Airlie Beach and the paradise that is the Whitsundays, followed by a little bit of hell..........

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Next blog, whoop whoop!

After a fantastic time on Magnetic Island, I was a little reluctant to move on. I'd seen so many animals and had really enjoyed just chilling in a hammock by the pool. BUT, I was heading to Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsundays, and from what I'd heard about it, it was well worth leaving Magnetic Island for. So, I hopped on my greyhound bus, and set forth for Airlie Beach.

I was picked up by my hostel from the bus station and was taken back to a really clean, pretty little hostel, where I had arrived just in time to watch the nightly movie. What a great way to unwind! Just relaxing in front of the TV after a 5 or so hour bus journey.

I spent the next couple of days deciding which boat I wanted to go on to get to the Whitsundays, as there was a ridiculous amount of choice! I eventually settled on going on a tall ship called the Solway Lass, which is over 100 years old (built in 1902). I wanted to go on a tall ship as I didn't like the sound of the racing yachts and that they keel right over on their sides..... I just knew that if I was on a boat that keeled like that, I would be convinced I was about to capsize and that I was going to die. So for my peace of mind, and to ensure that I actually enjoyed the trip, the picked a boat that would cruise right through the waves, as opposed to bouncing on top of them.

I was given a special bag to put the stuff I wanted to take on the boat in. They don't let you bring your own bags, especially if they have zips, as bedbugs can hide in zips (nice....). I was a little dubious as to how much I was going to manage to fit into the bag, but all in all it was probably going to be a good thing, as the bag would prevent me from over-packing.

The evening before my trip to the Whitsundays, I took part in the hostel quiz with two girls I'd met up in the Daintree, and we won! We won a bottle of champagne, which we enjoyed while watching a comedy.

When booking my trip, I hadn't realised thar my boat was leaving in the evening as opposed to the morning. So i was presented with yet more time to fill, when all I wanted to do was get on the boat and go! I faffed around for most of the day, and did some planning as to where I'd go after Airlie and what I'd do.

I was ridiculously excited by the time evening rolled around, and couldn't wait to be on the Solway Lass. Another girl from my hostel was booked on to the same boat, so we walked to the bus stop together. Once we were on the boat, we had a brief safety talk and an introduction, and then we were shown to our cabins. My cabin had two bunkbeds in it, and I was sharing with two french girls (one of them the girl from my hostel). The cabin was small but it was absolutely charming in a quaint, cosy way. It felt pretty authentic to me, even though the cabins were only added 10 years ago (however, if it had been the original sleeping area it would have simply been one or two areas, and hammocks for sleeping in.)

Even though I had done practically nothing all day, I was shattered, so I pretty much fell into bed. However, even though I was all tucked up and ready to sleep, sleep eluded me because of the awful snoring coming from one of the french girls. I couldn't believe how much noise was coming out of such a small girl! The other french girl (Isma) kept whistling to try and get her to stop snoring (which confused me at the time as I thought Isma was whistling in her sleep!).
Eventually, I was rocked to sleep by the waves and with the help of my earplugs.

I awoke later than the others the next day (well actually I woke up at the same time but didn't feel like getting out of bed) but not all that late. It was only 8am but it was still late enough of me to miss breakfast.....was not overly amused about that.

Still it was a gloriously sunny day and we were off to the famous whitehaven beach. We landed on Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island, and walked up to the lookout point to see out over whitehaven beach and over across to some of the other Whitsunday Islands. The view was spectacular! The water was crystal clear, I've never seen water like it. I could see all the different blues sparkling in the sun, offset by the white, white silica sand. It really looked like paradise. I don't even like sand (as anyone who knows me at all knows all too well), but I loved that sand. It was cool to walk on due to the almost pure silica content, and as you walk on it, it squeaks! The sand is so fine that it feels like you are walking on flour that has been stored in a fridge...very bizarre but pretty darn fantastic too.

We were given about two hours to sit on the beach and do whatever we wanted, so I went for a walk along the waters edge, trying to spot baby sharks and rays darting in and out of the varying blues of the water.
I got chatting with some English ladies, and it was while we were talking away that we stumbled (literally) across a sea of soldier crabs, hundreds and hundreds of them. They get their name from the fact that there are always so many of them together, an army of crabs! It looked as though the ground was moving, and we only realised when we were right in the middle of it. FREAKY! Up close (after I'd managed to grab one without stepping on any of him fellow soldiers) they were very pretty (for crabs), with bright blue bodies, but you had to be careful of their claws. To me they looked a bit like your stereotypical french name, with their distinct little faces and these funny whisker type feelers that looked like a curling moustache!

We eventually got back on the Solway, and the crew unfurled her sails, so we could have a sail. We sailed to a nice little cove at Luncheon Bay where we spent the night.

We next day we were all up and fed early as we were going snorkeling. The sea was very 'fresh' as the sun hadn't been up long, but in we hopped, determined to see as much as possible.
I saw lots of different, brightly coloured fish and coral, and there were also giants clams! I even saw a couple of jelly fish! No idea if it was a dangerous type or not, I just made sure not to get too close.

Then, as a treat, we were taken around the corner into another bay, where several humpheaded maori wrasse were known to live. They were fantastic; these big fish with huge blue lips, and blue patterns on their heads. The maroi wrasse were really friendly, and if you moved slowly they came up very close. I even got to stroke one, and it just calmly looked at me. There were also lots of giant trevellies, and other smaller fish darting around, so the water around our boat was pretty crowded!

