seeing everyone from the cruise again... got pretty drunk....


Had another day in Airlie beach after our cruise before flying back to Melbourne and since Alejandro and Stephanie were staying at a 5 star resort, I went and chilled with them for the day, lots of drinking by the pool and had thai for dinner...

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