Hey everyone!

Hope you are all well and that you are not having rain anywhere near as bad as we have over here!!!

So the tour that I was hanging around for got cancelled as they didn't have enough people, so plan b kicks in, i am going it alone! Travel all booked and sorted, now I am leaving in a few days time.

The next day three of us headed off to Port Douglas, the scenery on the drive up there was fantastic, we stopped at the side of the road and headed down over some rocks to the beach, it was stunning, the water was far out you struggled to see it. We saw lots of star fish which was pretty cool, I've never seen them like this before and a very colourful big crab! In the distance was also some mangrove trees, it was a wonderful place. The nice thing about not going as part of a tour is that you can just stop and explore places as an when you see them. Next we stopped at the viewpoint, the view of the costline was something else, we were hoping to get back here in time for sunset. After a couple of hours we reached port douglas, a lovely little town. We stopped for a quick drink and then headed off to Mossman Gorge. The river ran through huge boulders, the current very very strong so we had to be pretty careful when swimming in it. Apparently someone earlier in the day had ended up going down the rapids - not having planned to!!! It would be fair to say the water temperature was very refreshing - it was freezing! The sunset on the way back was lovely. We got back to the hostel by about 8pm, I then got roped into doing the 3 legged egg and spoon race to win free beer! We were a disgrace and were disqualified! All I will say is using a ping pong ball rather than an egg doesn't work!!! About midnight i staggered back up to bed.

Feeling slightly fragile the next day I headed into to town - it was GoPro shopping day - yay!! After haggling to get free stuff with it I finally got one and it's brilliant!!! I got up the next morning at 5:30am so go for a skate down the esplanade at sunrise - it was well worth getting up that early! A brilliant start to the day! In the afternoon it was time to pack and test out the camera in the pool - that ended with some hilarious results!

So today I said bye to cairns, it's been a really fun few days and I have made to great mates there who I was sad to leave..... It's my first trip on the greyhound, and we are off to Townsville and then on the ferry to Magnetic Island for a 2 nights.

Once i arrived (after missing the bus at the ferry terminal!) I dump my stuff and the head off to do the Fort walk. The walk took about 3 hrs and was incredibly hot , the views once I got to the top where magnificent and I made it to top in time for sunset which was stunning, as you will see from the pictures. Magnetic island is beautiful, a mixture of lush greenery and huge boulders and bays. In the evening I had my free 'welcome' jug of beer and the joined in the quiz -we came 2nd.

The next day I went on the wildlife tour which was great, I held a black cockatoo, turtle, snake and koala ( sorry mum it took so long to get you a picture!!) I didn't fancy holding the baby croc though! At lunch time we headed to the beach to do our first Aussie BBQ, it was brilliant, although we were melting whilst cooking it! In the afternoon armed with our snorkelling gear and stinger suit we headed off to Florence bay for a spot of snorkelling. After a very hilly walk there we discovered the sea was really rough, we gave it a go but it was way too rough so we gave up. We then had a very long walk back, a local took pity on us and gave us a lift back to the hostel. Again I met som fab people on the island and some that I will be meeting up with again which will be great!

Departure day and it is absolutely chucking it down! Yep it's definitely rainy season!
After about 5 hrs we reach airlie beach and it's raining even more!!! Airlie beach looks like it's going to be fun! Loads of bars!!!!! The next day it's still raining but there are a few breaks in the rain so I managed to get out and about and see the beach, in the afternoon I treated my feet to a pedicure, the poor things are not happy about the weight of my rucksack!!! In the evening I met up with Matt and Gary who I met in magnetic island for a few drinks who and had a very funny night, we ended up in a bar called paddy shenanigans which was hilarious and then ended up in McDonald's at 2am!

Yay! today is the start of the whitsundays sailing on the Solway Lass. The Solway Lass is 112yrs old this year and was a pirate ship. The group on the boat were great, a really nice mix of people, 30 guests in total. The crew were also fab! The boat was amazing, I was very impressed! We even had some sun today which was a pleasant surprise, we even made it into the net at the front of the boat which was quite difficult to get into and even harder to get out of! Today we sailed to macona inlet where we anchored at for the night. I had the best night sleep. In the morning all the sails went up and we set sail for tounge bay where we would visit the world famous whithaven beach. Again armed with our stinger suits, trust me to be out here in the height of the jelly fish and rainy season. We arrive at tounge bay and get the tender to the shore( it's still not raining whoop whoop!!!) we made our way to the viewpoint above whithaven beach - wow wow wow!!!!!!!!!!! The views were stunning, I know I keep saying this, but everytime I go to somewhere like this it's more incredible than the last thing I saw. The beach and swirling sands were incredible and the colour of the sea was beautiful blue - can't wait to get in the sea! We headed down to the beach, the sand is the whitest I've ever seen and so fine, it also doesn't get hot as it's 98% silica, they actually use this sand to make the glass for the Hubble telescope. It's also very good for exfoliating! It's by far the best beach I've ever been too and will be hard pressed to beat this! We put on our really attractive stinger suits and ran to the water. It was such a fun day! We headed back to boat and the set sail for for Stonehaven anchorage where we would be spending the night.

Today is diving!!!!! We headed out to Bluepearl Bay where we we're got straight into the dive. Rusty is not the word for for diving skills, I had an absolute nightmare, mask didn't fit, couldn't maintain buoyancy and was all over the place! But once I had stopped panicking I managed to see nemo, loads of other fish and the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. I also managed to use my GoPro and get some ok pictures. Glad I did it. In the afternoon we went off to Black Island for some snorkelling. This was great and I saw lots more really colourful fish who were quite inquisitive and came really close. We didn't stay in the water for too long as it was raining really hard and got quite cold believe it or not! In the evening we sailed to South Mole Island and anchored in Bauer Bay (not where the skates come from :) )

Really sad that today is the last day, it's been a blast and I've made more great friends. We went on a bush walk to today in the torrential rain, I've totally ruined my converse :( we made it to the view point and saw the other side on the whitsundays Islands, a huge array of Islands and different coloured channels of water. Well worth the walk in the rain. I also had a bracelet and anklet made by one of the crew, it's called a turks head knot which is never ending. A special souvenir from a special boat and special 3 days, this has certainly been one of my many highlights of the trip so far. In the evening The crew and boat gang have some farewell beers before I head off to get the greyhound bus at midnight......next stop Agnes Water......

I'll write again soon

Lou x