Our sailing trip of the Whitsunday Islands was for 2 days and 2 nights, which basically meant one full day and two halves. We booked it through the same tour as our Fraser Island trip - Koalas. We didn't set of until early afternoon the next day. While we were waiting for the briefing we had to go and hire our stinger suits. They're kind of like wet suits, only much thinner, and are meant to protect you from jelly fish in the sea. Once we had sorted all our stuff out we had the welcome meeting where we were given our room keys and our snorkels. There were us 8 going plus the others we met on Fraser island. That made 12 altogether which was good because we got two rooms to ourselves. After the meeting we walked from the hostel up to the harbour to get on the boat. It was a bit of a hot journey but we were all looking forward to the trip. We had booked to go on the 'Pride of Airlie', but because there were so may people they ended up taking two boats and we were on the Pride of Airlie Blue, or the 'Kora.' This was alot better because this was only a slightly smaller boat, but there were a lot less people on it so there was loads more space. We didn't really do much on the first day; just sailed straight to South Molle Island where we spent the nights. We decided to do a trip where we didn't have to sleep on the boat because that would probably make me feel a bit sick! The journey took a couple of hours so we still saw a lot of the other islands and had time to have a couple of drinks on the boat.

When we arrived on South Molle Island we were shown around the resort and then checked into the rooms. The island where we were staying was really pretty but the rooms were quite basic - our bathroom didn't even have a door! It didn't matter though because we just dumped our things and pretty much went straight down to the bar. We had steak and salad for dinner which was quite nice. All the food for the weekend was included, which was good because we didn't have to worry about any of that. The first night was really good and everyone had a brilliant time. There was happy hour for about two hours, and they put on some drinking games and things. It was great fun!

We all had an early start the following morning. Breakfast was 6.30 to 7 am and we had to be on the jetty to leave at 7.15. Apparantly if we were late they would leave without us, but we didn't end up leaving until 8 anyway. We travelled around the islands for a bit on the way to our first stop, which was Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island. Eveyone was feeling a bit delicate from the night before, including myself, so I was glad when we stopped on dry land. Whitehaven Beach is beautiful and one of the most famous parts of the Whitsundays. It is a shame that it doesn't look quite a spectacular when you're there as it does on the postcards, mainly because it is so big. It was still nice though and we were there for a couple of hours. We sunbathed for a bit even though it was a bit cloudy. The sand there is the whitest, purest sand I have ever seen and the beach is really famous for it. The boys went snorkelling even though there wasn't much reef to see, but they did see a turtle and a stingray! I was so jealous, but it was my own fault for being so lazy and not going in. Later on I went for a swim in the lovely, clear sea. We all wore our stinger suits, which we didn't really need to do, but we all looked so stupid it was just funny. When we had gotten out back on the beach the worst thing possible happened - it started to rain! And not just lightly either; it hammered it down! It was really disappointing. The boys swam back to the boat, but because us girls had the bags we had to wait for the guy on the boat to bring out the smaller dingy to shore to come save us. And he took his time! We were drenched! It was lunchtime when we got back on the boat though so that made up for it a bit. I felt better once I had dried off and eaten some salad and sandwiches, but it was a bit crowded on the boat as no one wanted to sit outside in the rain. After lunch we stopped again to do some snorkelling. The weather still wasn't great but it didn't matter because we would have gotten wet anyway. The snorkelling was great and there was loads to see on the reef. You could see a bit better than when we were in Thailand as there weren't so many small fish on the surface. The actual coral was stunning too; that was until I cut my foot on it. It hurt quite a bit so I decided to get the small boat back to the main one. If only I had done that 5 minutes earlier! Once I was on the dingy the rain started to get heavy again and the waves picked up quite a bit too. I couldn't even see it was that bad! The guy had a hard time getting us back on board too. Once we had finished snorkelling we went back to South Molle. After a long day we needed to relax so we went to the main bar (not the one where the backpackers are meant to stay) where they had a pool and a jacuzzi. We chilled out there for a bit and it was nice compared to the cold sea. After having a shower we went for dinner; chicken and salad again! There was a competition where we had to make an outfit out of binbags. I didn't really make much of an effort, but Justin decided to go as Julius Caeser and made a whole toga out of it, We had a quieter night that night as we were a bit tired, and only went to the bar for a few drinks before going back to our balcony. Unfortunately I still managed to break my camera which I wasn't very happy about!

We had to get up just as early on the last day for breakfast as we had before. I was really tired because I had been up a couple of times during the night feeling ill - probably down to the chicken at dinner! I have had a weak stomach since I was ill in Thailand and as you can imagine I wasn't best pleased. We set off on the boat again for the last time, and amazingly the weather was great from the start and a complete contrast from the day before. It was nice because we could relax on the outside of the boat all day and get great views of the islands. The Wgitsundays are just one great big national park, and gorgeous to look at. It made me think I should be more impressed than I was but I think I have just gotten so used to seeing things like that it doesn't amaze me as much anymore - which is definetly a bad thing. We stopped at another island for a bit more snorkelling nut I didn;t do anythat day as I still felt a bit iffy and the salt water made me feel worse. I chilled out on the beach and had a walk around the island. We went back to the boat for lunch, then it took us a couple of hours to get back to the main land. It was really hot so we relaxed on the side of the boat the whole way. Everyone was in better spirits than the day before now the sun was out. Some things about the trip were a bit disapointing, like the food and the accomodation, but I don't think people would've minded so much if the weather had been better the main day. It was just a shame that the main focus by the staff was just put on getting drunk. I paid a lot of money because I actually wanted to see the islands, and they didn't point out anything or tell us anything about the places we went to. I still had a great time and enjoyed myself, but I think it could have been better. We arrived back at Airlie Beach later that afternoon after a good weekend, but completely knackered because of it!

to be continued..........