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Published: June 26th 2007
Well the weather here still isn't fantastic. The rain was pouring down not too long ago, but I am safe and dry at the hostel, so no worries at the moment really! Unfortunately, The weather was also not so great while I was sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, but it seems like it's raining all over the world lately if you ask me!
Anyway, on Sunday afternoon me and 21 other people headed out on a catamaran called Reality Is.... to experience the Whitsunday Islands. Our crew seemed really nice, and it seemed like a good start to the journey, especially since it wasn't raining and there were a few clearings in the sky.
Boats can be alot more..... shakey.. than you would think! At times the floor of the Catamaran would shake like it was going to break in half. I have no idea how the chef even cooked on board. Half the time I thought she was going to drop a hot pot of something on herself, and I was litteraly scared for the poor thing!
(PHEW! There was a really bad smelling guy sitting next to me, and he just stood up and let out a really bad odour... BLerch!)
Back to my story.. haha.. It was a little bit cloudy, and very wavey, but no one got sea sick, and we were all really excited to be on a sailing trip, Especially at a place that is supposedly one of the most beautiful spots in Australia.
On the first day, it was a 2 and a half hour sail to Hook Island, our base camp, where we would be staying for the 2 nights we were on the trip. It looked alot like all the islands near Vancouver really. It wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be. I could have been walking up to Galliano island! Especially with all the fog and clouds that were in the sky. It was still beautiful though.
The campsite was WAYYY better than Fraser Island.. Everything was set up for us, and it was straddling a resort, so we got to use all of their fascilities. (when I say resort I don't mean 5 star, perhaps a 2 star) We also all got blow up mattresses that were already inflated, and sleeping bags that actually didn't smell bad, and were really warm! I was happy.
The whole first night it didn't rain at all. It was a nice calm night, and having dinner by the sea, listening to music with the wind and palm trees was really relaxing and made everything extremely tired. We were all in bed by half 9 or earlier. I remember falling asleep to someone playing guitar. It was really fantastic.
The next day we set out for Whitehaven beach, but it was too stormy to attempt it, so instead we headed over to Blue Pool which we were told was just as superior, but with less people, and guaranteed less sea sickness from people on the boat (since we had quite a few that were worried about it). Blue pool turned out to be beautiful though, I guess I will have to come back and see Whitehaven..
This is where we got to Scubadive! So I have now completed my very first scubadive... and lets just say I was a little bit freaked out. I mean, I am definitely not used to breathing only out of my mouth... not to mention I had a bit of a cold as well. So I kept trying to sniff! But it was definitely a fantastic experience. I saw beautiful colourful fish, and even a big eel! (I can't remember the exact name).. The dive teacher let out some bread from a bottle underwater, and we had huge fish swarming us. I touched a few by accident. They weren't scared of us since we were giving them food!
The water was clear and blue, and the coral was so colourful. There was purple, reddish, brownish, and I tried so carefully not to kick it with my flippers. (By the way, it is hard to use flippers too.. jeez!!) It wasn't a long dive, but it was alot of fun, and right afterwards I went snorkeling as well, and saw even more fish.. Big and small... yellow, purple, neon green, grey, blue.. everything! I loved it.
After diving we went to a long sand beach, and I.. unfortunately, cut my foot stepping out of the boat... It is worse that I didn't really notice, and was walking all along the sandy beaches, and only later realised I was bleeding! So I had alot of sand in my cut! But I didn't let it ruin the rest of the night. By the time we finished at the beach it was time to head back to our camp.
We had a really good dinner, and then just a long night of talking and jokes and music, some dancing.. and unfrotunately some rain.
We went to sleep and the rain just got harder and when we woke up this morning it was pouring down. The crew ushered us out of sleep (at 6 30am!) and onto the boat and we were told we had to make a quick dash to the mainland because the storm was only going to get worse.
The boat was shaking so badly I could have sworn it was going to tear in hald.. this time there were definitely people who got sick... I was not one of them I can proudly say!!! I was hanging about standing up pretending to surf and just dancing around most of the time... I am quite sure I annoyed a few people.. hahah but I was having fun.
Anyway the people on the boat were awesome and I made some great friends and generally despite the bad weather had a good time. I loved this trip compaired to Fraser Island, and I had alot more fun.
Tommorrow I will be making my way up to Cairns where I will be settling for a week! Making day trips upto Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas, and hopefully having even more fun! I hope everyone back home is having a good summer and I will be seeing you all soon!!
Loots of love
Mylis
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dad
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whitsunday island
You sound like you were having loads of fun and new experiences during this trip. On a catamaran and scuba diving ! wow! I was on a small catamaran...cant cook on it like yours..when I was travelling to Manado in Northern Sulawesi last week. We took the ride to see the coral reef around the Bunaken Island marine park. yes it was awesome alright with all the colorful fishes, turtles and eels. Didnt scuba dive or snorkel though since I only had 4 hours to do all this and had to give my talk immediately after that morning trip. Will certainly go back there. Have fun in Cairn and dont forget to eat Durian for me when you are there. At least you then could match up with the stinky guy who sat next to you on this wi trip!! HA HA! Enjoy! and take care.