Whitsundays

We left Hervey Bay ridiculously early in the morning and were shepherded onto a huge Oz Experience coach. Our next official stop would be Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. However as it takes around 14 hours to drive straight there, the Oz Experience stops halfway at a cattle station called Kroombit. This was something that I was a little unsure about having to spend 2 days on the oz experience bus. We hadn't had any issues with it so far, but we had only done short trips in the smaller buses. In the end it panned out well as it was a blast. The cattle station was in the middle of nowhere but there were loads of cowboy themed events to take part in including, clay pigeon shooting (I hit 1 out of 5, which was frankly pitiful); horse riding in a goat muster - herding goats on horseback was harder than I thought, particularly for my first time on a horse; and finally a goat rodeo where you had to grab a goat, drag it out of the pen and then your teammate pretends to brand it. We then had a bit of a laugh involving shotguns, cans of aerosol and a watermelon. There are some videos on the site which probably explain it better. It was a good opportunity to chat to some of the people on the bus, most of which were good craic and we met a lot of them a fair few times over the course of the trip up the coast as everyone keeps using the same buses and doing similar activities. After a heavy night of drinking and more high jinks such as whip cracking and my awful attempt at bucking bronco machine (see embarrassing video for evidence) it was time to head into Airlie Beach.

Airlie Beach is a harbour town which is the starting point for all the tours of the Whitsundays. It is a small enough town but thrives on the sailing and tourist industry built around the Whitsunday Islands. There are lots of very expensive apartments in the town and more are being built as well as a new marina for even more boats. As a result, many people believe it will soon be too pricey for backpackers and a number of the big hostel owners have started buying land in Bowen, about 20 minutes from the town and are looking at setting up base there as it's cheaper. The hostels in Airlie are also very different to what we had seen previously as they were all custom built and are HUGE. There are 3 big players, Magnums, Koala's and Beaches where we stayed. All have large beer halls and loads of large dorm rooms. Airlie beach is also known as the bed bug capital of Australia so we were a little unsure about the accommodation, but the dorm rooms we had in Beaches were nice.

We had booked on a boat called the Solway Lass following my sisters recommendation as well as a desire to avoid the "party boats" that most backpackers get shuffled on to as part of a package deal. We had signed up for 3 days and night and started on the Tuesday evening being taken aboard, introduced to the crew and shown cabins etc. These were all fairly basic and small as you would expect, but the boat itself was lovely. A real old fashioned, twin masted sailing ship. The boat had plenty of room above deck as well as a nice bar area that was well received. We would spend most of the time using the motor to get around, but there was also planned to be a good bit of sailing. The plan for the first night was to sail out to one of the islands, anchor overnight and then be able to go around some of the other islands at our leisure from the morning. We spent the first night getting to know the rest of the people on the boat which was fairly eclectic, although there was definitely an Irish majority on board. So much so, that we had run out of tea by lunch on the 2nd day and had to ransack the dive boat for more supplies.

On our 1st morning, we motored around the coast to the back of Whitehaven Island and went ashore. After a short walk across the island we came to Whitehaven Beach. Anyone who has done the Whitsundays trip will rave about Whitehaven beach and rightly so, it's gorgeous. It is made of similar sand to Lake McKenzie in Fraser Island and has a lovely white colour to it and it goes on for ages. It was a bit cold that morning, but that wasn't going to stop us from diving into the water and we were soon enjoying a "refreshing" swim off the beach. After a while we headed back to the boat to be greeted with more food. (there was never a point on this trip that you went hungry)We then sailed around to another island for a bit of snorkeling before settling in for the night. Our 2nd day, we had booked a dive on the reef around the islands so we set off to meet the dive boat. This was our first opportunity for the boat to sail and it was a very different experience. So much quieter and also smoother even though it was still a bit rough, it never felt jarring like it sometimes did when the motor was running. We made good time and me and Emma set off for our dive. Most of the boat also took the chance to do an introductory dive at the same time. I have to say that the dive was a bit disappointing, it was good to get back into it and for a refresher dive it was perfect, however there wasn't much life and the reef in this area has taken a real battering. (not surprising really, during our dive a German couple in front of us were more interested in taking photos of themselves than what was going on around them - at one point he was taking her picture and took ages to take it, all the while he was completely oblivious to the fact he was kicking the reef below him.(Our instructor in Thailand would have plenty to say about that sort of behaviour!). Despite this, it was good to get a dive in and it was nice to chat to the others who had just done the intro dive and talk about it with people who were genuinely excited by what they had just done, it really reminded me of why it is so much fun diving.

As I said, this was a very relaxed trip and as we would go from one place to the other, you had a chance to just chill out either by reading, listening to your iPod or surprisingly, playing chess against the crew. It was an ongoing competition between the captain and some of his crew who all enjoyed playing, and despite not playing in years I was more than happy to have a few games. I played the barman and the captain a few times and lost everytime, but can honestly say I wasn't disgraced and I enjoyed it. That's definitely not the sort of thing that goes on at some of the boats around the islands, but it was perfect for the trip we wanted. Our last day on sea we cruised around the remaining islands and I went snorkeling, but Emma felt it was too cold. It was quite chilly but this was a great time for me. The reef in the area we went to was much better than the previous day's dive and I spent ages just exploring along until eventually I spotted a turtle!! This was so much fun to just swim alongside the turtle and after calling some others we just swam and watched it. In all, we managed to see 3 turtles that morning, including one huge one that seemed to have a turbo fitted as there was no way any of us could keep up with it. Definitely worth the cold for an hour or so!

As it was also a fairly quite day where we just meandered back to port, it was time for everyone on board to get a bit more hands on and when it came time to deploy the sails, it was the passengers who got to have a go. I was more than happy to do this and pulled up a few sails, I couldn't tell you what one and would have no idea in real life, but it was fun nonetheless. We also took the chance to relax in the bow net, which hangs off the front of the ship only a couple of metres from the sea, it's a great feeling and is surprisingly comfortable just bobbing along at the front. As we sailed into harbour on the Friday evening, I felt really relaxed and ready to get back on the rest of our route fully refreshed. It was definitely the highlight of our Australia trip for me and I would definitely do it again if I returned and there aren't too many things I would say that about. After a bit of time to clean all our clothes following the trip, it was time for a few beers with everyone from the boat before hitting the sack before another early start out of Airlie. Next stop…Townsville; and Cairns!