Friday 18 July. After a free sleep in the van in the car park of Koala's Hostel we moseyed on in and grabbed ourselves a free shower and Vicki managed to get us two free cups of tea, pretending that she was in the group off to Fraser Island that morning. We fired Sheila up much to the protests of the starter motor that sounded like Pat Butcher after smoking 40 Marlboros. Little did we know but that would be the last time it would ever turn over again. We drove north to the town of 1770, the only numeric town in the world. Very picturesque place with a lovely beach in the sister town of Agnes waters. This is the last place heading up the east coast that you can surf as the Great Barrier Reef starts soon after. We arrived in the afternoon but after looking round then making some phone calls home it was quite late and all shops were closed. We got to a pizza place just as it had closed so no dinner for us tonight. The van now refused to start at all so I pushed the not so light Sheila and Vicki bumped her. Some drunken lads gave us a hand then we gave them a lift to the local pub for $20, easy money. They told us to drive back and pick their mates up but charge them $30. Their friends had ran the whole way though and were only five minutes behind. In the morning we decided to book a surf lesson but after looking at the non existent swell and talking to a Dutch couple who surfed we decided we would wait till the west coast to don our boardies, rash vests and slide the rip snorter waves of love man or something like that. We lazed all the following day on an empty beach in Agnes and sunned our white bits. That afternoon we bumped Sheila again and drove to Rockhampton as we needed to get internet access at one in the morning to skype home and speak to everyone at Thraves Fest 2008. Rockhampton was the next big town and had an airport so we were going to try and get online there. We ended up staying in a motel which claimed to have wireless but our laptop wouldn't connect from our room so we used two PC's in a store room instead. We were eagerly online and waiting at 1am for our skype call. At 1.30am we called Sid on his mobile and found out that they had forgot the laptop (bloody useless pommy gits). Two hours later we managed to get a skype call going but the call quality was so bad we couldn't hear any speaking and only got an odd glimpse of peoples faces. We could however talk via typing to each other so this was great. We talked to several people and finally went to bed just as the sun was rising at just gone 5am. $100 for 5 hours in a bed. We had to check out at 10am so it took several half ass tired attempts to bump Sheila in the morning. Two chambermaids eventually gave us a hand and we swore we would get her fixed the following day as it was now Sunday. We drove north to Mackay and on route Vicki screamed with delight as she had spotted our first wild koala up a tree. We hung a u-turn and drove backwards and forwards trying to find this tree, they all look the same and we had whizzed past at 100km per hour. We finally found the koala, it had now climbed right to the top and was looking at us dubiously as we bounced around at the base of the tree not believing that we have been here for six months and we had finally found one. We arrived in Mackay and both had cravings for a fry-up so we purchased far to much food and cooked a fried breakfast for dinner on one of the many free barbeques that are all over Oz. These barbeques are like huge hot plates and you just press a button and they stay on for about fifteen minutes, they are dotted around most picnic areas and beaches. You can put a saucepan on them to so we cooked beans and scrambled eggs in pans and threw bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes on the hot plate. Yum scrum. Vicki called home in the evening and whilst she was on the phone I was trying to catch this lizard. I was putting a magazine on the floor then chasing it with my other hand then trying to scoop it up. The lizard ran under my foot so I moved my feet apart slowly as not to splat him and he had disappeared. I turned round in several circles looking for him with a bemused look on my face then looked down and he was on my chest centimetres below my chin. I scooped him off onto the magazine and he looked around then ran to one corner of the magazine that had brown writing on it the same colour as his skin, he then sat their thinking I couldn't see him, pretty smart lizard, well I thought so, small thing and small minds and all that. After the phone call we bumped Sheila, she wasn't getting any lighter and cussed that we would find a garage first thing in the morning. We slept as per usual in a posh residential area. In the morning the ground was wet and pushing Sheila with no hills was proving to be a pain in the arse. After three attempts of slipping and sliding and not quite getting enough speed up, I fell and grazed my knees as we were trying to bump start her in reverse, I slipped and just held on to the bull bars with not enough energy to pull myself up so I was slowly dragged along the wet gravely road. All I could hear were roars of laughter as Vicki couldn't contain