And so the journey continues....following the tried and tested tourist route I headed down to Airlie Beach for the infamous and obligitory Whitsundays trip.

Airlie Beach is a compact but enjoyable little coastal town. Everyone is in mighty high spirits when they are here because they're either just about to go, or have just come back from, their Whitsundays boat trip. I met 3 really lovely girls in my dorm on the first night, which was pretty cool, so I hung out with them for the next couple of days, until it was my turn to go sailing!

Faced with an array of of boat trips to choose from I opted for a sailing boat called 'The Card' which has, allegedly, sailed in many competitions and has even been used to sail around the world a few times. We did have to work whilst on the boat as there was only a crew of 3 - the skipper, the sailing technician and the cook and we basically fell into 2 categories the 'hoisters' and the 'grinders' (if I remember correctly!). The hoisters were the boys who pulled on the ropes to hoist the sails up as far as they could go whilst the grinders, the girls, turned some handles (technical term) to hoist the sails just that little bit further and to tighten the ropes. The boat picked up speeds of 10km/hr when we were sailing, now this doesn't sound fast but believe me when you are on the boat it feels much faster. The boat has a 'safe side' and a 'suicide' as it tilts quite dramatically when you are in sail so, unless you fancy a swim or a salt water shower, you're best to stick to the safe side at these times. On the very last day, by which time the boys hands were red raw from the ropes, one of the sails actually ripped with the force of the wind.

The weather was quite warm whilst we were there but the problem was that, when we were moving, the combination of the wind and the shade from the sail completely obliterated any warmth in the sun, so everyone had to wrap up to keep warm. On deck we were often caught playing the 'chase the sun' game as we moved from place to place!

There were 13 people in total on the boat but 3 of them were the crew. 8 of us all hung out together and got on really well and then there was an older couple who, I discovered on the 2nd day, were the parents of the sailing technician. On the 3rd day I then discovered that they were also the parents of the skipper - so hang on that makes the skipper and the sailing technician brother and sister. I came to the conclusion that they were quite a dysfunctional family as they failed to mention their relationship at the group 'meet and greet' session and it took ages for anyone to pick up on the connection!

There are 74 islands in total in the Whitsundays so we clearly couldn't visit them all but we did see some beautiful islands, coves and bays where we could sail, sunbathe and snorkel. The highlights for me, other than the sailing, were White Haven Beach and Tongue Bay lookout. White Haven Beach is quite well known because it is so beautiful and has the finest sand containing silica - very good for cleaning jewellrey and your teeth (if your brave enough). Nasa (allegedly) used to ship sand from the beach to clean the glass of the hubble telescope though as it's now a heritage listed site that had to stop! The second place I liked was Tongue Bay lookout which, quite simply, has the most spectacular views - look at the photos and tell me that it doesn't look amazing!