15/9/9 Kroombit to Airlie Beach

We left Kroombit early after a breakfast of cereal toast and beans.....yummy!! We had the longest drive of ten hours to Airlie so after a few hours drive the journey was broken up with a game of bare foot bowls at Rockhampton. We played two ends of green bowls with bare feet as the title suggests. It was a good job no-one else was playing as we managed to send our balls across three different lanes!! It was a good laugh and broke the monotony of a ten hour journey. We passed through Mackay which is the largest bulk sugar loading terminal in the world and also a huge producer of fruits. We arrived in Airlie finally and asked to upgrade the dorm beds we had included in our sailing trip. The dorms were $27 each and a double was $85 between us but the arrogant chap on the desk tried to charge us another $50 for the upgrade. Phil wasn't accepting that and made him check with the manager who said it was ok to only pay the difference. Cheeky sods are on the make up the East coast..we have both noticed how much ripping off of the tourists is going on compared to our last visits. Anyway we checked into our room which was great with a big ensuite too then made our way to check in for our boat trip a couple of days ahead. The check in was all electronic and we ordered some beer to be delivered for us too. Airlie Beach is a bit bigger than when Liz last visited with a huge new marina being a built and a lovely lagoon area with a large grassy area around it, all very nice. Once that was sorted we were free for the evening so went back to the hostel to change for dinner. we mwt the other passengers off the bus for free nibbles and beer then had dinner together. We were in the bar until closing at midnight then went to one of the local clubs to carry on our evening, It was painfully quiet in there and we were the only few customers so we drunk our drinks and left. We got Phil a pizza on the way back and sat watching TV in our room for a while before finally going to sleep in the early hours.

16/9/9 Airlie Beach

We had a late start at about 9am and wrote our diary and edited some of our photos, then got up and ate lunch in the hostel bar. We spent all day in an internet cafe writing the blog and uploading photos as wew ere so behind again...not sure where the time goes here! we stayed till the first one closed and moved to another for a couple of hours before it closed too. Then we grabbed a very healthy McDonalds for tea as all the eateries were closing up and phil carried on uploading pictures. Liz went off to the room to pack ready for the sailing the next day and to write the diary. . Phil finally came back to the room much later feeling pretty shattered.

17/9/9 Sailing Whitsundays

We awoke early so Phil could pack his stuff ready for our sailing trip. We packed and checked out of the hostel leaving our luggage in some lockers and spent the rest of the morning in the internet catching up. Phil tried to call Vietnam to book a few things but couldn't get through. The computer Phil was using kept crashing so we had a bit of a wasted time over all. We moved to a different cafe but the music was stupidly loud and when we asked if it could be turned down we got a variety of good excuses not to "I don't know how, its company policy for this volume and it wont turn down any lower". Phil convinced them that all of that was crap and they turned it down in the end. We left to walk to Abel Point Marina where we needed to meet the crew at Glorias Cafe. We walked the half hour to get there just in time to be called to collect wet suits for the trip. We walked to the jetty and were taken to the boat outside the harbour due to its huge keel in two tenders (little boats to none sailors out there). When we got to the boat there weren't any double beds left and we struck lucky by being given a private cabin which should really cost more money...the celebrations lasted about 5 minutes until another fella got put in with us (more of a shame for him we thought though) !!! Once settled in we went on deck to meet the crew and have a briefing with the captain Aaron. he was a straight talking Kiwi chap who said strictly no speedos and we'd all get along fine. Phil had to put his mankini away for the three days!!! The frist mate was called Adele and the deckie was called Paul. All three were pretty laid back and good fun. Condor is a 24 foot long racing Maxi which has famously won loads of races including the Sydney to Hobart. The wind was pretty good and the sky a bit cloudy when we set off so we were able to hoist the sails straight away and get some sailing in. we all manned the grinders and sheets (ropes) and pulled up the sails and sailed to our first stop at caves cove on Hook island. Adele gave us a quick snorkel briefing, then we all donned our wetsuits and snorkel equipment to get in the tender and go to the reef to snorkel. The visibility wasn't perfect but there were loads of fish and coral to see. When we got back to the boat we had tea and biscuits which were really welcome. Some passengers hada hot sahower and others including us just dried off on deck then changed to warmer clothes. there was a cool breeze once the sun went down as it is still only spring. Next we sailed through to Whitsunday island and moored up in Hook Pass for the evening. Once we were moored we had a lovely meal of chicken, potatoes and salads which was delicious and there was plenty for seconds. We spent the rest of the evening chatting to the other passengers who were up as lots of people went to lie in their beds really early !! We chatted to Sam and Carrie, Andy and Rachel (from Kiddi), George, Dave all from the Uk and a Danish guy called Jannick. We were all die hards and stayed up till about midnight drinking and chatting whilst the rest of the European passengers slept downstairs. We thought what a boring lot they all were but decided to enjoy our little group regardless.

