We arrived at Airlie Beach (gateway to Whitsundays) on Thursday 4th March 2010 at 9am (only two hours late!), it all worked out in the end and after the longest bus journey yet, overnight for 12 hours we had arrived! The sun was shining and it was absolutely boiling!

We checked in with our boat company and were given lovely small hand luggage bags we had to fit our 2 day 2 night items in! No spare space on the boat as we soon saw once we arrived and saw our bedrooms on the boat!! 24 people on the boat plus 27 crew and it was cosy!!Our bedroom slept 8 apparantly! - very tight and cosy, double beds with single beds on top and across!! The boat was smaller then we expected but had seating/areas to sunbathe and chill out but only two toilets/shower rooms between all of us!! World's most complicated toilets too! You had to pump then and fill them with water and all sorts about three times each time you went so was quite a lengthy process! Not fun with 27 people was trying to get ready on a night or morning all queuing for the facilities but we survied and it helped only being allowed one shower per day and it had to last no more than 1 minute!!

The boat overall was great fun and met some lovely people, we were fed yummy food (our best meals since our last trip to Fraser!) and got to try snorkelling with snazzy stinger suits! (not a good look but makes a good photo!!) Jimmy loved the snorkelling, I was not so keen as those of you that know my love of the sea and water will know its more my fear of water than anything else but doesn't really help with the snorkelling part of the trip!!We sailed around the Whitsunday Islands - amazing and Jimmy saw some Nemo (clown fish) and a turtle while snorkelling and we even had a group of dolphins following the boat at one point! Bit scary at times as is Stinger season and deadly stingers lurk in the waters but the suits are 80% effective so all on the boat survived!

Also as part of the trip we did a bush walk up to Whitehaven beach and the highlight for me here was watching most of the group including
including Jimmy lick A GIANT GREEN ANTS BUM!!! Aboriginal medicine for vitamin deficiency apparantly and has a lemon zest taste!! The walk led us to Whitehaven Beach - AMAZING!!! Our photos do not do it justice but really was a magic place to be, the sand was so fine and white and the sea so clear and absolutely boiling but again no swimming without stinger suits which was the only downside to this time of year! We also attempted to play rounders here but was so hot after one bat each and only 6 of us playing the game ended! The second night was pretty choppy compared to night one so were rocking about a bit but overal a great trip and met some lovely people and had a good laugh!

After two days and two nights at sea we arrived back on dry stable land at Airlie Beach, also a lovely place, nice and hot and we spent most of our time chilling out at the lovely man made lagoon area across the road from our hostel!The temperature of the pool was like a bath! We also had a night out organised by the boat the night we arrived back so we could catch up with everyone again and had a cheap meal and few free drinks!Overall a lovely place with great weather if not a bit humid for the boys!! Next stop Townsville!