Elbow licking good!

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We rushed to the back of the overnight bus each taking two seats in the hope that the bus would be empty enough that we could sleep across both.. Luckily it was and I was far more prepared than the last overnight journey so I had my eye mask, ear plugs, hoodies, blankets, and food! I did manage it sleep most of the way, every time I woke up I just changed position and then went back to sleep! I woke up around 7 with the light coming through the window and decided to look out the window for a bit to see how the landscape changes, it was mainly farmland and hills and a few factories with smoke but nothing spectacular! The bus stopped for breakfast at the side of the road and we took some pictures of the giant kangaroo at most of the service stations!

Finally arrived in airlie beach and was not too tired and I checked into magnums which is quite a nice hostel despite being known for bed bugs, and it has free wifi.. Although it is slow! Adam and Amy checked into base which isn't too bad, but I have not been fond of the base chain so far in Australia. We went to the office for our Whitsundays trip to see if we could check in then rather that 8.30 the following morning, we went with a Dutch girl I had met of Fraser called Anouk and she was on the same Whitsundays trip.. We did manage to check in and got all the information on what to bring and where we would be leaving from and what time.

Then we all went shopping for new bikinis and tops for the trip and had a mcdonalds lunch. I saw the irish guy who I had met in noosa and he happened to be on my Fraser trip, found out he was going to be on the sister boat of ours and also he had seen Neil from noosa who was in my canoe! So we arranged to all go for drinks later at the down under bar attached to base.

Adam and amy hadn't officially checked in because we had arrived too early so they went back to do that and anouk and I went for a walk along airlie beach, we walked around the lagoon and around part of the coast and ended up at the marina.

In the evening we all went to dub (down under bar) with Neil and finton the Irish guy and had the $10 steak meal deal. We had a few drinks and caught up on everything then we went to bed as we were feeling tired from the night bus and had to pack for the whitsundays etc.

We had to wait till 2.30pm for the boat so we went around the town and looked in a few more shops then went to the lagoon for a bit, then we noticed there was a market on so we went to have a look but we were slightly too late as it was starting to shut and people were packing away. We walked past an aboridginal shop and had a look inside they had didgeridoos and paintings and Opel rings, the prices were very reasonable and they send the didgeridoos back home for free! We got chatting to the guy in the shop who was huge with muscles (think rocky) and he invited back for a free lesson but we had our trip so we said we would stop by after our trip. We walked to the harbour and stopped for goon on the way!

When we got there we were handed our stinger suits (the xxs was still to long for me!) and then walked down the jetty to the boat avatar. The crew seemed really funny there was Eric the deck man, Kirk the captain and then Rebecca the chef. We sailed to a spot to stay for the night and they explained that we were close to whitehaven beach so that we could get there before anyone else so that our pictures would not have anyone in and so we could get some good pictures of the clear beach.

We are crackers, carrots and dips for a snack/starter, then had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner - there was soo much food! We watched the sunset and then a few of us started playing some drinking games and even the captain joined us at one point! Everyone else on the boat was being quite boring and we did all have to be up early for Whitehaven beach so we had a pretty early night.

I was sharing a tiny little box cabin with Anouk. We had this disinfectant in the bottom of our cabin which really smelt strong, they had said that the bugs didn't like the smell so it helped get rid of them so we kept it there but when we tried to sleep it was soooo strong that we couldn't breathe and it was almost making us light headed and giggly so we asked them to clear it up and we had to let it air for 10 mins before we could go to sleep, it really stunk!

We got up early the next morning - I got woken up by the captains alarm as he was sleeping on the trampoline outside our cabin. We set off for Whitehaven beach and we were racing against the other boats to get there first. We got taken to the bay by the small boat and then we all walked across to the look out over Whitehaven beach - it was beautiful and we made it just in time so there was no one on the beach! We walked back down to the beach and the sand was amazing it is pure silica and soo fine, it comes from a rift in the ocean letting out volcanic stuff! We wrote lots in the sand and wrote a massive avatar so that everyone else's pictures have avatar in them!! After a few hours on the beach swimming and exfoliating and taking pictures we walked back to the bay to be picked up and taken back to the boat.

We ate lunch, pies, potato salad etc and travelled to a spot for snorkelling. There were sooo many fish it was amazing, some of the fish were as big as me! I took some pictures with my retro disposable underwater camera so I hope the pictures have come out well! Then we moved to another spot for snorkelling and we saw nemo fish.. Well it is Australia! Then we watched the sunset from the boat and I chilled on the hammock hanging over the edge at the back of the boat! For dinner we had a roast - roast beef. Then started the drinking games.

The crew got the entire boat involved and they even brought people over from the sister boat so I saw finton the Irish guy again! A girl Sam from Manchester who we had been chatting to had told us that if you lick someone's elbow without them knowing they won't feel it and will never know! Amy and I could not believe this and took on the challenge! It was hilarious and we manged to fool a few people whilst the drinking games were commencing! When people started to notice what we were doing and we started to tell people everyone was shocked but intrigued and we started off a really funny night of everyone licking elbows and in the end it got to the point that someone was licking someone's elbow who was already licking someone else's elbow!!! The crew and the captain also lived this game and got really involved! They said they would keep it going on their other boat trips In the future!

on the last day I got woken by the captains alarm again, however the captain hadn't woken so Anouk and I got some funny pictures of us next to him pulling faces while he's sleeping! Also we looked over at the other sister boat and the crew had paddled over last night and drawn on the boat with Vegemite, later on we saw the crew from the other boat scrubbing it off on the water!!!!

We had breakfast and went to a sandbar to do some more snorkelling, I was feeling a little tired but they said that turtles had been spotted so I jumped straight in. The coral was actually very pretty here but there were a lot of jelly fish in the water.. Turtles eat jelly fish! I was swimming around and then came across a turtle and followed it, then I came to another area where two or three were just chilling in the coral, it was totally awesome and narley duuuuuuuuuuuuuuudde!

Then we had lunch and headed back to shore. That night we had the $5 dominos pizza deal and I asked around at the hostels for work for accommodation opportunities, finally base rung me back and said I could work in dubs kitchen and could start tomorrow, that meant i could stay for 2-3 weeks until the full moon party in magnetic island and not need to pay for my accommodation.

Caught up with mum and told her all about the elbow licking - so watch out if she's around! You'll all be walking round like T-Rex!!

Not got many pics of the Whitsundays as got other people to take them and have to develop my disposable camera film, so will upload as and when I can!!

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