And that's that..... we are back! We had hoped to get our blog up to date before we arrived home, but there weren't many internet options in Fiji and before we knew it we were on the flight home anyway. We will endeavour to get them up to date this week though, before we really get back to reality and start working for a living again (oh god!).

Really can't wait to catch up with everyone. It's sad that the trip is over, we had such an amazing time, but it is great to be back! xxxx

And just before getting into the blog, a big congratulations to Stig and Debs!!!!!!! x

Here is an account of our time in the Whitsundays which I wrote over a week ago but wasn't able to post for some reason.....

Back in Byron Bay, in one of a million backpacker travel agencies, we were faced with a question: go for the 2 day 2 night sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands on a lovely catamaran with air conditioning, a wide-screen tv and a jacuzzi on the luxury sun-deck, or do the same trip for only slightly less on a maxi-sailing boat which won the Sydney to Hobart in about 1812 and "was built for racing, not comfort"? We chose the latter on the pretext that we wanted an authentic sailing experience and Stuart wanted to get his hands dirty grinding and tacking and such like.

And so we arrived in Airlie Beach surprisingly full of enthusiasm after a 14 hour bus journey. We checked in for our sailing experience and were told we should meet down at the harbour at 11.30 the next morning, so we spent the day recooperating before going out for a few beers and getting a good nights sleep. Then, when the big day was upon us, we headed down to the harbour where there is a convenient bottle shop and stocked up on alcohol for the anticipated booze cruise. As this was to be our last trip with the Irish before our paths were to cease crossing, and as we had tragically run out of beer on Fraser Island, we were no way going to make the same mistake again; we bought 72 beers, 2 litres of wine and a bottle of vodka. It was then time to meet the other 12 people who were to be on the trip with us and this provoked the usual spot of nerves as we kept our fingers crossed for a good crowd.... we were unlucky.... boring vibes were practically oozing out of most of them. You can't judge a book by it's cover though, can you, so we hoped they'd prove our rash assumptions wrong and headed on down to the boat. Here we met the 3-man crew, including the skipper, had our safety talk and had our first look at the inside of the boat as we baggsied our bed.... oh god! The beds were just crammed around the sides of the hull of the boat, there was a small kitchenette in the middle, two miniscule toilets (over one of which was a cold water shower which we were only allowed to use for 1 minute each a day) and two hatches to let in minimal fresh air. They weren't kidding when they said this boat wasn't built for comfort! Not to worry though, the sun had his hat on for a change and as we set sail, hanging over the side of the boat like bone fide sailors (or so we thought), morale was high......

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the heavens to open, and when you're on a sailing boat with no seating area below deck you're only real option (unless you want to go to bed in the middle of the afternoon) is to put on a rain coat and deal with it. This wasn't quite what we had in mind when we had envisaged the trip, but it was still quite cool and Stu got his chance to help with the grinding to get the sails up (the female boat hand seemed to work a lot less hard for far better results - it wasn't as easy as you thought, was it Stu!?).

It brightened up a bit by the time we pulled up beside a little bay to do some snorkelling which was really cool as there was so much to see. Stu even swam alongside a turtle. Who needs to be a "diver", eh!?! As night-time drew in though, so did the clouds and the rain really went for it that first night. The crew had put up some tarpaulin over one side of the boat so we were all huddled under there, still getting wet as it was so windy the rain just came in the sides, but whereas we took the attitude (again) of "win or lose, we will booze" and cracked opened a few stubbies, the craic really didn't get going with anybody else and we were proved right about our first impressions. The four of us persevered until about 10 o'clock, but when the skipper told us were were to be up at 6 we took the hint and retired to our bunks for a night of very rough sleeping. It was stiflingly hot but we couldn't keep the hatch open because of the rain and the boat was moving about so much in the bad weather that if we ever did drop off to sleep we were woken up sharply by things falling off shelves and banging against the side of the boat. Enthusiasm definitely wasn't as evident when we got up the next morning as it had been the day before!

Luckily for us, the sun put his hat back on the next day and actually kept it on for most of it. We spent the morning sunbathing up on deck and snorkelling and Stu did some diving with the on-board dive instructor. We then set sail again towards Whitehaven Beach which is beautiful, and we moored up to watch turtles swimming around before going onto the island for a walk along the beach (you couldn't go into the sea without a fetching stinger suit on due to it being prime jelly-fish territory). Later on that afternoon we sailed around for a little while longer, had a few beers taking in the fresh sea air and the stunning scenery and moored up in a sheltered bay for the night. Beers in hand, we went for a short trek up a hillside to swim in a waterfall and watch the sun go down before heading back to the boat for dinner and drinks under the stars.... byoodiful! (in my best Aussie accent). That is, it was byoodiful before the skipper told us all to go to bed at 10 o'clock. We felt like kids on a school trip. At about quarter to 10 we got a nice little chat from the skipper (from his hammock-like bed in the boat's sail!) to keep the noise down as the rest of the crew were sleeping up on deck due to there being no room downstairs (that was nonsense as four people hadn't turned up for the trip so there were spare beds). 10 minutes later we got a sharp, "if you can't keep it down, you'll have to go to bed" and then 5 mintues after that we got a yell to go to bed. In contrast to the night before, the night was dead calm and really warm, so below deck it was like an oven. Even with the hatch open there was no air, but we weren't allowed to sit up on deck even if we didn't speak - when Stuart tried he was told by the skipper to get back down as he wasn't allowed to go to sleep unless all passengers were below deck. Er, soz sir!

So, we got up the next morning feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, desperate to get off the boat and vowing never to spend the night on another boat, ever! I mean, if it's not cockroaches it's headmaster-esque skippers who try to suffocate you! Boats are not for us, unless they're of the luxury variety, probably not dissimilar to option 1 which we should have chosen in the first place.... authenticity my arse.... give me air con and an on-deck jacuzzi please!