After the snorkeling, as we were already wet and cold, most of us decided to have a go on the ships rope swing; swinging out, high over the water before dropping in. So much fun, but much harder than it looked!

That night we all played the cereal box game, where you have to bend over and pick up the cereal box with your teeth, having nothing but your feet on the ground. Each round the box got smaller and smaller as a layer of cardboard was ripped off. I was spectacularly bad, as I am not at all bendy, but thankfully I was wearing jeans so had a convenient excuse for being so bad! We had a lot of laughs, and some people turned out to be unnaturally flexible...maybe I should start yoga when I get home?

The next day, unfortunately, dawned overcast, and there was quite a wind, so the crew decided to take us on the Peak walk, instead of getting us in the water again. The Peak walk is a walk to the highest point in the Whitsunday islands.
The walk wasn't too hard, I just got massively overheated on the way up (cue bright red abbie ....). As the day was quite cool, getting THAT hot was the last thing I'd expected. However, the views from the top were worth the walk up. From our height we could see how all the Whitsunday Islands were laid out, and how they looked collectively.
Alas, after that walk, my Whitsundays trip was over, and we sailed slowly back to Airlie Beach. I had to saw goodbye to my new friends and prepare to move on to the next place once more!

I left Airlie Beach for Mackay, and little did I know the hassle that awaited me there. I'd been told that Mackay wasn't worth visiting, but it was right next to the Eungella National Park, the best place in Australia to see Platypuses in the wild! As I desperately wanted to see a platypus, I'd booked on to a tour called 'Lunch with a Platypus' while still in Airlie Beach and the tour was due to leave the next day.
Still, I hadn't heard anything from the company since booking the tour online, so I decided to ring them to confirm everything and find out where I was going to be picked up. This took me a little while to do, as I had no credit, so had to wander out into Mackay to find a place to get my mobile topped up.
When I eventually managed to ring the company, the man simply said, ' Oh, that tour isn't going tomorrow', and I was like, 'Errr, when were you planning on telling me this?'. The guy was completely unapologetic, and even told me I'd have to ring him back later to arrange getting my money back! Surely he should have been ringing me back as it was his sodding fault?

A little pissed off, I headed to the reception of my hostel, as I'd seen lots of signs around the place advertising a different platypus tour. But when I asked the woman behind the desk she said, 'Oh, we don't run that tour anymore'. So why were there signs everywhere?!?!!?!?! Apparently they'd been meaning to take them down........
I was starting to get angry and more than a little fed up with the attitude of the people in Mackay. On further enquiry, I was informed that there were no buses or trains that went out to the national park, and that I had absolutely no chance of getting there without a car.....great..... I then found out that all the car hire places in Mackay were closed the next day, so if I wanted to hire a car I'd have to hire it over night and go pick it up before 5.30pm. That would have involved several taxi fares on top of the car hire fee etc. and was going to come out at a whopping $200! No way could I afford that.

Later that evening, (after 5.30), a Swiss girl arrived in my room, who also wanted to go to the National Park. Problem was, even though I now had someone to split the cost with, it was too late to hire the car. We tried everything! We even tried offering the daughter of the hostel owner $200 to drive us there and back...but she couldn't be bothered. So we were stuck in Mackay, with nothing to do, as there is literally nothing to do there!

I headed to the cinema to console myself and waste a few hours, only to find that everyone in Mackay seems to dress up to go to the cinema. So not only was I angry and frustrated, I also felt scruffy and generally out of place. Just what I needed to improve my mood....NOT!

The next day was a bore, but at least I had someone to share my boredom with. The Swiss girl and I decided to make the most of the day by walking several miles to the Botanical gardens. The walk there itself was dull as dishwater, but the gardens were nice and we spotted a lovely red-backed fairy wren.

We'd planned to catch the free bus that ran on Sundays, that we'd been told about in the tourist information centre, and take it to the Marina where we'd grab some lunch. After waiting for 40 minutes it was apparent that the bus was never going to come, and my hatred of Mackay deepened. We headed back to the gardens and had lunch at the cafe there, where although it was table service, we were completely ignored for over 5 minutes and not even given menus. There wasn't even very many customers there, so they had no excuse for ignoring us. When I got up and asked for some menus, I was given a pretty filthy look.....Least the food was nice!

We resigned ourselves to walking all the way back to the hostel, down the same boring path we'd taken, as after consulting a map, we saw that there was no other direct, or even vaguely direct way of getting there.

We both had late buses to catch that night, and it was only 4.30, so we had a lot of time to burn. Maurielle's was at 9.30pm but mine wasn't until 1.50am! The problem was, it was a Sunday, so very few places were open. We eventually found a cafe/restaurant, and sat there for three hours, drinking coffee and getting some dinner. Then, we headed back to the hostel for 9am, as the hostel reception closed at that time, and it was the last chance for us to get our bags out of storage.
I then had to practically beg the hostel owner to let me sit on one of the sofas for the 5 1/2 hours until my bus. She really didn't want to let me do it, and would have preferred I was wandering round Mackay, with all my worldy posessions, all night (and let me tell you, Mackay has some pretty rough people just sitting around on park/pavement benches...). Eventually, she said I could stay, as long as i didn't move or go anywhere else (what did she think I was going to do?). So I sat there and read for the whole time, and was relieved when it was time to go get my bus and escape. Thank god I was leaving!!! What a hell hole!

And that is it for this blog :D. I suppose it was about time I had a bad experience on my travels, but I could have happily lived without it. Still, things got a lot better when I arrived at the next place, Town of 1770.
I hope you liked the blog, comment and let me know what you think!

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