Airlie Beach including Whitsunday Islands.

The Greyhound bus arrived in Airlie Beach late in the afternoon on Saturday 30th October where we were dropped off at the coach terminal with our luggage in the scorching temperatures.

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands with many sail boats in and out of the port area. We had already booked our sailing trip for 3 days 2 nights with Wings III, a newly built catamaran, leaving the following day. We were so excited knowing that we had lots to look forward to on this trip; plenty of food and drink, meeting lots of new friends, snorkelling/diving and visiting one of, if not the best beach in the world - Whitehaven beach.

As it was late afternoon by the time we got to Airlie Beach we walked straight to our backpacker accommodation called'Magnums' set amongst the liveliest nightlife in town. The warning signs were there. Firstly we waited an age to get checked in. Then we noticed it was full of drunk loud crowds of boys making fools of themselves. Great, we thought!! We had already booked and paid for 2 nights here either side of the Whitsundays trip as part of a bulk travel agent booking. Unlike just about all the other accommodation over the last 4 1/2 months, we hadn't done our research before booking. BIG mistake. Anyway after walking along the winding path and through the crowds we found our room set back in the trees which looked pleasant. We thought wrong!

We entered the dark dingy room which stunk of smelly wet boots. The decor wasn't anything to write home about unless ply-wood lined walls are your thing!!!! The room was pretty humid but we decided against switching on the fan as it was about an inch thick in dust! We kid you not. The sheets didn't look very clean so out come the sleeping bags! Unfortunately, there wasn't much we could do about the room as we had already paid for it.

After dumping our luggage in the room, we took a walk to the bar where we sat for the evening eating fish n chips and drinking a jug of beer whilst listening to a live band playing. They weren't too bad until a group of loud Aussie boys starting shouting the lyrics over the band's signing.

It wasn't too late when we got back to our room. We should have just stayed out until the early hours as it was very noisy due to the music and drunk crowds shouting. We tried to get some shut eye but kept getting woken by the stomping of feet and people being sick. It was an awful night we had but it was soon morning and we knew today was the Whitsunday sailing trip so we had a big smile on our faces. That was until Lisa entered the vomit filled communal toilet.........nice. While we didn't have a particularly big night, someone else did. We walked through the complex to find that somehow someone had managed to snap a 15-foot tree near it's base. Then it was passed a guy who was lying unconscious on a veranda and then on to the reception area.

We checked out of Magnums at 10am and took a walk to the travel agents to leave our large rucksacks as we were only allowed one small bag each on the boat.We were able to leave our luggage here free of charge for the duration of the sailing trip as we used this travel agent to book some of our tours.

Our trip to the Whitsunday Islands wasn't leaving the marina until 1pm. We had enough time to buy some beers and a carton of wine as we were told to bring our own on the boat. We soon checked in on the Wings III sail boat and boarded at 1pm with 24 other tourists. It was a very hot day with just a few clouds in the sky and we knew the next few days would be similar.

Our trip consisted of sunbathing out on a huge foredeck, snorkelling over coral and around colourful fish. At one point Mark chased a colourful fish just so he could video it; the fish soon hid behind some coral. The same day Mark swam with a turtle also capturing this on video.

During the sailing trip, Mark scuba dived and snorkelled whereas Lisa, who doesn't like her head under the water, only snorkelled. Snorkelling still gave us great views as the water was crystal clear. We have many underwater photos. Keep an eye on the blog for these along with a couple of video clips.

On day 2, we visited the amazing Whitehaven Beach that stretched 7 kilometres along the island. We had 3 hours here so swam, played games and ate and drank plenty! The sand here was like walking on flour. We have never seen sand like it. We didn't want to leave.

The highlight, or not, on day 3 was when Mark swam back to the boat alone after snorkelling to find three jelly fish inches from his face. These were the Irawangie jellyfish that had just started to hit the shoreline in the North part of the Queensland coast. He stopped mid-stroke and beckoned the crew to pick him up in their small speedboat. Despite its small size, this particular jellyfish is more poisonous and toxic than the larger box jellyfish. Although Mark had a stinger protective swimming wet suit on it was most definitely a "touching cloth" moment. Multiple stings have meant death to a number of people in the past.

The crew on our boat were a great laugh working hard to make sure we had a good time. One night a young Norweigian girl caught a small fish and decided to throw it at one crew member who was asleep in bed, he saw the funny side of it though! He couldn't find the fish as it was so small so instead he slept with it!

The boat also had a hot tub on the foredeck and sun bathing nets across the front of the catamaran. The cabins were great fun which we shared with 6 other backpackers. We were sitting in the hot tub with some of the others when Mark said "What an unbelievable trip. It is a boiling hot, sunny day. I have just swim alone with a turtle for 30 minutes and got video footage, I am sitting in a hot tube with a beer in my hand with great people......it doesn't get any better than this?". At that precise moment, Tiff, one of the crew, comes onto the deck with a shout off "I got beef nachos here if you want some!!".......priceless. Everyone cracked up laughing.......unbelievably, it just got better.

Many passengers on board suffered with motion sickness including Lisa. Fortunately Lisa had sickness tablets every day so she combatted the problem. Others were throwing up overboard but this soon stopped after pulling into a bay for the evening. We had a bbq this night followed by chatting and looking at the stars.

On both evenings the crew did a slide show presentation showing the areas we had sailed that day and also the photos taken during the day including the underwater ones which were amazing, together with the many posing beach photos.

The food on board was delicious and plenty of it too! We must have put on a few kilos in weight with the amount of food we consumed!

After spending 3 days it was time to sail back to Airlie Beach. As we pulled into the harbour it rained......unbelievable timing. How lucky were we?

We had met some great people and just wished the trip was longer as it was our highlight of Australia.

After disembarking off the boat, we checked into Magnums again for the one night! This time we had a very quiet evening with no noise but just a flicking lightbulb and a curtain that didn't fit the window properly! In true Magnums style, the room hadn't been cleaned properly. A vodka bottle top on the floor gave that away!!!

During the evening we met up with the group from the boat trip in a bar until early hours. It was a heavy night!! After exchanging emails we said goodbye and hoped to see them again along the coast during our trip.

The following day we were up and packed and were looking forward to moving onto Hervey Bay at 7pm.

The day was overcast but warm so we spent it sitting beside the lagoon reading brochures on a tour from Darwin to Ayres Rock and then Alice Springs to Melbourne.

After having dinner early evening, we were off by Greyhound coach to Hervey Bay travelling overnight for 13 hours!