Next we travelled to the beautiful Town of Seventeen Seventy and stayed in Agnes Water in a stunning caravan park. Finally got to shower and wash clothes which was pretty amazing, however we got completely eaten to pieces my tiny flies! We had a little look around Seventeen Seventy, but both agreed to power on, and the next night stayed on the side of the road in a place called Salina. Its amazing where two days of driving will get you (we were now 2978km north of Sydney) and how much the weather starts to change.

We made our way to Airlie Beach to sign all the necessaries for our Whitsunday's trip to start the next day and then just caught up on some serious internetting at Peter Pan's and appreciated not having to go anywhere for a few hours!!

Our Whitsunday's trip started on the 1st of February, and we made our way down to the port in the morning to meet the rest of our group. There were 22 on our boat, The Boomerang, and 4 crew. We stayed 3 days and 2 nights out on the boat and the whole thing was fantastic. We all helped to raise the enormous sail, and cruised approx 2 hours out to sea on the first day with the boat tilted so much our feel were hanging in the water. We saw loads of Jellyfish, which I have now come to hate, if for no other reason than the beauty of the stinger suits! What actually are the purpose of Jellyfish, other than to upset everyone and look ugly?? - they make me so mad!

That evening we went for a short walk to overlook the other beaches, and then anchored about another half ano hour away so were ready for swimming the next morning. The food on the boat was fantastic, and we were all allowed to bring gour own alcohol, so had a nice evening of getting to know one another. When we woke up in the morning, we went over to the beach to swim, and play cricket, then headed back to the boat for some snorkelling. After lunch was more snorkelling, and when we got to see our first turtle! The reef was stunning and we were taken to a rare bright blue reef, which was lovely. We were hit halfway through the day with our first bit of bad weather, which actually turned out to be alot of fun. The rain hit whilst we were sailing, and as the sail was already up, we all donned the bright yellow rain coats and sat upstairs enjoying the break from the sun!

Another fun night was had, and alot of singing with the guitar (as a 'traveller', you find you do this sort of thing more than is deemed normal. I do like it, although sometimes find some people a little cringe-making with the whole enthusiasm and closing of the eyes. The Canadians are the worst! Ha. All my Canadian friends know I feel this way so I should be OK to say this in my blog!). The singing got a little sillier and we started to complete with another boat, which was actually really far away. We, of course, won - they gave up and went to bed about 9.30pm by the sounds of things, whereas I think I lasted till about 11.30pm - HARDCORE!!! We also all got very excited by the huge reef shark that was circling our boat for hours chasing the thousands of squid which pulsated their weird little bodies all around. Stupid animals - you would've thought moving away from the shark was a sensible option. Later another shark appeared which was a little bigger, and might have actually been a proper (and when I say proper, I mean human eating) shark! Wooooohh!

The final day was more snorkelling and back to dry land sadly. The trip was fab, and our group had been so lovely, that Andy Pandy and I decided to change our plans to rush off and stay for one more night in Airlie with everyone. Plus the fact Airlie is just lovely. Its a really gorgeous place and has such a good atmosphere - I would recommend it to anyone! When arriving off the boat, we all arranged to meet at 2pm to watch the missed England/Wales rugby, trying to catch a reply somewhere. With no luck, the two hardest cored fans from each team went to find out the results, and as Mos was so devastated, decided an afternoon of drinking was in order to numb his pain! We were only too happy to help, and started a 5 hour long game of 'cups' in a beer garden whislt being sung to by two wicked performers with yet more guitars! Happy Days.