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Published: March 23rd 2009
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Whitsundays (Airlie Beach) - Port Douglas, East Coast Australia (7 - 21 March 2009)
After Irene hat dropped me off at Brisbane airport and I had arrivd in Airlie beach, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the local bars and at he hostel (cyclone ‘Hamish’ was passing by, however, not as strong as expected, so we didn’t have to be evacuate). During that time I decided to go on a 3 days / 3 nights sailing tour on the ‘Spank Me’ on Monday, together with 42 year old Steve, an RAF police officer from Cambridge, England. Courtney, a Canadian friend of Irene (AUS) and me who was working as an aupair in Geneva a couple of years ago, was also in Airlie, and it was great to have a quick chat with her.
Buying enough booze for 3 nights, on top of the 1L of vodka I still had from duty free, we boarded the sailing boat at 3pm on Monday afternoon with a supply of 60 cans of VB (and they would be just enough for the whole trip…). The crew consisted of four people (skipper, first mate, diving instructor, and catering) besides the 25 guests
Brisbane
On the way to the airport with Irene's dog 'Honey' on board: 7 English, 5 Germans, 4 Swedish, 2 Dutch, 2 Korean, 2 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Irish, and 1 Swiss (me) - a potpourri of great fun people aging from 20 to 58. Very cool!
After spending the first night outdoors on the deck of the boat in a calm bay on the Whitsundays, next to Whitehaven Beach, we had some morning hours to explore it before sailing to another bay where the diving novices had their first introductory dive. Unfortunately us, the experienced divers, had to wait until the end of the afternoon, and because of the disappearing sun and the rough sea (cyclone), the visibility under water was zero(!), and I soon found myself lost with my buddy Stefanie from Holland. We therefore went back to the surface, only to be followed a couple of minutes later by the rest of the group. Jointly we decided to abandon the dive since there was absolutely no point of continuing.
Yet spending another night of partying and sleeping on the deck, we started sailing to the outer Great Barrier Reef at 5am, right on time for some heavy rain showers. Naturally, the rain came along with heavy
winds, so the ‘Spank Me’ could proof its profile for the heavy sea - and it did well! Great fun! Some people got a bit sea sick (or was it the alcohol the evening before?), but once we arrived at the reef in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the sun was out again and the water surface quiet, so there was enough time for some great snorkelling and our next dive attempt. With the visibility slightly better, but a strong current, we managed to stay together (apart from one lost soul), however, had - again - to interrupt and go back to the surface, this time, however, only after 20 minutes or so. Therefore we did some more snorkelling and were looking forward to the great dinner Emma would prepare for us that night (the food in general was exceptionally good, given the fact that the ‘kitchen’ was about as small as phone booth)! Later in the afternoon we sailed back to the Whitsunday Islands where we anchored for a last time before heading back - all sails set - to Airlie Beach.
It was a fantastic time out there on the ‘Spank Me’, and I’m sure I
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Cyclone 'Hamish' approaching Airlie Beach will be back one day sailing the Whitsundays, without a cyclone passing by just before the trip. And I hope my sailing companions will be as great fun as the bunch of people I was with! Thx folks for making this trip a great one!!!
Once Back in Airlie Beach, Steve (UK) and I decided to head straight up further north to Ayr and the nearby Alva Beach, from where we wanted to dive the world famous S.S. Yongala ship wreck only 30 min. away from the coast in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (considered to be in the Top 10 of ship wreck dives world wide). The weather on Friday morning couldn’t have been any better, so after a quick breakfast and the mandatory dive briefing we took the speedboat out to the wreck. The S.S. Yongala sank in a cyclone on the 23rd March 1911 and remained undiscovered for almost 50 years. The wreck lies on its starboard side in 14-28 metres of water, and at 109m long is the largest and most intact, historic shipwreck in Australian waters. All 122 passengers aboard drowned when she sank, and nobody ever knew what exactly happened. Out of
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Cyclone warning respect for he lost souls it is not permitted to dive into the wreck, but the view on the beautiful corals and marine life down there was impressive enough anyway. What a great dive! We saw sharks, sting rays, sea snakes (some of the divers even played with them besides the fact that they are deadly venomous…), turtles, etc.etc... The great variety of various fish combined with the fascinating wreck will always make these two dives unforgettable!
After relaxing day in and around Ayr and having some more fish & chips at the only local restaurant, Steve and I headed off to Townsville on Sunday, only about an hour further north of Ayr. The city was completely dead, however, we managed to get some food & a couple of beers in the nearby Irish Bar and played some billards. On Monday, 17 March, we headed to the other Irish Pub (Molly Malone’s) at 10:30am to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Great fun & heaps of Guinness for seven (!) hours, before taking the ferry at 6pm over to Magnetic Island. The local pub there was closing already at 9pm, so we went back to the YHA and hung around with
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Steve stocking p booze for the sailing trip some of the other hotel guests.
The next day, we went for a hike to the nearby Magnetic Island National Park, where at the hilltop you had a great view from the former fort to the islands and bays around. And of course (that’s what the island is famous for), we saw a koala bear (in wild life, not in a zoo). Cool little creature - very cute! We also saw wallabies on the way back to the hotel, and after a swim in the pool we all took a bus to another part of the island where they organize a toad race every Wednesday, with the proceeds going to charity. What a giggle! All 8 toads had a colour ribbon around their waist, and one after each other was auctioned to the highest bidder. The winning toad would earn his ‘proprietor’ up to AU$ 150, so together with Steve, Victoria ‘Susan’ Secret (NL) and some more Dutch and Belgians we quickly setup a bidding pool to auction ‘our’ toad. After the first round’s loss, we headed for a new favourite in the third and last race, Blue Toad, and after raising AU$ 65 (top price that evening for
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The 'Spank Me' a toad) within the group, Blue Toad actually won and we got AU$ 150 back which we promptly invested into some couple of cool Carlton Draught…! What a fun evening and in general a great time on Magnetic Island.
On Thursday afternoon we took the Greyhound bus up to Cairns, where we spend the evening playing billards and drinking some beers, before having a stroll through the city on Friday and leaving for half a day of white water rafting on the close by Barron River. After this year’s heavy rain season there was plenty of water, so Steve and I and the rest of the group had a challenging afternoon in the water, trying not to capsize… The tour organizers dropped us of directly in very tropical Port Douglas on Friday night, and - again - we ended up exploring the local night life until very early in the morning…
Since I was sincerely hung over on Saturday, I decided not to go to the envisioned boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef, since I wasn’t allowed to dive anyway as I had to catch an early morning flight over to Perth in Western Australia the other day.
So I slept in and walked to the beach (no swimming because of the deadly jellyfish!) and the village, and in the evening we went to see football in one of the village’s few pubs.
And on Sunday, 22nd March, I got up at 6:30am, said good-bye to Steve, my English travel companion for the last 2 ½ weeks, and flew over to Perth. And it’s from there where I will post my next travel blog in a couple of weeks! See ya, mates!
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