herself, all she could see were my fingers and one bob of the head as I tried to pull myself up. After I had got my breath and Vicki's eyes had stopped leaking we managed to get her going then found an auto electricians. The garage only had three starter motors in stock and luckily enough one was the same as ours. They sorted her with in an hour and we were on our way with the luxury of a key to get going. We drove to Airlie Beach which is where the boats depart from for the Whitsunday cruises. We knew that our Fraser Island party were also on boats at around the same time so wondered if our paths would cross again. As we pulled up outside the Koala hostel we spotted Liz and Lindsey sat outside. They burst out laughing as they had just been talking about us as we rounded the corner. Liz and Lindsay had up graded their boat as they didn't want to go on the booze cruise that they had unintentionally booked. They now had two spare tickets that they had advertised for sale around the town. We decided that we need to do some laundry so at the laundrette we pushed a $20 note in the change machine expecting the jingle of dollar coins that are usually spat out in theses circumstances but much to our surprise the machine spat out a five dollar note then another then a ten dollar note then our original twenty. Wow double your money. We hastily fed the machine the twenty again but we received coins. We then tried again with the two fives and the ten but to no avail. Two French lads were watching us very intrigued as we now stood with forty dollar coins in our hands. We walked away and as we were loading the washing into our washing machine the French guys had torn up a receipt and were poking it into the change machine and sure enough were rewarded with two fives and a ten dollar bill. We returned to this machine several times that day but never got any more freebies, we just spent the evening wandering around with about one hundred dollars in change in our pockets. We had drinks with all of the guys we had met on Fraser Island as some of them had just returned from the islands and the rest were going out the following day. The weather forecast for the week was shocking, lots of rain and wind so we had open ended our ticket and also upgraded from the party boat to a maxi sailing yacht. Liz and Lindsay had still heard nothing from the adverts for their spare party boat tickets so said to us that if nobody wanted them by the morning when they headed out then we could have them for free. What lovely lasses! We met them in the morning and sure enough nobody wanted to buy them so we were bound for a free three day cruise under the names of Liz and Lindsey. The girls sat in our van with us and had some breakfast and also gave us some bread, a bottle of beer, some jam and a colouring book before departing on their voyage. The next day when our free boat was due to depart the weather was appalling with wind and rain so the boat was cancelled. We arranged (under our new names) to open end the ticket as we had the luxury of not having to be anywhere at any particular time. We would just bum around till the sun came out. For the next three days the bad weather continued and we lazed in the van reading books and caught up on editing vids and pics. On Friday 25th July we booked our free trip as the sun was out, we also went to a travel agent and as we had no money left we decided to flex our plastic and booked white water rafting on the Tully River, a 14000ft skydive with an independent camera man filming our jump and a three day camp at Ayres rock, Kings Canyon and the Olga's. We met with Liz and Lindsey as they had returned from their stormy, sea sickness of a cruise. We spent the evening together drinking hot chocolate and watching the sun set, then said our goodbyes as they were leaving to head up north in the morning. We only knew the girls for two weeks but they will be sadly missed, we will definitely be looking them up when we return home and taking them out for a meal as thanks for the free boat trip. The following morning we met the rowdy crowd that would accompany us on our Whitsunday booze cruise on the boat The Pride of Airlie. Needless to say most were Irish and already half cut. We left the marina at 3pm and headed straight for south molle island and the pride party bar. The journey to the island took two hours and consisted of lots of oggy oggy oggying, football songs, spilt beer and high fiving burps (and that was just Vicki). If you said the word 'mine' you had to do ten press ups. On arrival to the island, belongings were dumped in hostel rooms as we slept on the island both nights with this boat, and all headed to the bar for cheap drinks and sticky tables. Everyone was shocked when we were told breakfast was at 6am and the boat left at seven. In the morning most people were still drunk and carried on the partying, dismantling snorkels and cutting the bottoms off plastic bottles then fixing the bottle to the snorkel tube, placing a beer in upside down and sucking. Ummmm breakfast. We went snorkelling, beer cans detached, on a reef for an hour then went to Whitehaven Beach. This beach has the whitest sand we have ever seen