Good morning all (well night to most that read this)

I am on the beautiful Magnetic Island at the moment and like the place so much I have decided to stay an extra night so leave tomorrow (it cost me 40 quid to do as I had to pay an extra night hostel and the greyhound up to Cairns).

Last Tuesday I left 1770 around lunchtime but not before having my haircut- it wasn't meant to be as short as I got it but the women cocked it up! After waiting half an hour for the oz bus I got on it and met back up with Anaick and Jade and their friend Nick from New York. We got to Kroombit Cattle Station at 3pm, had a nice steak lunch then went horse riding around the farm on a horse called Buttons who was quite new and liked doing her own thing. We rode around for while then rounded up some goats, which was a lot of fun and we did it successfully,and took the long route home where I found out Buttons doesn't get on with a few of the other horses.haha. Next up was the goat rodeo which involved 3 people and a goat in a small round pen withe the aim being to catch it, flip it and brand it- I was the catcher in my group and almost had my eye poked out. Our group did well with a time of 23.9 seconds but could only manage second. Towards the end the main guy bought out a goat and let it go in the pen and within seconds it had scaled the 2 metre fence back to its paddock (nuts). Back at the main area we checked in and had dinner (a lovely roast dinner) then had a couple of beers before the nights entertainments began. First up was cracking a whip which hurt a fair bit then line dancing and finally the bucking bull- riding a mechanical bull is much harder than it looks and I managed 4 bucks which was about average but Nick managed 25! (probably being American and dong it loads). Some random games were played before most went to bed about 1ish (I bought a nice boomerag from the bar).

Early the next day we left the cattle station to start a full days travelling up North to Airlie Beach. We sat at he back of the bus and played cards and slept for a while before reaching the beef capital of Australia- Rockhampton. Here we got food for lunch, drink for the Whitsunday cruise and I managed to find a pair of shorts to replace the ones I broke 10 days beforehand so was well pleased. The 2 hours to lunch were spent watching Stuck on You which wasn't as bad a film as people had told me and took up the time well. After lunch we headed for the town of Sarina and played some bare foot grass bowls then had the final 2 and a half hours up to Airlie Beach, getting there about 7pm. Most people were staying at Magnums (renowned for bed bugs) but I stayed at the quaility Beaches hostel which had nice big rooms and a great bar which my room overlooked (had a balcony) and was where we all met up at 8pm for food and drinks cause Neville our driver had reserved a couple of big tables. Me and Nick poweered through a few drinks in no time then eventually a load of us went to Shennanigans Bar and spent the rest of the evening having a great time in there.

Thursday 15th March- Saturday 17thy March (Whitsunday Cruise and Airlie Beach)

I woke up to find it pouring with rain and spent the morning checking into the oz sail office, packing my boat bag and grabbing some massive pizza bread before spending a couple of hours waiting around at Magnums with guys on our boat and going on the net. After saying goodbye to Nick and Anaick, me and Jade walked down to the harbour and handed in our check in forms and boarded the maxi yacht Condor; The boat was fairly big and could easily see it was a racing yacht with few things besides rope and sails on deck. We took our shoes off and took our bags downstairs to the main room with beds either side and the kitchen area in between; I slept on a hammock like bed above a double which is what the room consisted of (6 doubles and 6 singles and the other beds at the back or front of the boat). Up on deck I chatted to people I knew from the oz bus- Nick and Ben from Devon (was sleeping above them) and Natalie and Sarah from Bournemouth. The 3 crew (Andy the skipper, Helen and Luke) then welcomed us on board and talked to us about safety and what we would be doing over the next couple of days before we got moving under the motor out of Airlie. Soon after 8 of us were called upon to use the grinders to put the massive main sail up which was damn hard work but we got it up and the ship was sailing towards the Whitsunday Islands through the Whitsunday Passage. After an hour of getting splashed and the ship leaning to one side (we all sat on the high side) we reached our first destination where we would go snorkelling- Blue Pearl Bay on the small Hayman Island. We put on our thin lycra stinger suits and collected our flippers and snorkels then Helen took 8 of us at a time closer to shore to snorkel around; there were tonnes of fish swimming around and the coral formations were great. After spending an hour or so swimming about and constantly having to adjust my flippers and steamed up googles we went back to the boat but not before seeing a massive fish called Elvis (took loads of photos on my disposable waterproof camera). Once everyone had taken off their snorkel gear and sorted themselves out we were underway again to go to our destination for the night. We chilled out on deck for a while listening to the music from the boat speakers and as it was getting dark we left the Whitsunday Passage and headed up the calm Nora Inlet passed a few big boats to set anchor. As we waited for dinner we sat on deck underneath the cool light from the horizontal bit of the sail and started to drink the precious goon (cheap boxed wine incase you didn't know) underneaththe amazing nights sky complete with millions of stars. Dinner consisted of bits of chicken, spuds and vegetables with everyone loving it and wanting more. Drinking began again afterwards with a large group of us (24 passangers on boat and we had a group of 13 or so) playing drinking games for the rest of the evening. As it was getting late it began to rain so we moved downstairs and before long were in bed.

