Advertisement
Published: March 9th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hey!
We are currently in Mission Beach after travelling a few hours from our last stop in Airlie Beach.
Airlie Beach was the stepping stone to the Whitsunday islands, an amazing array of untouched islands off the border which provided glorius views of beauty! The trip was only 2 nights and 3 days but we pretty much all agreed that we could easily do it again and if i was in Oz for longer i would definetly have tried for a job for a couple of weeks!
We started off by meeting the crew and the other passengers. It was a 26 man boat and this time there were only 7 of us. However, within 30 minutes 3 of the 4 crew knew my name and we were well on the way! ;-) We were on a boat called the British Defender which was commisioned by the British Navy and competed in an around the world race only a few years ago. The boat had obviously been adapted by now but it still cost 20 million to create for the racing so it was no cruise ship!
Within an hour of our trip the skipper set sail
which meant a few volunteers had to help man the sails etc. We ended up in a 45 degree angle (sideways) - the photos should give you an idea - and by the way it was normal, so they told us! - it still didnt stop the beer runs!
The trip was amazing. Within the first few hours we saild through many of the whitsunday islands and the views were second to none! We had left at 1 o clock on the first day so it only really consisted of sailing, lunch then deciding on a position for the evening.
The evenings on boat were pretty crazy, helped alot by our seven, but before dinner i had managed to create my own (with the help of Kez - a crew member) snorkel beer bong which definetly helped things move along swimmingly!!! As the night grew quiet a few of us decided to do a little star watching, and star watching here is like nothing you have even seen in the uk, especially out in the middle of the ocean. Within an hour we had spotted 6 shooting stars! it was incredible!
The second day started early as
we were woken up and within half an hour shipped over to whitehaven beach which is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Again it had been completely untouched for hundreds if not thousands of years due to Australian legilsation and you could definetly tell. Pure white sand and once again crystal clear shore water - it was amazing! After a little mess around on the beach, a game of cricket etc we were taken by speedboat back to the defender to continue our trip.
The second stop of the day was to a view point that looked over an ancient sandbank which connected some of the different islands. Again it was a speedboat ride to shore then a 20minute trek to the top of the viewpoint. The pictures depict some of the view but it was 5 times better to be there with almost a 270 deree view of the different islands, it was beautiful!
After the viewpoint we carried on sailing around until we hit our first spot for snorkelling. As a complete newbie to snokrelling it was mindblowing. We were taken close to the rocks with all our gear on and let to
swim up the reef for as long as we wanted. I had never been snorkelling let alone on part of the great barrier reef so as soon as i was in the water i was amazed! The views were crazy, live reef and lots of fishes! Little did i know it was half the story!
That night was again pretty hectic, one defnetly to remeber! Lots of stories and a few beers ;-) As well as that, we spotted huge sholes of squid swimming past the boat. Then came the sharks! They were only reef sharks but i dont think many were in a hurry to get in there with them! It was an great site, seeing sharks feed in their own natural habitat. We saw them circle the boat and squid then dive in for their feed. By the end of the night we managed to count 14 sharks feeding around our boat!!!!
The next morning, they gave us another chance to snorkel but after the night before many remained reluctant! Still, we went ahead! were all up by 7.30 and the skipper had said that today was going to be a lot better than yesterday. I
didnt know what to expect,-the day before had been amazing??!
We were dropped off and instantly it was much better! This time there were thousands of fish swimming by your side and the corral was more vast and more alive than ever! The views under water were a picture and most of the time you couldnt put your arm out infront of you without touching 10 or 15 fish! As well as this, we met elvis! It may sound strange but the crew onboard pur ship told us before we went in that there was a famous fish around the waters called elvis - a huge maouri fish. We didnt quite believe him but within 20 minutes he appeared and he was huge! It was around 2 foot tall and 3 foot wide so you can imagine the size! Definetly a highlight of the trip.
After that we had to start sailing back to mainland, a disappointment but a chance to have a proper shower and get into some well needed clean clothes!!
All in all, the trip was brilliant. As i said, i would have definetly worked there if i could have. I got on really
really well with the crew and they made everyones trip amazing!
I hope everyone is doing well. We went white water rafting today, but that will be in the next blog!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0538s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum
non-member comment
Fab
Wish we were there !!!!!