Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 70

gr, just wrote this whole entry and then managed to delete it!!!!!! lets try again shall we... **WARNING** those prone to insane jealousy are advised that they read this entry at their own risk :) Left magnetic island super early (it actually was, as in i was up at 5am!!eep!!) to get the 7am bus to airlie beach. bus journey long and boring, etc etc. was expecting airlie beach to be horrific and ugly for some reason not even known to me (i think it had something to do with the disappointment of townsville...), but was pleasantly surprised! its basically made up of just one street and not a very long one at that. along that street you have many many bars and cafes and restaurants and shops. and there is a lagoon as the beach ... read more

Got up and packed up for the boat trip. Lucy and I had our first major row which was basically over the amount of make-up she wanted to take on a 3-day sailing trip! We were about 45 minutes late checking out and left the hostel in a complete mood, stormed down the road to leave our luggage at PeterPans, then had some breakfast by which time we'd sort of made up. We met our group (10 girls and 2 lads) and got on the boat at Shingly Beach at 2pm. I think we were all expecting something a bit grander of the boat, it looked like a fishing boat! but apparently Marilyn Monroe once sailed on it, and if it's good enough for her ... Lucy and I had a "private twin" which meant we ... read more

On Saturday, we decided to put some miles on the clock and therefore took the 16-hour night bus up to Airlie Beach, leaving the Sunshine Coast (with it's rain) far behind us. Setting off on saturday afternoon, that basically occupied the weekend. On Monday, we set off on the second of our tours in this part of the world, sailing the Coral Sea around the Whitsunday Islands on the "British Defender", an 83ft Maxi racing yacht once crewed by the British armed forces and a veteran of the Whitbread Round-the-World race. We had specifically chosen to go out on a "proper" racing yacht rather than many of the more sedate tall ships and larger yachts on offer and were rewarded with some really exciting sailing (tilting right over in the sea) and lots of fun grinding, ... read more

Survived the overnight to Airlie Beach. I found out that the boat that I was meant to be going on was cancelled as there wasn't enough people on it. I was a little concerned as I had heard a few stories of some of the boats just being booze cruises full of people that weren't too interested about sailing so I tried to voice these concerns. As it turned out it couldn't have been better. There were 14 of us on an ex Americas cup racing yacht. We had a couple of nights on the boat and pretty much three full days. Everyone on board was keen to learn a little about sailing and was happy to help out. We sailed out of Airlie Beach Harbour on a perfect morning and headed for the Whitsunday Islands. ... read more

So, after flying from the Centre (Alice Springs) to the northeast (Cairns), I met up with Jo and Graeme. We had one relaxed day in Cairns (which was good because I picked up a bad cold on the last day of the camping trip). Our second day, we went out on a Great Barrier Reef tour (boat). Jo and Graeme went snorkling, but I managed from the glass bottom boat (I was still a little sick). The next day we went up to Cape Tribulation. Our tour stopped at Port Douglas (which I highly recommend) and we did a walk in the rainforest and a croc watching tour down a river (both in Daintree National Park). We spent the night up in Cape Trib and had a day at the beach the next day. We went ... read more