Tongarra

---

From Townsville we drove down to Airlie Beach...Elizabeth and I stopped by an aqua farm on the way in a small town called Bowen...The meeting went well and the company we visited was called Good Fortune Bay Fisheries Limited...They raise Barramundi, Cobina and Grouper...Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsundays which is a huge collection off the coast of the mainland...We stayed in Airlie for the night and went out to a few bars and had a great time...The next morning we woke up and went to the travel agent to pay for our sailing trip around the islands...We met with our group at the dock at 1:30 and boarded the boat for a two night/three day sailing excursion...The boats name was Tongarra and it was a smaller vessel...We had about 20 people on board and three crew...The first day we sailed over to the islands and the crew made us a great dinner of shark and mashed potatoes...The only unfortunate thing about the Whitsundays is the excessive amount of horse flies...We all slept on the deck that night only to be woken up by the little buggers biting through our sleeping bags...Breakfast was served and then we set sail for Whitehaven Beach...The sand is bright white and we sat in our stinger suits on the sand bar for a while taking in the beautiful surroundings...We have to wear these really unattractive wet suits while swimming so we dont get stung by jelly fish...After Whitehaven we had lunch and sailed over to a great snorkeling cove...We parked in a cove for the night and had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner...Big surprise...The horse flies woke us up bright and early the next morning as well...We had a bit a breakfast and then headed to another cove for some more snorkeling...After a light lunch we set sail back to the mainland...Upon departure from the boat we freshened up and headed to the bar...January 26 is Australia day and everyone was decked out in red, white and blue...I participated in Cane Toad Race...My toad's name was Ben Cousins after the infamous AFL football player...he came in second...and Elizabeth won the mechanical surfing competition and was presented with her very own Australian flag...Unfortunately, we had to catch a night bus to our next destination and left at around 8pm for Rainbow Beach...Let's just say the night buses in Australia do not even compare to the ones in South America...

---