18/9/9 Sailing Whitsundays

Aaron woke us up early by starting the motors at 6.30am !! We got up to have breakfast but the gutst germans were already on thirds so there wasn't a great deal left for us...greedy b*****s!! We got ready for the day and went up on deck, it was a really lovely day again and we started by going across to Whitsunday island on the tender. Aaron then took us through the bush on a walk to a viewpoint overlooking Whitehaven Beach which was breathtaking. The beach is one of Australias most photographed places only beaten by Ayers Rock, Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The sand is silica which is incredibly soft and white against the aquamarine sea....bliss!!! We walked down onto the beach and spent a couple of hours there, swimming, paddling, sunbathing and Phil played a game of frisby. We all posed for the classic photo lying in the sea with the amazing view in the background. We walked back over to the other side of the island to be taken back over to Condor for lunch. Whilst we ate a lunch of salads, ham, cheese and bread ther were several turtles swimming around the bay. they came quite near and we could see their heads bobbing up as they surfaced to take a breath. After lunch we crossed the bay to another snorkelling area in Tongue bay. Phil had booked to do an intro dive as he hadn't got his diving certificate and log book with him because he hadn't dived for ten years. The dive boat came over to collect the divers to take them to the dive site the rest of us went out for another snorkel and the fish were fantastic again. We spent about half an hour in the water then returned to Condor for tea and biscuits. When Phil arrived back he had been out for a 40 minute qualified dive after all as the guide was happy he had enough experience to go out which he was really pleased about. He had seen maori wrasse, parrot fish, load of soft and hard coral and numerous other tropical fish. Phi lwent down to get his tea and biscuits which the germans were again devouring to themselves...needless to say they got a heavy hint to get off them !!! We both had a shower and changed ready for the evening which we spent moored at Blue Pearl Bay. we could see the lights of Airlie from there and so it would be a straight sail back in the morning if the wind was right. We were given two big plates of nachos for a snack while the steaks were cooking for dinner. One plate was shared by 20 of us and the other was devoured in a matter of seconds by guess who , who only made up another 9 people !!! We had alovely dinner of steak and salad then sat on deck having some cold beers with our group of die hards whilst the others again made an early exit. It was quite strange as the others were a group of college students so we were all suprised at their lack of stamina!!! We all stayed up playing games involving a fair bit of beer and goon, keeping the reputation of the British being big drinkers alive !!! We had a good laugh and stayed up pretty late until the last few went to bed about 1.30am after a great evening.

19/9/9 Whitsundays to Airlie Beach

Blue Pearl Bay is a marine conservation area and we went snorkelling for the last time. It was a great experience as the fish came really close to our masks as if taking a look at our faces . The fish were all reall ypretty and colourful and there were some great coral too. After we got back on the boat a few of the boys had a diving competition off the side. It was hilarious as it wasn't high enough fopr half the tricks they attempted so they all flopped in to the water ungracefully. We set off back to Airlie and had to motor in as there was no wind at all. We got back into Airlie at 11 ish and walked back into town with the others. We dropped ouer bags back into the hostel and got our other luggage out of the lockers then went to lunch with Rachel, Andy, George, Jannick and Dave at our hostel. We arranged to meet up later at the lagoon opposite for an afternoon chilling. We went to the internet for a while then went to the lagoon where we found the others lazing on the grass surrounding the pool. The Wallabies were playing the All Blacks in the Tri Nations so we all went off to either watch the match or get ready for an evening out later. After the game we all met up to have dinner as we had free nibbles and beers as we had been on a Condor trip. We had some free jugs of beer and a few spring rolls, samosas and other nibbles then ordered dinners too. We stayed there for the duration of the evening and all had a good time. It was talk like a pirate day and we all had patches and the boys all had painted on tattoos!! The boys all had eyeliner and tattoos to look like scary pirates...not too scary I must say! It was a fun night but we all checked out early as we were all tired from the sailing trip.