With an overnight bus to Airlie Beach we arrived shattered early morning. To our delight it wasn't raining when we arrived. I had been particularly worried about heading to Airlie as we have a 3 day 2 night sailing trip booked around the Whitsunday Islands and all we had heard along the coast was how bad the rain was and that in Airlie it was raining constantly all day every day. Boats had been cancelled and had come back early due to the bad weather conditions, so to say it wasn't raining at that moment in time gave me some hope at least. After settling in at the hostel, I couldn't sleep and so decided to explore Airlie Beach itself. The town is pretty small but lovely. Lots of little trinket shops and cute little cafes with the marina visible around the corner of the coast. Market stalls line the some of the streets giving the place a very quaint, relaxed feel to the place. A man made lagoon sits within the town, a combination of pools and playground activities right next to the beach. The sea isn't safe to swim in due to the possibility of jelly fish being around. A wet suit needs to be warn at all times as many of the deadly jellyfish are very small and sometimes see through.

Only a small bag was permitted on the boat so early morning we stored our big bags away and set off through the town, down the boardwalk along the coast and towards the marina. Waiting excitedly to see what our boat would look like and what we'd be getting up to for the next 3 days. Summertime, our sail boat was an old 1940's fishing boat and beautiful. The boat was wooden with beautiful polished wooden decking with seating either side of the boat and shade covered provided overhead. The cabin stood towards the back of the boat but not without leaving space for a small freshwater hot tub right at the back of the boat! There were 14 on the boat plus 4 crew, the captain, dive instructor, deck hand and cook. Blow the deck was the sleeping accommodation, small seating area and the toilets which double up as a shower. The bed were of course small but you had enough room to sleep comfortably enough. The only problem I found was that having a bottom bunk you had to practically lye down before you got onto the bed and I consequently knocked my head several times!

Day 1 on the boat and we set sail for the Whitsunday Islands, a set of 74 Islands off the great barrier reef surrounded by beautiful ocean, sea life and breathtaking pure white beaches. We sailed for a couple of hours, had lunch and then set down the anchor in a small cove. We donned our very attractive wet suits, flippers and snorkel masks and jumped overboard to experience the sights of the underwater world. Beautiful coloured coral and multicoloured fishes surrounded you as you swam barely metres above. Rainbow fish, black and white, yellow, purple, Nemo and Dorey in all shapes and sizes. It really was so beautiful. We swam for hours around the coral and the coves of the island, looking for turtles too (hopefully no sharks). Unfortunately no turtles but we did see dolphins in the distance. A chance to sunbathe in the late afternoon (yes the sun was out and it was a glorious day!) before dinner and setting sail for our evening rest spot. I was woken up that evening as water came pouring down the steps from the deck above. We were in the middle of a thunder storm, which you could hear right above us. After saving my things from the water it was difficult to sleep rocking about and listening to the thunder above, hoping the lightning didn't strike the boat!

An early start the next morning before we set sail for Whitehaven beach, the most famous spot of the Whitsunday Islands. Setting anchor we took the speed boat across to shore where we set off on the short walk through the rainforest to the lookout across the beach. Hard to describe the view from the top. A beautiful backdrop of tree covered mountain hills look down on pure blue ocean marbled with golden white sand, I've never quite seen anything like it. Photos really can't do it justice. The scenery changes on a day to day basic depending on the tides and the amount of sand visible through the shallow waters. Another short walk and we were on Whitehaven beach itself. It was huge, stretching for miles before you reached the sea itself and then each way you looked along the beach it just carried on and on. The water was crystal clear but again, wetsuits were needed due to the risk from jelly fish. Back to the boat for lunch before setting out on the inflatable kayaks kept on board. Not a new experience for me and Katie after our trip down the everglades, team work seemed to happen a little easier when we had double paddles instead of just one and we went forwards a lot easier this time around haha. Off we paddled towards tongue bay, a bay renowned for its inhabitancy of turtles. Under the water they can hear the paddles splashing through the water and disappear quickly so we needed to move very slowly to have a chance of seeing them. We hung back from the group and drifted with the currently looking for any sign of a turtle head bobbing above the water's surface. Turtles poke their heads above the water to get air around once every hour. They take one breathe, duck back under, then quickly take one more breath before heading back down. Therefore you have to be quick to spot them. If you see them going back under the water, you should stand a chance of seeing them again when they come back for their second breath. It took a while for us to spot them but once we got used to what we were looking for we saw so many. Green turtles and red turtles. To begin with we just saw their heads in the distance but as we got further into the cove and just sat waiting, they came closer and closer to the kayaks. Within a few hours we'd seen them within touching distance of the kayak, their huge shells, and wrinkly head. This was probably my highlight of the trip, I loved it. They were so cute and just to be sat in floating on the ocean surrounded by these beautiful natural creatures was amazing.

Another early rise on our final day on the boat. We spend the morning snorkelling in a different area of coral and again were surrounded by small, large, colourful fish happy to be around us. After lunch we set off back to the mainland taking us around 3 hours. Although we suffered a little bit of rain on the second day the weather throughout the trip was brilliant considering how bad people had had it previously. We were very lucky and I even got burnt!