Fun in Whitsunday's

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Well we have checked our of our cell in the youth hostel in Airlie Beach to be honest we did get a good nights sleep so not all bad. Whilst waiting to board the catamaran we have been doing quite a bit of admin work. We now have booked our Greyhound Bus from Hervey Bay to Brisbane Airport where we will be picking up a hire car - then we will be staying with Mike’s daughter Jenni for a few days before flying off to Sydney. We have also got a studio apartment in Sydney which is very central - anyone looking for reasonable accommodation should check out Airbnb website - we seem to get some really reasonable accommodation at reasonable prices through them. It is really hot in Airlie Beach today so I think there is going to be a lot of sunscreen being applied.



Anyway we get to the catamaran and it is fabulous there are only 3 couples (Peter & Judy and David & Sylvia) on so one spare cabin. We get off to sail after our safety briefing and get to a bay where we moor up for the night - as it is a catamaran it has a netting between the hulls which is great for lounging on. Mike decides to go for a walk around the boat and nearly falls over board so nearly shouting MAN OVER BOARD but he manages to hold on but whilst doing this he lets go of his hat and yes you guessed it HAT OVER BOARD so not a happy Mike as he had this for our safari last year and it had got really weathered and molded to his head.



Whilst Mike, Judy and I were sitting on the netting out front it starts to get real choppy and so we all decided to move back a bit just off the netting and then the sea gets rougher and Judy slips into the netting - well the netting then turned into a trampoline and poor Judy could not get off it with the sea bumping us up and down. Well all 3 of us could not stop laughing which made it worse and Judy was now really bumping around whilst we were all laughing so much, you can just picture the scene - thank goodness Judy was a real laugh.



Anyway after a great meal we are all knackered and off to sleep we trot - taking a DVD as guess what the cabins have a DVD player - told you this was posh! What a sunset we saw it was absolutely fantastic.



So up early this morning for a early morning dip in the sea - how decadent is this! So after breakfast we set sail and get to Whitehaven Beach which is idylic just like you see in the movies. We have an hour by the sea climbing on the rocks and then decide to go for a stroll as we were told were you may see rays (the sting variety) - which seemed a good idea until it appeared we were surrounded by them - which typically Paula says “I’m going to die” dramatic or what. After seeing loads of Rays we went to the lookout and with the tide going out it was absolutely amazing. I had been given the responsibility of calling for the boat with a walky talky - never give me responsibility as everytime I tried to call “getaway, getaway, getaway” no-one answered so we thought we would be stranded on the beach - which seemed funny at the time. Until we got to the beach but gratefully the crew saw us yelling from the beach and came to get us in the dingy.



So back on the boat we get and have a fab evening. Next morning up we get and go for an early morning snorkel - which was amazing we saw Priscilla which is really large fish and I mean a really large fish. We then went back on the boat for brekkie and after brekkie back into the water we pop and off snorkeling again we pop. This time we see Priscilla and a massive turtle OMG how lucky are we. If only I had the underwater camera but luck would have it I never hired it for this trip so you will just have to believe me it was THIS BIG, ha ha.



We have said goodbye to everyone now as we are back in dry dock and off we all trot to our different destinations. We are waiting for the Greyhound Bus to take us to Hervey Bay a 13 hour bus journey so not looking forward to it but at least it will have broken the back of our journey to Brisbane to see Mike’s daughter.

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Photos

What a beach
Is this not the most amazing beach - Whitehaven one of the top 10 in the world and you can see why!

Comments

[Barbara Roberts]

First glance
Wow, Syl told me about your journey and blog...absolutely amazing Paula, you will have to come to the Ottawa area with Syl and Guy next time in Canada with more than a few days to spare. Travel safe and keep posting!

[PJandMike]

Blog
Hi Barb - hope you and the family are well. Yes we are having an amazing time and would love to meet up when we come next time with more than a few days to spare. Keep well.