Airlie Beach

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Airlie Beach is basically the port to catch a boat to the Whitsundays, which for those of you that don't know, are a group of 74 islands off the coast, surrounded by coral and are host to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, most famously Whitehaven Beach, on the largest of the islands, named Whitsunday Island. According to one of the girls on our boat, it's in the top 3 in the world, and I wouldn't disagree. Because we'd booked a 3 day cruise on a special racing boat, we had to wait until the Friday as the boat did 1 night trips during the week. This meant we were checked into our hostel for 5 nights prior to the trip. As I said before, Airlie Beach is not much more than a gateway to the islands and whilst the town has the best nightlife we've seen so far, there isn't a huge amount to do during the day. There's a really nice man made lagoon (as with most of the large costal towns) which we spent some time chilling out at, and we also went to Vic Hislop's Shark Expo, as well as some severe Goon abuse during the nighttime ('goon' is aborigine for wine, and sometimes contains milk fish and eggs, nice!).

The shark expo was interesting. Basically this dude, Vic, is a retired shark hunter, mainly of the great white variety and the show has a real anti shark message. I call it a show, but basically this guy was probably down the pub with his mates back in the 80s and one of them said, "you know what Vic, you could put your shark stuff in a room and charge people to see it!", and that's what he did. It's like he hasn't touched it since the mid 80s, especially his videos, which are really bad. The one saviung grace of the museum, is the fact that he has a 2 ton great white that he caught a few years ago when hunting was still legal in a giant freezer which is massive (I'll try to upload some pics soon). Probably not the best thing to see just after booking a 5 day surf school from Byron Bay to Sydney :S. There's also a shrine to people that have died over the past few years, with newspaper cuttings, photos, recovered diving equipment etc. plastered about the room. From what I gather there are about an average of 70 or so reported shark attacks in the world, most of these occurring off the coast of the USA and Australia, great! They have a pretty impressive picture of a scuba diver being basically eaten by a great white, taken by the diver's buddy. I hope that if I got eaten by a great white that Will and Dan wouldn't just sit there taking photos of me! I know I've slated the museum a bit, but it's definitely worth a look if you're in Airlie Beach for any amount of time. There's also one in Hervery Bay, with another 2 ton monster on display.

After another couple of days of chilling winston and Will getting highlights (he can no longer take the piss out of Rob) and Dan pondering whether to get an eyebrow piercing (he chickened out) we boarded the Siska sailing boat, which used to be one of Australia's fastest boats, and headed for the Whitsundays.

The 3 day/2 night excursion baiscally involved a load of hands on sailing, which was hard work but really fun (Will and Dan pulled up the main sail and the skipper did say that it was the best technique he'd seen in years, I didn't have a go though as I didn't want to show Dan up again after the spear fishing incident). I had to wind the winches to tighten the sails and we all had a go at steering the boat, which in high winds when the boat is basically on its side, is harder than it looks. We went snorkelling in the soft coral reefs, and saw heaps of tropical fish, but nothing I hadn't seen on the great barrier reef apart from a school of cuttlefish. We did see a load of turtles surface next to the boat whilst moored on the 2nd day though, which was pretty cool. Apparently there's a tiger shark called Rosie that sometimes swims into one of the snorkel sites, we didn't see her though 😞. The first stop off was Whitehaven Beach, which has to be the whitest, finest sand beach I have ever been to. The sand is so fine, and has such high silicon content that you can polish up shabby jewellery on the sand. On the 2nd day we went to the other side of the island and up to a lookout over the beach, which was truly breathtaking. I have a few pics of it that I'll try to upload soon and you'll see what I mean. On the 3rd day we sailed back past a small island that had a pair of sea eagles nesting on it. The skipper, Dave, got me to wolf whistle at them, and the flew out to the boat and he threw some leftover sausage to them. Will said I was better than Dr. DoLittle.

The Whitsundays were awesome, and definitely not to be missed, sleeping out on the deck of the boat, under the stars (no light polution either) was quality, and the beaches were truly amazing.

Anyways, have to catch a bus now, so will have to wait until later for the next update.

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Comments

[Liz]

Easter Hols
Hey DB. Each time i read your updates I get goosebumps. You sound to be havig the time of your life!!!! Keep safe. Good luck diving with sharks!! Liz xx

[Dannyk]

Hey Liz
Hi Liz, Am in Surfers' Paradise at the moment, quite different from anywhere I've been so far. Loads and loads of widely spaced apartment blocks, kind of like skyscrapers and a night scene that would rival that of the Greek islands. Beach is massive but waves r quite small, so not a haven for surfers this time of year. Sorry I haven't rung yet, will do soon. Have collected a few postcards for you too. x Dan