Blogs from Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 38

After a horrific 13 hour nightbus, where I was forced to watch Dr Dolittle 3, we finally arrived in Airlie Beach. We got our free shuttle bus to our hostel (Koala's) and at 9am all we wanted to do was go to bed. However with a late check in time we headed out for some breakfast and a nose around. Airlie beach is a small place with most backpackers using it as a stop over before and/or after a trip around the Whitsundays Islands. In between the beach itself and the main high street there is a gorgeous man-made lagoon, where you can go for a dip anytime. The morning that our boat departed we had a very brief briefing, we headed off to the harbour. With our stinger suits, scuba gear and goon in ... read more

Habibi is the name of the sailboat that I am going to spend my next two days on! Yeah, rough, i know... The is beating down on us as we are meeting at the marina at 1:30 pm to meet the other 24 passengers and the three men crew of the Habibi. Since the travel world around here is so small, i once again actually run into a couple from England, Luke and Leann, who also were on Kiwi , and so together we embark on our journey. Our fellow "sailors' are from England, Germany, Israel, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Canada. As always around these parts, quite a mix of old and young from all over the world. Our skipper Greg is assisted my diving instructor, deckhand, chef, sailor, etc Shane ( jack of all traits) ... read more

hi everybody! i just wanted to say a quick hello.... we just came back from our 3 day 2 night sailing trip through the whit sundays on our beautiful tall ship, the derwent hunter. we had an awesome group of people that we travelled with and a really great crew. there were 16 of us plus 3 crew. so it was a nice, small group. we got to do a lot of snorkelling and saw some pretty awesome beaches... as well as tons of fish, coral, and turtles! we saw turtles today! i loved being on the boat, it was soo relaxing and soo much fun i didnt want to leave. im still rocking right now too. haha anyway we leave to go south tommorrow, first to a cattle station called kroombit. that should be fun. ... read more

After getting aboard the 'Dreamcatcher' and being introduced to my bed for the next couple of nights i found it somewhat hard to imagine having any dreams or sleep at all for that matter! Then the big fat Ozzy sleeping in the cabin next to ours started snoring louder than anything I have ever heard and I realised the only thing for it was to venture top side and sleep under the stars which proved to be much more rewarding. The sailing in the daytime was pretty good too. Went snorkelling and saw amazing corals and plenty of colourful parrot fish, bat fish and many more. The weather held for the most part, until we arrived at whitehaven beach and got a little rain which was a real shame. Then as we were coming home the ... read more

I caught the Oz bus to Airlie beach, a real tourist town consisting mainly of one road about a mile long populated entirley by travel agencies, souvineer shops and fast food takeaways. It's also 'Party HQ'; i stayed in 'Beaches' hostel which has this huge bar underneath it that closes at 12, it's this fact that i believe is the reason for everybody in the hostel being completely slaughtered by 8 o'clock. Seriously, we got there at about half seven and there was a girl passed out infront of our door, we stood there for a couple of minutes wondering whether we should tell someone before the door across the hall opened and her mate dragged her inside. However i went out that night with Magnus and two canadian girls called Ashley and Erin, and it's ... read more