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Published: March 10th 2009
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24th feb to 7th march 09
Had a cool time in the Whitsundays!
Left in the rain late afternoon, 33 of us and 4 crew. Really mixed crowd. Sailed for a few hours and dropped anchor near south molle island for dinner. Real shame about the weather as didnt make for great views but didnt stop us having fun. Played drinking dames after dinner and out came the goon. Note to all - DO NOT drink heavily if your sailing the following day!!! Felf rough rough rough. Ha ha. Ooh, nearly forgot our drinking games were put on hold for a moment when 2 dolphins started swimming by the boat! How cool is that?? No photos, too dark! Next morning we sailed to Whitsunday Island and anchored near to White haven beach - regarded as the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world. On the way we saw quite a few turtles swimming by the boat. Again, how cool is that?? The weather still wasn't amazing but the beach was beautiful and so were the views. Had to were stinger suits as protection in the water from the jelly fish though!! After lunch the sun decided to come out and
the good weather stayed until we returned to Airlie beach. Had a practice at scuba diving after lunch and then went snorkelling. Saw all sorts of fish and with the sun on the reef it looked gorgeous - cant wait for cairns!! More relaxed evening but some people still didnt learn and got back on the booze. Had another chance to go snorkelling in the morning before heading back to Airlie. Got the sails up as the wind was high on final journey and everyone on deck got absolutely soaked as we bumped along the waves. And lunch flew everywhere! Few sickly passengers... Had a really great trip though!!
Had a good few days in Airlie with people I've met from oz experience and boat. Headed to Magnetic Island on Sunday and relaxed by the hostel pool, overlooking the sea. The island is pretty small but very beautiful. On Monday a group of us went to see a waterfall and had a swim in the freshwater. Had a wander down to Alma bay and Horseshoe bay where we had margaritas and watched the sun go down. Had planned to go kayaking and snorkelling, the whole reason we went to
the island, but there's been a recent shark sighting!! If you ask the man in charge if its safe to kayak and he says "Officially yes, but I wouldn't go", and then when you ask about snorkelling he says "well, at least you'll see them coming" - you don't go!!
Left for mission beach Tuesday. Weather is seriously hot now and none of the breeze from the lower east coast. Relaxed by the pool... Weds went white water rafting down the Tully River - grade 4 rapids woo hoo!!! It was excellent and I didnt fall out of the boat once. Did a very extreme version of tubing when we jumped out and floated with our lifejackets and helmets through the rapids. Drank ALOT of water!!!!! Kinda had that scary 'trapped in a wave/tumble dryer' feeling! Really fun at one point when us girls were told to put the oars down and lean over the front of the raft - head first into the rapids!! Had a nice BBQ lunch and covered 14km over the day. Quite hard work! Guys on our boat were cool and we've been hanging out together.
Onto Cairns thurs via a crocodile farm.
That was cool! Got to hold baby croc, snake, lizzard and bird and then took a tour round. The farm farms crocs for skin commercially. Hunting and killing wild crocs is illegal. Their big crocs come from zoos or ones found in the wild in the wrong place - ie. close to towns and posing a threat. Some of them were massive!
Cairns is alot smaller than I expected but think it might be a good place to settle and work for a while. On a cyclone alert at the moment but its nothing to worry about as its not coastal, most we are likely to get in Cairns is high wind and rain so its a good job I got here when I did or might have been stuck on the coast. So thats the end of Oz experience. Just having lots of fun now with everyone I have met so far. Will have to wait to Dive etc for a while, no boats going out in this weather funnily enough!
Update!! Cyclone warning gone, Cairns stupidly humid and sunny but I really like the place. Staying at a good hostel thats dead central and got a
whitsundays
dave marking our route job working in an Irish pub!! All is well. x
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