The morning after we all got woken up by Helen and Luke preparing breakfast right next to us so was easy to get food. I went up on deck and was met with an amazing morning view of the inlet and calm sea with various boats dotted around the place then soon after Andy got the boat moving out of the inlet and into rough sea; some of us at near the front getting the brunt of the water and up and down motion of the boat. Condor arrived in Tongue Bay (gateway to Whitehaven Island) about half 9 and took Luke 4 goes at docking it onto a boy as it was his first time doing it. We got taken ashore onto Whitsunday Island, walked up to a great lookout of the island and beach then eventually got on the crystal white sand of Whitehaven Beach. Me, Ben and Nick put on our stinger suits and walked into the water and around the beach and various sand bars for a while then lay everyone lay on the beach and fell asleep; before we left loads of group photos were taken. The dingy was waiting for us on the otherside to take us back for lunch then after putting the sails up we were underway again to our second snorkel spot (we passed a small island where two eagles came to the boat and ate bread we threw to them). The boat stopped at Border Island (only boat there) and the snorkelling here was incredible. We swam around the edge of the coral formations inline with the cliffs observing the many varieties of fish and extraordinary amount of different corals for ages and having a great time diving down and splashing about as well. Back on deck we spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing and we also passed Anaicks ship Apollo before observing a spectacular sunset en route to our resting spot (the sail jived and almost took my head off in the process). Around 7 we stopped at Caves Cove on the West side of Hook Island to spend the night, having my first shower of the trip as we docked (the shower is a little dribble in the toilet room where you can only use it for a minute or two so not many had one...I don't smell!) Straight after nachos were served so ran up on deck and sat with Nick, Ben, Nat and Sarah and a few others grabbing nachos by hand from a massive plate. The goon began to flow once they were finished and waiting for Luke to serve up the steaks- they were pretty damn good and as usual I finished before half the people had got theres.haha. A bit of drinking later Andy the skipper started the world famous International Crack Ball game which involved dropping a ping pong ball from your arse into a large or small container (large first) and if you miss it you down a nasty drink prepared by me and Luke- I missed both times! Unbelievably when the ball went overboard Andy got in the dingy and motored to it (he must have a special connection with it). The other game we played was the box game (we played it in Kroombit) and the aim was to pick up a box with your mouth with your feet touching the floor then every round the box would get smaller and smaller therefore closer to the ground; I got to round two and 3 people made it all the way (including Sarah doing the splits) gaining a mdeal in the process as they did virtually pikc it from floor level. It was gettting late and many people had gone to bed and soon after everyone else did but me, Nadine, Charlie, Cecille and Daniel slept up on deck looking at the stars- I woke up after 2 hours and decided to go to actual bed as it was warmer and more comfortable.

Everyone got woken up really early, again to the noise of food, and soon went snorkelling in the place where we were stayed so just jumped off the boat. We didn't stay out long as there was little to see and everyone was tired and full from breakfast- I ended up swimming back to the boat while most of the others got the dingy. Once i put all my snorkel gear away some big narrow fish came to the boat and some of us went down the ladder to feed them bread; they were called Bat fish and was quite a surreal experience. Andy soon got us underway on the long journey home (30km- 18miles) just behind the S V Whitehaven who had docked next to us in the night but we had our motors running longer so were quite far behind. The sails were put up and we moved quicker passing through alot of rain (had to go downstairs) then a really cool rainbow; I had a go at steering the boat but the wind died down so didn't have to do much at all. The wind soon pickwed up and we caught up with the Whitehaven and overtook it before we got into Airlie Harbour at 11am, docking next to the hammer and broomstick maxi yachts. Before walkng back to the hostels we said goodbye to the crew and had a great group photo(I ended up buying it). The rest of the afternoon was spent doing much needed washing, internet time, speaking to Ben from Fraser Island and then getting ready in the room for the big night out- St.Patricks Day! We met a load of people from the boat in Beaches Bar at 7.30pm, had a pint then went to Subway again before coming back to see the skipper was there and a load of jugs were on order (free of course). We were there a while drinking and having fun (me and some others got drawn on alot) before going to Shennanigans then Juice Bar for the rest of the night having a shot with every pint and making it home around 3ish.

Well thats up to date with the Whitsunday trip finally

Will update very soon on Magnetic Island stuff.

Cheers

Ant