Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday islands

We arrived in the scorching heat to Airlie beach after a bit of a rough bus journey (again!) it was a non stop so no nice lunch break like we were becoming accustomed to or a leg stretch. The bus was relatively full but we thought we might be lucky and all get a pair of seats each but a girl wed met higher up the coast got on and neither of the other girls looked like they were moving their outstretched legs for toffee so i had to curl up and be satisfied with just the one seat for this journey!! I actually slept for most of it, having made it very clear to my new neighbour that i was not going to be very talkative or interesting! A two way relationship as she fell straight asleep too!!

So it was so so hot in Airlie beach when we arrived and it was the first time we had to carry our backpacks any distance in the heat and fully clothed! It was sticky and sweaty and i was cursing everything in my day bag which seems to have gotten comparatively heavier on relation to my lightening backpack! We trigger towards to Main Street and sone ridiculously friendly ozzy grandad said we looked lost and gave us really good directions to our hostel which was only round the corner... I was kinda a bit dubious as i get huge kicks at home from giving tourists completely the wrong info, sick i know!! But we arrived right outside the door, perfect! We checked in and went to dump our bags in our ten bed dorm, it was mixed but there was one boy in amongst nine girls, poor thing! Hair straighteners and topshop dresses flying everywhere! Actually the room was a complete mess, two girls had obviously been there a while and their s*** was strewn everywhere and you kind of got the feeling that they were complete pikeys, i put all my valuables in the safe downstairs!!

We went to explore the little town of Airlie beach and it was late afternoon, so quite a nice heat. It was only really one main high street with lots of surf shops and chemists along it selling bikinis, denim shorts and uv sunglasses, all for pretty extortionate prices - ive long since given up wanting to do much shopping!! £120 average for a swimming cossie, i think not! The town kind of reminds me of Bournemouth... Lots of people and a supposed party place but really not too much going on in the soul department! We headed back to Beaches, our hostel that had a pretty good meal deal, $6.50 for a main course dinner and a wine or beer. And not a half bad main course at that, with a big choice so all good and pretty much the same cost as buying everything from the supermarket and cooking in the pretty grotty kitchen. So we had a late lunch/early dinner, i had fish and chips and it was a fair portion and filled me up :) i was feeling pretty tired that night but there was a live band playing in the bar downstairs from the hostel, a "Sunday session", so with no chance if an early night we shoved on some non sweaty clothes and went downstairs for a drink or two with some boys that were also staying there, that wed met higher up the coast, which was alright!

We spent the next couple of days in much the same way, sitting by the beautiful lagoon (read giant man made but natural looking swimming pool with no pesky sand) reading our books, writing post cards and generally chilling out which was lovely... I became accustomed to doing not very much in mission beach and am yet to shake the feeling! To be fair we had been out every night for a few days and it was really nice to catch up on sleep and have a nice chat with mum and B and find out the news from home :)

One lunchtime it was particularly hot and KV and i went in search of some food and found Wisedom Health Lab, the most amazing healthy cafe that weve come across yet! We initally went in, in search of sushi and came out with massive fruit smoothies and juices and salad wraps, toasted and banana bread, so delish; relatively priced; free mags to read and a proper friendly old bloke behind the counter! My kind of place! We went back there about three more times so that he knew our order the last time!!

We also toured the backpacker travel agents trying to find a cheap trip round the Whitsunday islands, which are just off Airlie beach. We didnt book this tour along with all our others in cairns as we thought wed be able to find something cheaper but really we only managed to save a few dollars and just limited ourselves to which ever boats had space for us as we wanted to depart the following day, oops! Although in the end we did manage to book onto Samurai, at standby prices (cheaper ones to make sure the boat gets filled) it was billed as a chilled young persons boat, age range mid twenties, which we thought was perfect as none of us could think if anything worse than being stuck on a boat with a load of pissed 18 year olds! Weirdly you weren't aloud to take either red wine - it stains the boats deck, or anything with zips onboard - apparently bed bugs favouritist place to live!

