Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 69

hey guys.... I've finally settled down here, in the nice little town of airlie beach. I've just found a place to live here, with a local aussie, after storing my bags at the prosail office the last week and rotating through dorm rooms while on shore. Being temporarily homeless can be funny, if you can laugh at yourself.... I do it daily. Anyways, I've just got my job here confirmed, after a 3 day training trip. My boss, Dave a good lad, has thrown me on to HAMMER, maxi-yacht, sailing machine, a bloody weapon on the water. It takes 19 passangers and 4 crew, all of which I'll be cooking for and playing beach volleyball with, when not helping the skipper sail the boat. Last trip the crew was awesome, the skipper, Dan was only 24 ... read more

Firstly, I'd better offer some sort of apology for the lateness of this diary entry. It's been just over a week since my last entry, 9 days if I'm honest, and too long. Sadly for you guys it does mean this one's a bit longer than the previous entries... Moving seamlessly from the last entry which was the end of my diving course, I had a pretty relaxing day on the Saturday (12th), relaxing by the pool and wandering along the seafront of Cairns. I also booked into some activities the first of which was the following day - for those who don't know, Cairns is in the tropical north of Queensland, Australia and is surrounded by an area of rainforest. The Sunday day trip was into the Atherton Tablelands, an area of around 100km x ... read more

Spent two nights in Airlie Beach, it's a bit like Byron Bay. Our main aim was a daytrip to the Whitsunday Islands, in particular Whitehaven Beach to see if it looked like the picture Miles bought me one Christmas. It did. We set out in the early morning on a largish boat to spend the morning on Whitehaven Beach. After crowding onto the viewing platform to take photos I managed to dramatically throw my sunglasses over the edge and onto the rocks below. Nick gallantly offered to try and rescue them but I'm not sure I could have coped with two losses in one day (or was just an excuse to get away from me for a while, mmmm). We trotted over to the beach in the searing heat. The sand was boiling hot, very white ... read more

well after a relaxing day on Fraser island it was back on the bus and up to airlie beach where we were to board a sailing yacht for a 3 day cruise of the whitsundays! Day 1 we settleed into our quaters, confined but comfortable and set sade to turtle bay. That evening we had a super meal followed by a few drinks with a few games thrown in. All in all there was about 15 or so passengers on a large vessed called the apollo - originally a racing yacht. The moon was full and lit up the awesome surrounding scenary, creating a silhouette of the mountains and the rainforrest. Slept well to wake up (day2) to a hearty breakfast and some serious sailing. Rob n I chose to Crank the main sail - which ... read more

We arrived in Airlie Beach last Tuesday and checked straight into our boat tour which set sail that night. The sailing trip was absolutely fantastic. We went on a boat called Solway Lass. It was about $100 more expensive ($429 per person) than the majority of the cheaper boats favoured by backpackers, but I would HIGHLY recommend spending the extra money as we have heard really bad stories about the cheaper boats, in particular one called Maxi Samurai. The food on the boat was superb, and the cabins were fine. We went snorkelling in 3 different locations, BluePearl Bay was my favourite - loads of fish and great Coral plus there is a massive Moray Wraiss called Elvis who comes out to see the snorkellers! Along the way we also saw Giant Turtles, 2 Whales, a ... read more