I hopped on another plane from Brisbane to Proserpine, just off the Whitsuday coast and a short drive from Airlie beach. I should point out that due to the size of Australia that it is often cheaper to fly with a budget airline than to get a bus and is certainly quicker! Anyway, on arrival in Proserpine, it started to rain, giving me some indication of what the next few days would be like, although there were some patches of brilliant sunshine and it was hot regardless. I checked into the Airlie beach YHA, my first hostel since Sydney and had an afternoon of photo uploading, which took so long I still didn't have the time or the patience to write the blog, which is why I've written three posts in one go! I had an early night and scared the cleaner the next morning with my guitar practice! I wandered down the main street and booked my Whitsunday sailing trip, a 2 day 1 night trip aboard the Hammer, a fromer racing Maxi yacht, which would depart at 9am the next day. That evening though I had arranged to meet my good friend Nat from uni and her friend Alex and we went out for a few drinks to catch up before both departing on our separate trips in the morning!

Aboard the Hammer, my bed was a little thing right up in the bow of the boat, the bumpiest bit, but that didn't matter until it actually came to sleeping as we all spent most of our time on deck. Our skipper was Micko and he had 2 deck hands, Mitch and Georgie, the latter of which was originally from St. Albans. There were also 2 guys from Stevenage there, small world! Straight away, Mitch introduced the rule that anyone who said the word 'mine' on the trip had to do 10 pushups or situps, which got difficult for a few of the passengers when drinking later in the evening! I volunteered to help raise the main sail for the first time, and it took two of us to get it three quarters of the way up and two more to finish it. We were told to sit on the high side of the boat, which really does get high as the wind blows and the other side is almost in the water! Our first stop was Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday island where our small dingy with an outboard motor took us to shore in our stinger suits. The waters of the east coast are full of deadly jelly fish so we wore these wetsuit-like suits to avoid being stung. The beach was spectacular, with perfect white sand and crystal clear water. It was raining and it was warmer in the water than out so I swam for a while and then walked back in the rain through the rainforest that covers the centre of most of the islands in the area, back to the bay where we were picked up and taken back to the hammer. In the evening we sailed around the top of Hook Island whilst the deck hands prepared dinner of chicken with an apetizer of nachos. We then anchored in Luncheon bay for the night. I didn't sleep too well, predictably, and was up by 7am the next morning. After breakfast we went snorkelling in the bay over coral and swam through shoals of tropical fish. Due to both a faulty pair of goggles and my incompetance at snorkelling, I ended up downing about three times my recommended daily intake of salt and water but still went back for more in the next bay round where mitch threw handfuls of fishfood into the wateer to attract all the fish. It was so surreal to swim through the shoals and slightly unnerving but good fun! We were also joined by one huge fish, called a Humphead Maori Wrasse. We returned to the boat for lunch before starting the sail home. I once again volunteered to raise the main sail, this time by myself and getting it again about three quarters up, which I was quite pleased with. It really showed that we were in a racing yacht on the way back as we overtook loads of other boats and arrived back in Airle for a wash and an evening of drinking.

I had booked a cheap bus to Cairns for the following morning and got on at 9am, not arriving in Cairns until just after 7.30pm. Here I met Emily and Rhiannon from New Zealand again and checked into the same hostel as them. The next day, Emily and I booked onto a day trip to a gondola ride into the local rainforest. This was real, dense rainforest, albeit with conveniently placed boardwalks, and it was raining. We got a free 10min tour around one of the walks to find out about some of the amazing trees and plants which have evolved some unusual survival techniques. Gondola finished in a town called Kuranda, which is essentially one big market full of souvenir and craft shops with a few restaurants and cafes thrown. We were here for quite a while and although there was not much to do it was still a pleasant place to be. We left on the scenic railway which runs into Cairns through the Barron Gorge and we got some great views of coast. Once back in Cairns and after some cheap food we met Rhiannon and some of their other friends and went out for the night to the Woolshed bar before the girls left in the Morning.

Now I am just waiting for my flight tomorrow morning, which takes me to Sydney and I fly from there to Bangkok, Thailand. I have only seen enough of Australia to just get a feel for it and I have really grown to like it. There are some beautiful places unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. There are also some terrifying creatures. I found myself on a beach at one point staring at a green ant. I had clearly invaded it's terratory because it had it's tail end in the air in a menacing sort of way and every time I moved it followed me as if chasing me off. It's got to be a scary place if even the ants challenge you to a fight, which pretty much sums up the wildlife! I do feel at least that I get the east coast, so my next trip to Oz will have to include the outback and some time in the Northen Terratory.