We got all our stuff packed on Wednesday night, a little backpack (my day sack has only buckles) for our two night, three day boat trip and the rest into my big bag ready for storage, that we'd managed to wangle for free! And were really hoping for an early night but those pikey girls in our dorm had apparently invited everybody and their dog to our room for a party as they'd been so s***faced the night before they'd spent their whole weeks pay so couldn't afford to go out! They had speakers blaring, people singing their own versions of aweful songs and drinking games galore. It wasnt even just us that was trying to sleep in the room, about three others were as well and it was literally the most inconsiderate thing wed come across so far on our travels. I made a mental note to not turn off my 5:30am alarm when i went to the bathroom that morning after a crap nights sleep, with my big headphones on (uncomfy fir sleeping!) and a make shift sleep playlist as my ipod was dead :( God i made a right racket, hahaha, running taps and all sorts!

We got to the harbour after paying off our costs and checking out and obviously without missing a quick iced coffee from Wisedom too! Everyone was gooned up to the max (really cheap wine boxes) and looked alright enough... No hotties for Wal but that suited me fine and it was a nice balance of young/old, english/German, couples and girls/boys so we were happy :) we boarded the boat, a 30 foot sail boat without really thinking about the sleeping arrangements or anything... And we got down just as they were dishing out a double bed fit for three. I shotgunned it for us pretty quickly! And then learned girls and boys that didnt know each other were all having to share beds together that id have classified as smaller than a single one! None were an inch over 5 foot!! So i was pretty happy as after paying £200 odd i would not have been impressed to be sharing an already small bed with some bloke, no i would have kicked up a fuss and a half!!

Before we booked the trip, we were quite worried about the weather forecast and the possibility of slightly cloudy sky's but actually on the top deck sunbathing we loved the few seconds of shade the very, very occasional cloud gave us! It was glorious sunbathing and reading my book with the sailing breeze and chatting to everyone on board! So just proof that the weather man isnt always right!! And when he is, it isn't all that half bad!

Our first stop on the boat was Whitehaven beach, which was exactly as all the postcards depict it... Gorgeous white sand that isnt actually even sand, its silica and water so clear you could see the baby reef shark and stingrays swimming in the shallows from the island lookout point some 100 or 200m above!! As its stinger season at the moment along the east coast we had to wear these super sexy stinger suits which are pretty much wetsuits and were gross, smelly and normally one size fits all!! We all looked so funny being in these giant black suits in such a gorgeous surround... It reminded me a bit of a beach in asia id seen in a magazine where the women cover all of their skin from the sun in an attempt to have a beautiful translucent complexion! Weird!! We had a nice splash about and followed a baby reef shark for a little bit near to shore but it was so hard to take a picture as it was yellowy camouflaged! Cool though! And funny that all we girls shrieked and then all ran after it!! Back on the boat we went and off to our next stop where we moored up for the evening and night and had a barbie on board. Everyone sat around drinking goon and me with my gin and tonic, and chatted and played those cringe get to know each other drinking games which inevitably ended up everyone talking about sex!! Standard stuff!! It was a nice chilled evening but a bit breezy and everyone was aware that we were scuba diving quite early the following morning!

It was a bit if a sweaty, smelly nights sleep. Three in a bed and the small detail that had been omitted from the boat brochure - no showers! Gross!!! I was covered in salt and sand and suncream, not attractive!! And we got woken up at no word of a lie 6am to blaring music, clubbing style to make us all get up... Obviously that didnt put me in the best mood!!That and the fact they didnt get my 'lactose intolerant' memo and tried to give me cocopops and full fat milk breakfast! Yuckkkk! I had jam and plain bread instead after being told i was an incumbence and given jip :/

After breakfast we all got dropped of to the nearby island beach that wasn't even sandy but just broken coral and only about 10m long and everyone was briefed on the scuba dive basics - the boat offered a free introductory dive experience. It was a lot of instructions and a hell of a lot of sarcastic "your going to dies" which didnt ease our nerves! And the millions and millions of jellyfish roaming in the sea :( yuckyyyy! I really wanted to do the scuba but was pretty scared and with so many instructions i felt quite thrown in the deep end, literally!! And yes i chickened out with the other two... I was too scared! And the thought of puncturing a lung or something and the jellyfish too, nope it wasn't happening! I had a bit of a panic attack in the sea by the beach at the jellyfish and pulled my stinger suit right over my hands and everything, s***ting my pants was quite a factual description at that moment!

