A twelve hour overnight bus journey landed me in Airlie Beach; gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. From here I plan to see the Whitsundays as well as the Great Barrier Reef.

The town of Airlie itself is a tourism haven so thankfully the trips that I had booked for the next two days took me away from this. The first of which was a ferry ride around a group of 74 islands, collectively known as the Whitsunday Islands, with the opportunity to stop at a few. The first stop was Daydream Island. The island is small measuring 1km in length and 400m at it's widest point. A resort and spa fill the island and the beach on one side hosted three mermaids made of bronze valued at $80,000 a piece; it was all very exoctic.

Second stop was Hamilton Island. It is the largest inhabited island of all the Whitsundays even boasting it's own runway. Mainland motor vehicles are prohibited on the island and transport needs are mostly served by a fleet of hundreds of golf buggies! It is also home to the rich and famous, rumours have it that stars such as Julia Roberts own property here. During my visit to the island, as well as visiting a lookout point, I also took a dip in the swimming pool at the main resort amidst it's rich inhabitants!

Whitsunday Island was the final stop and the main highlight too. It is the largest island in the Whitsunday group of islands. The reason for the visit here is the spectacular Whitehaven Beach. Voted one of the top ten beaches in the world, it remains completety unspoiled and uninhabited. The pure white sands are 98.9% silica and the waters are crystal clear - I went for a swim in the water, it was lovely, but due to the time of year being stinger season, I had to fashion a neon stinger suit (not attractive in the slightest)!

The next day was my second trip and it took me to the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. It can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. The reef's structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps. In 1981 it was selected as a World Heritage Site.

The big boat took me 2.5 hours out to sea to an area of the reef called Knuckle Reef where a pontoon, equipped with a water slide, underwater viewing area, submarine and a glass-bottom boat, waited for me to board and explore. After a ride on the glass-bottom boat, I stepped into a wetsuit, loaded myself up with flippers, goggles and a snorkel and jumped into the choppy, but warm, water. Knuckle Reef is one of the shallower reefs which means it is more easily viewed from the surface; there was so much to see. The coral was amazing and some parts really were as colourful as the photogaphs! I saw a lot of fish; I couldn't find Nemo but I did see Dory. I also tried to dive down to swim with a massive fish known as a Humphead Wrasse but I couldn't quite hold my breath for long enough. There were so many schools of fish too that liked to hover below the pontoon; they sparkled in the sunlight.

The trip back turned ino a bit of a nightmare with one the boat's engines breaking down. Still being fairly far out to sea, the water was extremely choppy and only moving at 3 knots made this so much worse. Eventually, the rescue boat arrived, but, unfortunately there was still at least two hours of the journey left...