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Published: June 21st 2008
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So this has taken forever for me to post this but late is better than never! So this month Jenna, my flatmate, and I went to the Whitsunday Islands. These are Islands south of Cairns and north of Brisbane. They are absolutly beautiful! We went there for 5 days and 6 nights. The first night we got in really late so we just went out to a bar called Magnums (giggle) that was nice because everything was outside! It was so nice to be oustide of Sydney and in a lot better weather. The weather was like 70s and really really REALLY humid! It was nice though.
The second day we went to our campsite at the Adventure Whitsundays Big 4 Caravan Park. It was a really nice park!We took the public buses there which were really nice but expensive. The bus drivers were so nice though and took a u turn in order to drop us off right where the caravan park entrance was rather then across the street. At the park we basically took forever setting up our tiny little tent and then laid out by the pool. It was nice to finally get a tan. We slept
out in the tent that night and got soaked because it rained! Also there were really big bats that we could hear flying over out tent!
The next day we went to Airlie Beach, the little town that is the launching pad for the Whitsundays. It is the cutest little town with the nicest people! It basically is one road filled with resaurants, bars and souvenur shops. We walked around a little bit and sat on the "beach". The beach isn't even a beach because it disappears when the tide comes in. The name Airlie Beach is a little misleading I guess. Then, we went to dinner at Cactus Jack's a tex-mex style restaurant. Of course nothing there was really from Mexico or Texas, in fact they had all these signs in the restaurant from California. Hmmm... anyways we made it a proper meal and had drinks because they were cheaper for happy hour. We split an appetizer called Mexican Matchsticks. I'm pretty sure they weren't Mexican at all but they were really good. They were kind of big fries with cornbread stuff and mashed potatoes that you dipped in sour cream. Then we had a grilled chiken ceasar
salad that would be equivlent to the lunch portion size at home. It was good and was my second actual meal in Australia! Of course it came out to $25 a piece but the waiter gave us a card for 15% off or something so it only came out to $20 a piece which was better. It was nice to have a good dinner and the restaurant had a great view of the water.
The next day we went on a Crocodile Safari. One of the nearby rivers is one of the most crocodile-infested rivers of the world. First they take you on a ride that consists of carts being pulled by a tractor. You get to see all of the native birds, butterflies, snakes and other wildlife. Then, you get an amazing bar-b-que lunch that had everything! It was SO good! Then, you get on a boat into the water. It was pretty intimidating because the boat was really open so if a crocodile wanted to attack it def could! The river also gets really shallow at times so the crocs are basically right below the boat. We saw about 20 crocs that were in the water or
sunning themselves on the banks. We also saw a bunch of mud crabs and beautiful white birds. Several of the older crocs were so used to seeing the boat we got to get so close to them you could almost touch them. Then, we had homemade Australian bread and tea made over a fire. It was the best bread I have ever had! It was sooo good and was nice because it was a little chilly that day. Overall, it was an amazing experience that few people get to have!
The next day we packed up our tent and went to stay at the YHA in airlie beach. It was really nice because Jenna and I upgraded to a double so we could actually sleep. We did a jet boat tour of the islands and snokeling the Great Barrier Reef. We did two different dives. Unfortunatly the visability of the reef wasn't too good because of all of the recent rain, but it was amazing! There were so many fish and the coral was huge and everywhere! Some of the coral was so shallow it almost touched above the water. It was def a surreal experience. The jet boat
was a lot of fun and the tour guides were halarious! The boat was really rough and the waters were really choppy because of the wind. We went to White Haven beach which was amazing! The sand was 99% silica so it was really soft and perfectly white. The water was a beautiful torquise blue unlike any water I have ever seen before. We bushwalked up to an outlook which was really pretty as well. We also got to ride the boat through a passage called God's washing machine. Omg! it totally was! The water just swirrled and the waves were crashing the boat. It was so much fun even though the boat would go over the wave then crash back down like we landed flat on hard steel. It was a lot of the fun!
We slept really good that night because we were so tired! Of course for dinner we split our $5 large pizza from Dominoes that was right next door. The large pizza in Australia is roughly a small in America. If I was really hungry I could def finish it by myself and many people do here! The next morning we got up bright
and early to go kayaking! Jenna and I have never kayacked before so we were a little scared but it was a lot of fun once we got the hang of it. We did a tour where we had double kayaks. Jenna and I got stuck in Mangrove trees, coral that was really shallow and rocks that were too shallow. Basically anything that we could get stuck on we did! We did really well though for our first time and how choppy the water was. We def got our workout in that day! We landed on this little island where we basically rock climbed to get around the island had a snack. Then we kayaked back and spent the rest of the day relaxing and laying out at Airlie Lagoon. This lagoon is a manmade pool with really pretty landscape that way people can swim without stinger suits during the stinger season. The waters around the north of Australia are filled with dangerous creatures such as sharks, jelly fish and posinous coral. One of the worst is the iricongi jellyfish that can kill you. They are clear and as large as your thumb nail so they are almost impossible to
see and avoid. Most people wear stinger suits in order to avoid being stung. Luckily we didn't go during that season! The lagoon is really nice though.
We left later that night very unwillingly. It was such an amazing trip and the islands are absolutely amazing!
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anonymous
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u r so lucky