We were on the little island for about three hours total, but we could call the little dingy over to us if we needed a wee on the boat or anything so that was ok. It was incredibly hot though and absolutely no shade to his from the mid day glare... Which was a little harsh as no wind or anything in our cove so we were very sweaty and disgusting when we got back to the boat for lunch, which was creamy mushroom pasta... My idea of hell! So i was made some special vegetarian sausages instead! After lunch i had a nap on the boat in the sun with a big sombrero over my face which was very relaxing, with the boat rocking to and fro slightly and a complete treat to wake up looking out at another gorgeous beach, although i was so full and couldn't possibly snorkel again... I was disappointed at the fish and coral at the island earlier so i couldn't be bothered to squeeze myself into the stinger suit again and it was this find wasn't it that everyone saw a load of turtles swimming around :( never mind though, i did see turtles in the lake at the Daintree forest! I an do glad we chose to snorkel properly on the barrier reef rather than listening to people that said we could just snorkel and see the reef on the whitsundays trip! That would have been disappointing!

The afternoon was spent napping and sailing with our legs hanging off the edge of the boat which was fun and then we parked up once again for the evening and we watched all of the fishes around the boat. The GTs scared us a little because we thought they were sharks, but were just giant fish things!! We had dinner which was more breaded fish for the vegetarian crew, four of us!! And then cheesecake for pudding, yummy! So worth the gross morning toilet trip!! And we all sat about having a glass of goon and chatting and playing a few games after dark. We cranked the tunes up and had a little disco on the deck which was funny because the boat was rocking quite a lot and with everyone being a little bit topsy i was sure someone was about to full overboard at any second! We had some group piccys and exchanged Facebook details to share, before we girls retired for the night to our three in the bed arrangement!

The next morning we were woken up at the crack of dawn again, about quarter to seven! Yuck! It felt so early after our late night, when its dark and you start early 1130pm feels like about 3 in the morning! By the time id gotten up, all of the bread had gone and no one had held any back, so i wasn't very impressed at the deck hand who does all the catering as id only told him the day before that i couldn't have the cereal and milk, so no breaky for me! We got dropped off to another beach which was just broken coral which was sharp to stand on but i found a pretty flat rock to sunbathe on! I wrote a load of pretty messages and drew pictures with all of the coral sticks which kept me amused for a little while and then KV and i went snorkling whilst i was still half asleep! We were in the water before 9am!! It was good though because i wasnt even awake enough to be scared of all the jellyfish and i just bulldozed on through them!! The fish and coral wernt great again... I think im turning into a bit of a reef snob as others came out the water saying it was excellent, but i was a little disappointed... There were some huge fish though which were cool and super friendly, about the length of my leg and they liked the little speedboats, i guess because they know they get fed there but they were funny to see!

We had lunch about ten thirty in the morning, which wasnt a minute to late for me as i was starving after snorkling! I swear though ive put so much weight on out here, i never usually eat this much at home!! Especially cheap white food like bread, potato and s*** like crisps etc! After lunch we set sail on the way home, which was slow going as there was only a little breeze but they let us all help hoist the sails up and everything which mainly involved the boys trying to look macho and the girls getting rope burn!

It took about four or so hours to get back to shore and boy was i happy when we did, i literally wanted to run to the first shower i could see and rinse the salt off me and condition my hair as it was snapping off in huge chucks! Three days of sea salt sweat and suncream did not do wonders for my skin either, so a good dash wash made me feel a million times cleaner and fresher!! And then we all scoffed massive indian curries and had a few beers at the boat reunion 'drinks' in the hope of helping us sleep on the 10 hour, overnight bus journey we had to Agnes water next...