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Published: December 7th 2006
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Magentic Island
Island Life Rules! G-Day! I am currently in Airlie Beach. Slowly but surely making my way down the East Coast. I think my last update said I was heading to Magnetic Island. I hopped on the bus at 12:30 am and we drove all night to Townsville. Along the way there was a bit of a mishap. We got to Tully and stopped and picked up some more passengers. Shortly after that some weird noise had awoken me like a clunk of some sort. I look across to the seats on the opposite side and I could see the guy and girl talking and then the guy run up to the bus driver. I couldn’t tell what they were saying because they were talking in German. Next thing I know the bus stops, backs up, and turns around. I am like what the heck?! It’s pitch black outside, everyone is sleeping, we just came from that direction, this is really weird! First thing going through my mind is that the bus driver is some mass murderer and he is taking us somewhere remote to kill us all. Thank you to the movie Wolf Creek - which I just had to watch before coming to
Australia. (That movie is based on true events in Oz where this guy is psycho and kills backpackers). We go back to Tully, where the bus driver wakes everyone up and says, “Sorry we have had a problem. I need everyone who is traveling to Townsville (which is me) to get out and check to see that your luggage is still there.” The luggage compartment never latched properly and had come open. Oh crap! I think mine is for sure gone, as mine was on top of everyone’s! Luckily, everyone’s luggage was still there, including mine. I knew there was a reason I packed so many things and my bag weighs about 500 tones!
Anyway, I got to Townsville around 5:30 am and caught the ferry right away to Magnetic Island. I caught the bus to my hostel and while I was waiting to check-in I met a girl from Whistler. She was going to complain because she thought she had been bitten by Bed Bugs!! EEEWWWW! Ok this makes me rethink about staying here. Not to mention it was in an animal sanctuary and the birds were very and I mean VERY loud. Anyway, I didn’t wait to
Making Friends
Some people I met and partied with at Airlie Beach. (Irish, Aussie, and German) find out what happened with the bed bug issue; I headed on down the road to another hostel and checked in there. This one was better anyway, right across from the beach. I spent the day hiking to a secluded beach, did some laundry and laid on the beach. It was heaven! I had numerous naps throughout the day too. It was scorchen hot there and you can’t really go in the ocean to cool off either because it is so warm. No worries, I dip in the hostel’s pool and I was refreshed.
The next day I caught a bus out of Townsville to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is definitely a beach town. The main strip is full of shops, bars, hostels and restaurants. They have a lagoon here too because you can’t swim in the ocean. There really isn’t a beach here, just the lagoon. Airlie Beach is the gate way to the Whitsunday Islands, 74 Islands in total. I came here to sail the Whitsunday’s and take my flight over the Reef. The night I arrived I went out and partied with some guys I met in my hostel room. One was from Oz, one from
First Sail Adventure
This is taken on the first sail, Whitehaven Beach is in the background. Ireland, and one from Brazil. I also met a girl on the bus from Scotland so she came out too. I love meeting all these people from all over. The next day I went sailing, I took a three day, two night sailboat trip through the Whitsunday’s. It was basically a booze cruise with 60 other people, average age 22 and it wasn’t a true sailboat. This wasn’t what I was really looking for as to the sailing part, not to mention I got my first sunburn since being in Australia. It was a good time for the most part and I did meet some more really cool people. We stayed in a resort on South Mole Island. During the day we sailed to Whitehaven Beach and then to Hook Island to do some snorkeling. Whitehaven Beach has the whitest sand you will ever see! It is so silky and it is 98% silica. It squeaks under your feet when you walk on it. The beach is 7 km long and is postcard perfect! You can only get to it by air or by boat. The water is crystal clear and changes different shades from blue to green throughout the
Whitehaven Beach
I can't get over how white the sand is and clear the water is. This is Paradise! day.
When I got back to Airlie Beach I was a little disappointed with this adventure so I decided to push back my next destination by a day and stay here for a little while longer. I wanted to go on a BIG sailboat. I real one where I can help pull up the sails and steer and such. So I booked myself on another boat. This time just an over night trip and we got to stay on the boat. There was only 13 of us on board plus a handful of crew. We were on Tall Ship Defender. It originated out of Tasmania and is 111 years old, the oldest working boat of its kind in Australia. In fact this boat is classified as a Heritage Boat. It had sunk and a guy pulled it out from the ocean depths years later to resurrect it. It is a beautiful boat! It has won awards in boat shows and in racing. The crew was great; we had great meals and heaps of fun. We stayed close to Whitehaven Beach so we got to see the sunset there. I am sure my pictures won’t do it justice. I got
Gecko
This little dude was in our room on South Mole Island. Isn't he cute? to crawl out on a cable at the front over the net that hangs out to help with the sails (scary!). At times the water was splashing over the sides and we were tilted pretty far over to the sides! I also tried my hand at steer the boat, sure glad I didn’t have to parallel park the thing, I would have failed the test for sure. It is 26.8 m in length! This sail trip was exactly what I wanted, now I feel like I did really sail the Whitsunday’s.
So now I am just waiting to take my flight over the Great Barrier Reef, Heart Reef to be exact. Then tonight I am off to Hervey Bay. I catch the bus at 6:00 pm and get there at 7:00 am in the morning. Busses at night are the best, because then you don’t miss anything during the day and you don’t have to pay accommodation for a night either because you are on a bus.
Take care everyone. Focus…have a smashing good time at your Christmas party and have a few for me!
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Ian P
non-member comment
Just won't be the same without ya!!