Perfect paradise

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After a fairly unsuccessful stop at Mission Beach we head to pastures new, via the trusty greyhound of course! We dump Neil in Mackay while we head down to Airlie Beach and have to trek for about 15 minutes from the bus stop with all our bags - was more of a mission than Mission Beach!!

We get settled into our new digs and go out and explore the strip! We get into one club and meet an aussie guy who we'd met in Bangkok - all very random but amusing none the less!

Main reason for stopping off at Airlie Beach was to fit in a trip to the Whitsunday Islands, as the seas were still a bit rough we opted for a day trip - think it was for the best.
Though the seas were a bit rough, the views were amazing and the sea a beautiful blue colour. Our first stop off was the hill inlet, we had to jump off the boat into a speed boat and ger ferried across to the beach - a beautiful white sandy beach, the stuff of postcards! Then it was a short trek through the bush up to the top of the hill and to the most magnificent viewpoint ever! You could see all the Whitsunday Islands spread out and all the white sandy beaches meeting the beautiful tourquise blue sea - just gorgeous. Next stop was Whitehaven beach - rated in the top 10 beaches around the world and now we know why!
Before we could get to the beach though we had to get kitted out bond girl styley! Basically its stinger season out here at the mo, so we have to wear stinger suits when we go in the sea, they're just like wetsuits and really unattractive! Get kitted up and into the water and then onto the beach. This beach is by far the best we've ever been on - the sand is pure silica sand (good for cleaning jewellery), whiter than white and feels so soft between the toes - its just beautiful. We get to spend about an hour on the beach to top up our tans and then its back on the boat.
We head out to a little coral reef and i get to do yet more scuba diving - told you i was becoming a pro at this!!! Though this was probably one of the worst dives i've been on so far, visibility was rubbish we could only see about 4 metres ahead of us! That wasn't the only problem i had either - there was me thinking i'd started putting all the weight i'd lost back on, but once i got in the water i couldn't sink!!!! They had to fish more weights out and attach them to me hehe i'm so skinny, yes i'm o so skinny!! Well not quite!
After the dive it was back to dry land then and our day trip was over, back to the hostel for cheapy pizza's mmmmmmmm!

With only a day left in Airlie Beach we spent it in another lagoon, lucikly for us the weather had started to pick up. The lagoon here is really nice as well, much nicer than Cairns and much bigger, so we spend the day sunbathing - no burning for me today either, get in!!
Now tonight we get on our first overnight greyhound bus down to Hervey Bay - i made the mistake of eating a whole tin of baked beans, not one of my better idea's! I'll leave it to your imaginations!!!

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Comments

[Mum no 1]

Windy
Oh dear not baked beans poor Michelle. Mind you I bet you emptied the bus. Did you do it on purpose so that you could get a good uninterrupted nights sleep??? Love you Have fun x

[The great wise one]

sand and more sand
Sounds fantastic---but I bet no good for bucket and spade to build sand castles, pleased that you could do more diving, also less pizza = less weight= skinny, don't worry , just enjoy.

[The Sage]

Beans means-----------
See you finished this blog with a flourish. The beaches sound glorious would like to walk them except for the Stingers (are you sure these are from the ocean or young auzzie lads ?).

[mother number 2]

paradise found
What fantastic beaches. I have never seen sand that white - it all sounds so fantastic. Shame about the diving though. Here's us all working away day in day out (shame) and you are out there having all this fun!! Pooey - baked beans - hope their was air conditioning on that bus. You may have been useful if the bus had run out of gas though.

[White Whale]

Alcohol
Good to see you in holiday mode, and would appear to have done very little research on this leg of the trip regarding intoxicating substances. I am sure that when you return to "Blightv" you will still be able to advise the committee accordingly. Continued good luck