Airlie Beach itself was crap. The only reason why anyone would be there is that it's the closest place to the Whitsundays. We got down there and had to wait a few hours to before check in opened at our hostel. We stayed at Koalas, which was just as bad a hostel as the Koalas in Noosa. While waiting for the hostel to open we simply sat in the car and slept, as the rain kept lashing down relentlessly. Our room stank, and the place just looked like it was falling apart. It didn't help we had some drunken Irish idiots causing havoc nearby! The next day, Travis (an American friend we met in Noosa) arrived at the hostel.
The three of us were a little worried that our sailing trip to the Whitsundays would be cancelled. The rain just wouldn't stop at all, and a girl in our room had her trip cancelled due to high winds. However, that didn't stop us getting really drunk the night before our trip.
The next day I was really hungover, and the rain was still pouring down, but luckily our trip wasn't cancelled. On the way to our boat, we bumped into Madeleine (again!) who had just got back fro her trip on the Wetsundays (as some people called them), where it rained constantly! Luckily for us the weather improved during our trip, so we actually had some sun breaking through the clouds and hardly any rain at all!
On our ship, the New Horizon, we soon realised we were on a good ship. One of the crew, Blair, came out of the cabin wearing a purple wig and a Victorian woman's swimming costume to explain safety procedures! There were about 30 people on the boat, including the really good four member crew. The chef cooked some really good food!
As we got on the boat at about 3pm, the first day was just sailing out to the islands. As they appeared you could appreciate how beautiful they were. White beaches, rainforests and unspoilt nature was on every island we sailed past. It seemed that many people had hangovers that day, which wasn't helped by the rocking boat. I felt terrible for the whole day!
We started the second day with a snorkel of one of the beaches. The recent bad weather meant that there wasn't a huge amount to see, so we moved to another place before Thomas, myself and two others did a scuba dive. Aided by Travis's underwater camera, we took some really good photos of the coral reef (the Whitsundays are part of the Great Barrier Reef) at our dive spot.
We then moved to the main attraction of the Whitsundays; Whitehaven Beach. It was so good that the weather had improved, otherwise this postcard view of the islands would've been spoiled. We were dropped off on the shore and headeded up to the viewpoint. Onthe way we saw hundreds and hundreds of small crabs running away from us as we approached. If we got near to any of them they would bury themselves in the sand and disappear within a few seconds.
The view from the lookout was stunning, words simply cannot describe how beautiful it was. We spent the time just standing there trying to take it all in. Beautiful is an understatement. It was almost magical.
That evening most of us got drunk on the ship, along with the crew. The were loads of other boats anchored around ours, and at about midnight, two of the crew took the dinghy over to a nearby ship they knew, climbed on board, stole a crate and got back to the New Horizon before the other boat realised what had happened. They had stolen a fancy dress box, and those who were still awake (including myself and Thomas) got dressed in wigs, fairy wings and dresses. It was really good fun!
On the last day we were going to do some more dives, but the visibilty was awful, so we sailed around the islands one more time before heading back to Airlie Beach. It was funny, as we got nearer the clouds became thicker, and it was obvious that while there was no rain on the islands, Airlie Beach was as rainy as it was when we left!
That evening we met up with some of the crew and fellow passengers at a local bar. We saw Madeleine, and we really pissed her off with tales of our relatively un-rainy trip. SHe was going slightly crazy, as she had had constant rain for nearly a week. The next day she flew to Sydney, where it was also raining!
We had a fantastic time sailing around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, and it certainly was one of the highlights of my time in Australia.
Next stop, Cairns!
The three of us were a little worried that our sailing trip to the Whitsundays would be cancelled. The rain just wouldn't stop at all, and a girl in our room had her trip cancelled due to high winds. However, that didn't stop us getting really drunk the night before our trip.
The next day I was really hungover, and the rain was still pouring down, but luckily our trip wasn't cancelled. On the way to our boat, we bumped into Madeleine (again!) who had just got back fro her trip on the Wetsundays (as some people called them), where it rained constantly! Luckily for us the weather improved during our trip, so we actually had some sun breaking through the clouds and hardly any rain at all!
On our ship, the New Horizon, we soon realised we were on a good ship. One of the crew, Blair, came out of the cabin wearing a purple wig and a Victorian woman's swimming costume to explain safety procedures! There were about 30 people on the boat, including the really good four member crew. The chef cooked some really good food!
As we got on the boat at about 3pm, the first day was just sailing out to the islands. As they appeared you could appreciate how beautiful they were. White beaches, rainforests and unspoilt nature was on every island we sailed past. It seemed that many people had hangovers that day, which wasn't helped by the rocking boat. I felt terrible for the whole day!We started the second day with a snorkel of one of the beaches. The recent bad weather meant that there wasn't a huge amount to see, so we moved to another place before Thomas, myself and two others did a scuba dive. Aided by Travis's underwater camera, we took some really good photos of the coral reef (the Whitsundays are part of the Great Barrier Reef) at our dive spot.
We then moved to the main attraction of the Whitsundays; Whitehaven Beach. It was so good that the weather had improved, otherwise this postcard view of the islands would've been spoiled. We were dropped off on the shore and headeded up to the viewpoint. Onthe way we saw hundreds and hundreds of small crabs running away from us as we approached. If we got near to any of them they would bury themselves in the sand and disappear within a few seconds.The view from the lookout was stunning, words simply cannot describe how beautiful it was. We spent the time just standing there trying to take it all in. Beautiful is an understatement. It was almost magical.
That evening most of us got drunk on the ship, along with the crew. The were loads of other boats anchored around ours, and at about midnight, two of the crew took the dinghy over to a nearby ship they knew, climbed on board, stole a crate and got back to the New Horizon before the other boat realised what had happened. They had stolen a fancy dress box, and those who were still awake (including myself and Thomas) got dressed in wigs, fairy wings and dresses. It was really good fun!On the last day we were going to do some more dives, but the visibilty was awful, so we sailed around the islands one more time before heading back to Airlie Beach. It was funny, as we got nearer the clouds became thicker, and it was obvious that while there was no rain on the islands, Airlie Beach was as rainy as it was when we left!
That evening we met up with some of the crew and fellow passengers at a local bar. We saw Madeleine, and we really pissed her off with tales of our relatively un-rainy trip. SHe was going slightly crazy, as she had had constant rain for nearly a week. The next day she flew to Sydney, where it was also raining!
We had a fantastic time sailing around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, and it certainly was one of the highlights of my time in Australia.
Next stop, Cairns!
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