Aboard the Apollo

---

Hi all!

Just got back from the Whitsundays, an amazing group of islands off Australia's east coast. We boarded the Apollo, which is a Maxi boat, and it's the only place in the world you can actually sail on racing yachts. This time the group was loads better and we had a great time, even though the weather wasn't great. Yes it does get cloudy here, and we've heard the U.K. is having glorious weather!

The boat was great, we got to snorkel a few times, and though the coral wasn't quite as colourful as Fiji, there was loads of variety, and our underwater camera actually worked this time!

We also visited Whitehaven Beach, which was stunning even though it was cloudy. It is apparently the 2nd best (or 2nd whitest?) beach in the world. Like the sand at Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island, you're supposed to be able to polish your silver in it, but either this is just an urban legend, or my chain is not actually as expensive as I thought it was.

Food was great though, and sleeping on the boat was fine as the water was calm and rocked you to sleep. We slept with the hatch open though, and I did wake during the second night to find it raining on my hand! Never had that before.

The evenings were generally spent having drinks gathered under the boat's awning listening to the rain pouring down above us, but this didn't dampen our spirits and we had a fantastic time. The evening we got back the crew organised for us to go for drinks and watch England vs Oz in the rugby, and this is where we discovered our skipper was in fact loony. The calm, respectable captain who had been in charge of our boat was transformed by alcohol into a cackling, hyperactive clown....

Our next stop was Magnetic Island, quiet, peaceful, serene, and the location of our first blue sky in over a week! We relaxed for the day after our two successive adventures, by undertaking a three hour walk through hilly forest to one of the peaks of the island. This gave us a fantastic view far out into the Pacific, and over the land below us, and was in fact a lookout point for Japanese vessels during the Second World War. On the way up we spotted exactly no koalas or rock wallabies, but fortunately this was the same number of snakes and spiders that we saw. Australia has some of the most poisonous animals in the world, and they even have a stinger tree. If you touch it, or its leaves, that part of your body burns like the fires of Hell for hours on end, unless you happen to have some Hydrochloric Acid in your pocket. Apparently one woman foolishly went to the toilet in the bush, and inadvertently chose to use a stinger leaf afterwards. She died of shock.

Apologies to those who are squeamish.

---

Comments

[Maman]

Une "fan" du site !
Je suis vraiment devenue accro au site ! J'attendais la mise a jour avec impatience et j'adore toutes les nouvelles photos ! Bonne fin de sejour au pays des kangourous et a bientot pour d'autres aventures. Bisous xxxxxxxxxxxxx