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After our Rock Tour we flew to Cairns to begin our journey down the east coast of Australia. We'd been recommended a hostel called Travellers Oasis and it was brilliant, probably the best place we have stayed on the whole trip. The staff were so helpful they basically helped us plan the next 3 weeks of our travels down the coast, which was a daunting task for us as there was a lot we wanted to try and do in a relatively short period of time. They had been having a lot of bad weather when we arrived, it was only a few weeks after the cyclone had hit and there was bad flooding. We debated about whether to dive in the Great Barrier Reef when it was not the picture postcard sunny weather we had hoped, and decided to still do it. That was a good decision, diving was incredible. We saw 4 turtles, one of which we could swim right up to and could've touched if we wanted (obviously we didn't). We also saw a white tipped reef shark sitting quietly on the sand, it wasn't as scary as you'd think seeing a shark. There were loads of other
amazing looking fish that we saw but the shark and turtles were definitely the stand outs for us. The journey out to the reef was very rough, in fact about 90% of the boat (and it was a big boat) were on the deck with sick bags, it was a weird sight. Luckily neither of us were sick on the boat so we assumed we'd got away with it. However no such luck for Tom who spewed several times whilst diving, through his regulator (the mouth piece you breathe through), disgusting. Try and imagine the hand signals 18m under water he was showing Ash when trying to explain that he had just been sick through his mouth piece!! Good fish food for the locals though. Towards the end of our dive trip we also got lost. The instructor lead us through a corridor of caves and tunnels, we could see the guy in front we were following and then one second later he was gone! We waited under water for a minute or so to see if the instructor would turn around but he didn't, so up we went. We could see the boat as soon as we came out
the water so there was no scary film moment where we were stranded in the middle of the ocean alone. The instructor popped up, and down we went again, it definitely reminded us of how quickly you can get disorientated under water.
We had an overnight bus booked that night, and after our exciting day diving on the Great Barrier Reef we returned to the hostel to find out that due to more flooding the road south was closed again and we couldn't leave Cairns. This was really frustrating as we were so time limited that every day we couldn't leave Cairns meant we were missing out on something we had planned. A week before we had got there, the road had been shut for about 7 days, so we were really worried that we would be stuck in Cairns for that long. Flights were much more expensive than usual because everyone was trying to leave. We ended up being stuck there for only 2 extra days, it was 2 days spent not doing much though as we were constantly in limbo ready to run to the bus if the road suddenly opened. It did mean that we were
up there for Paddys day, and so whilst stuck we figured the best thing to do was have a drink. There was a good group in the hostel so we spent the night playing ring of fire and ended up in a club full of people wearing big green hats and drinking guiness. One of the few nights out we had in Oz.
The next destination was Airlie Beach, a small gateway town to the Whitsunday Islands. It had a nice lagoon where we spent a spare day we had due to getting stuck in Cairns. We decided to do a 3day/2 night trip on a 12 person sailing boat called Silent Night. 12 was a small amount compared to some of the big party boats which took over 30. The trip was absolutely fantastic, one of the best trips we have done on our whole time away. The weather was perfect, so we had bright blue skies during the day, and star filled skies at night. There was a good bunch of people on the boat so we had a laugh at night drinking beers on top of the swaying boat in the middle of a bay. Also
the boat was an old racing sailing boat, so we had great experiences of the skipper turning off the modern engine and letting the boat do what it was meant to. We would all have to sit with our legs hanging off one side of the boat, and the boat would be tilting to an extreme angle as it raced through the waves. Tom helped out with the sailing a lot, rigging up the sails!! One afternoon, the skipper arranged a race between our boat and 3 others. It was so exciting, he would be shouting that we all had to move to the other side of the boat when he turned, so we'd scramble over tightly holding onto anything you could grab as the angle of the boat was so extreme. The trip also involved stopping at Whitehaven Beach, a paradise looking World Heritage site. It has the purest sand in the world, and if you take some away with you expect the fine to be in the thousands of pounds. We have both been fortunate enough to visit some beautiful beaches in the past, however we both agree that Whitehaven is the best we have ever seen. The
sand was so clean looking it was as though somebody gets up everyday and combs through it picking out any scrap of seaweed, or pebble that isn't white. The sea was crystal clear, and flat, which meant even sitting in water up to your knees you could see tropical fish swimming right by. The only negative were the the stupid stinger suits that we had to wear due to the jellyfish. When the temperature is 30 degrees and there is crystal clear water, all you want to do is run in, or jump off the boat, but you can't you have to struggle pulling up the tight stinger suit before you can enjoy the water. In Australia everything seems like it could kill you. We also went snorkelling on the boat trip, however because the moon was at the lowest it had been in years it totally messed up the tides causing visibility in the water to be poor. We couldn't see much. All in all our sailing trip on Silent Night was a memorable experience and one we'd both thoroughly recommend.
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Amy
non-member comment
Sounds Incredible
Hello! Oh my goodness I am so jealous! It sounds like you are having a truly amazing time! Can't wait for a full on slide show of all the photos! haha. Will be brilliant to have you back but I don't want you to stop having such an amazing time. xxx