and it squeaks when you walk on it. We spent a few hours here playing beach games, swimming and sun bathing. On returning to South Molle Island we saw several humpback whales and some dolphins. us oldies decided we would give the party bar a miss tonight and we watched the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence' at a different bar on the island that was having a film night. The next day we went to a sand bar (not the type that sells drinks) on Langford Island and went snorkelling in search of turtles but didn't find any. We spent a bit too long on the sand bar and we realised that every one else had left. We ran back towards the boat we thought was ours just as it unloaded its last tender load of passengers, started its engine and sped off, with us whistling and waving for it to wait. It turns out our tender was just a bit further down the beach looking at his watch and laughing to his self as we waved at the departing vessel. On the trip back to the marina we did see more whales. When docking one Irish guy who had been really pissed and loud for the entire trip (he had grown on us, at least he was a consistent clown) fell over, then his hat blew off and went in the water. He stumbled up and half fell half climbed over the side into the water, on the way down he hit his head and cut his eye on the side of the boat. He was okay and seemed quite proud of the fact later when he was showing off his shiner. We were so glad we upgraded our original trip to a sailing boat as although this was fun as a free trip we would have been disappointed if we had paid full price. As the sun was showing no sign of disappearing we went straight to the booking office and arranged to go out the following day on the sailing boat. We were expecting to pay around $100 each for the upgrade, $50 insurance and a $33 reef tax as this is what we were quoted when we originally upgraded. The agent said 'its just the $33 each reef tax to pay is that right'. YES we both said in unison, we just seem to land on our feet all the time. Better born lucky than rich. We departed on our maxi yacht at 8.30am the following morning and as the wind was blowing strong we put the sails up, and headed towards the 74 islands on the fastest sailing boat in the Whitsundays, The Card. In the morning the islands in the distance appear to be floating just above the water due to the air being cool and the water warm or something like that, very strange anyhow. We saw a huge pod of dolphins swim past us and more whales before stopping at a section of reef for a two hour snorkel stop. After, we went to the Langford Island sand bar that we had visited the previous day, still no turtles. The vibe on this boat was so relaxed, just what we had imagined our Whitsunday cruise to be like. There were only 23 people on board compared to the 70 odd on the Pride of Airlie and not the faintest trace of a football song or a high five. That night we pulled into a secluded bay just as a brilliant sunset cast across the water. We had barbequed barramundi, a few drinks then slept in bunks swaying gently with the swell…. Just swell. The next morning we went to Whitehaven beach but this time we approached it from behind and once dropped ashore rambled through the bush to a look out displaying fantastic views of the white sand and an inlet that is all swirly with different depths of turquoise water. We then spent a couple of hours sunning ourselves on the squeaky sand before heading of for another snorkel at a different reef. That evening our boat docked at South Molle Island destined for a messy night of drinks at the dreaded Pride Party Bar. We were very surprised as our chilled out small group of 23 were louder and drank more than the 70 odd Pride of Airlie party boaters. On the way back to sleep aboard our boat our skipper (Spacey) who was also very sloshed had to cut the rope on the tender as he couldn't work out how to untie it, then had to jump in and save one of the Irish lads who fell of the ladder from the pier. Most people were nursing hangovers the following morning so all we done was sail to a nearby reef and laze in the sun and snorkel. We took the little tender out and threw lots of bread in the water. Hundreds of zebra and parrot fish swarmed around us in a feeding frenzy. On the way back to the marina Spacey spotted a large white object in the water and thinking it was a boat canopy we headed off to retrieve it. As we drew closer it was a whale lying on its back. We all thought it was dead but then just as we were meters away from it, it turned over stuck its huge tail in the air and swam under the boat. It must have been sunbathing. We were told that would probably be the closest we would ever see a humpback as by law boats have to stay a fair distance from them and we were told not to tell Spacey's boss! We docked at the marina and once on dry land realised that we had sea legs from being on the water for the best part of six days. That evening we all met up in a local bar and were supplied with free beer jugs. What a fantastic experience, and contrast between both boats. A huge thank you to Liz and Lindsey for our free tickets on the Pride of Airlie.