Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach

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After the boat brought the 4x4 back to the mainland it was only a short drive back to the hostel from there. We had been told specifically to come straight back and not go to any burger bars or anything and we did as we had been asked. On arrival back at the hostel we discovered that al members of the self-drive were being placed back at the hostel in the same room (except for Jurgen who wasn't staying there) and this was cool because it seemed a perfect outlet from which to hang out with everybody.

That evening we prepared some of the food that we had left from the trip and we all sat and drank beer to gether as well. It seemed as though everybody had had a really great time and that the trip had been a very worthwhile one for everybody involved. I wasn't really tired but everyone else seemed to be pretty tired so when the last of them decided to turn in i went to bed as well.

Next morning: I had already decided that i would be going to Airlie Beach next in order to explore the whitsundays but there are so many boasts to choose from that i didn't know which one. But Eric said that he was on the Ragamuffin and suggested i do the same as it should be fun. I considered this a cool idea and found out that there were spaces on this boat so booked on to it (this was next morning incidently). Several members of the Fraser island group were heading up there and had already booked on an overnight bus to take them there, i had not booked but wanted to go with them so i tried to book on to that bus, but it was full so i had to book on to an earlier one, a bus that would get me to Airlie Beach at around 6am the next morning.

For the remainder of that day i just hung out with several people (notably Eric, David and Orla - still Cillian Murphy's sister incidently) and we swam in the pool and played "water polo" and "water volleyball", talked and put on the movie American Beauty which i have seen before but was happy to watch again. I was having a pretty cool day hanging with these guys.

My bus was due to leave at 5.15pm so i left them around 4.30 to head to the greyhound bus terminal for my overnight bus ride. I really worried that i would not be able to sleep on the bus but fortunately i had a double seat and was able to stretch out. There was a movie shown on the bus as well ("National Treasure" which while hardly a classic movie did pass a couple of hours).

I slept pretty well on the bus and was fine when i arrived in Airlie Beach. I went to my hostel but could not check in at this point so i just waited around, got some breakfast, caled home and all that. I knew that Eric and the other guys would be arriving soon so i planned to wait and check in with them.

Later i did meet up with Eric and David who arrived around 10am. Then we had a fairly cool day hanging out at the lagoon in the town which is a great place to swim and relax. After an afternoon of this we got some pizza and beer together and hung out which was fairly relaxing and then we went to the hostel bar to hang out with Orla and some other friends of hers (Orla is great but i found her hard to talk to because i am so starstruck by who her brother is). After a few beers Eric said that we should go into the nightclub because they are holding a wet t shirt contest involving female travellers (with a $500 prize for the winner).

I went along and this was so tacky you would not believe it, girls were poored with water and then dancing around in their wet t shirts, most of them flashed their.. you know and the last two girls (there were 10 in all) danced topless, and not surprisingly these were the two that the contest came down to. I just want to stress tha i did noy enjoy this tacky display of siliness (well not much anyway).

The contest seemed to go on forever and it was after 1am when it finished, sfter this Eric and I went back to our dorm hut and sat on the steps. He and I then spent a while sa on the steps where we blew some grass tha he had with him. I seemed to acieve a mental calmness after this.

We went to bed shortly after but during the night we were awoken by a pounding on the doors and the door opened to reveal two police officers, this freaked me out cos it followed that they may be looking for drugs and stuff, but they weren't and were pursuing a guy who had stolen stuff, but this guy wasn't there and i breathed a sigh of relief.

The remainder of the night passed without incident and the next morning Eric and I left the dorm room to go to our boat trip.

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