Hello from Airlie Beach (again!)...I've been here for ages! Really ready to move on now but I stayed an extra couple of days to see Graeme, my friend from uni who got here last night. I leave tonight on a 16 hour bus (fun!) for Rainbow Beach and the next part of my adventure.

The highlight of the last week (and one of the highlights of my trip so far!) was a sailing trip I did around the Whitsunday Islands...absolutely amazing! I got on the boat not knowing anyone so that was a bit daunting but I soon made friends with a great group of girls there. Our boat was called the Boomerang(!) and was a huge ex-racing sail boat. We set sail on a cloudy day but by the time we got out to the islands the weather was beautiful (apart from choppy water, thought I might be sick!) and we did some serious sunbathing before hitting the water for some snorkelling. I love snorkelling now, it's so relaxing! Us girls didn't quite grasp the concept of not being able to talk to one another with a snorkel in our mouths and kept shouting to one another! We anchored in a quiet bay for the evening and watched a beautiful sunset before being treated to really tasty food and having a few drinks.

Fell asleep in my bunk below deck and woke up roasting hot, not nice! We set sail again and headed for Whitehaven Beach...was blown away by how beautiful it was when we got there. The water was a really bright blue (like the pic) and the sand was so white. We had a nice swim in the water but had to wear wetsuits to stop us being stung by jellyfish, they weren't very attractive! We spent a couple of hours chilling there and then went back to the boat for lunch. In the afternoon we went somewhere else for another snorkel after doing a lot of sailing, I loved it so much...everyone said tehy were really glad to be on a sailing boat.

On the 3rd morning we headed back to Airlie Beach in the pouring rain..noone cared though because we had 2 beautiful days before. Spent the afternoon catching up on sleep and then went out for drinks at night at our hostel.

5 of the girls from the boat stayed on in Airlie for Australia Day on Monday...definitely one of my favourite days in Oz so far! We all bought Australian flags and dressed up in them over our bikinis...the outfits were definitely a hit! We met some OZzie guys in the bar and spent the day with them too. Randomly in the bar they were playing Scotsport and i got to watch Aberdeen v Rangers, that was a bit strange!! I'm glad I stayed in Airlie for Oz day because I've heard some other places were pretty quiet, Airlie was the opposite! Such a good atmosphere...think we need a day in Scotland that's all about celebrating being Scottish!

The next day we chilled out most of the day. Liv and Steph left so that was a bit sad as they are heading north and I'm heading south but so are Zoe and Kathryn, 2 girls from London so I'm going to do the next bit of my travels with them, until Brisbane probably. Next on the itinerary is Rainbow Beach, from where I'll do my Fraser Island trip. My friend Graeme has just come back from there and loved it so I'm really excited now! Just have to go through a 16 hour bus journey to get there, not looking forward to it but I'm really tired so hopefully will sleep a lot.