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Airlie Mon 30th nov
On arriving into Airlie we have our first experience of a Pretty Crap Hostel. First off we are told there is no free wifi – which doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but it had swayed us slightly in choosing to stay there as we could catch up with all our e-mails/bookings etc (the internet is pretty expensive over here). Nevermind – we could get over it. Contrary to this though, we have a run in with the manager. We think it is reasonable to want a patio door that actually locks in our room - apparently this is too much to ask! Needless to say – we of course win (small but brutal i tell you) and are given another room to move to! We are sure the manager now has it in for us. Great!
Our first night entails meeting up with Luc and Rick from the hostel in cairns for drinks. They had just returned from their Whitsundays sailing trip – hearing about their adventures got us excited for our trip the next day. This is likely to be the last time we see them as they are making their way to Adelaide to begin their studies (they are both medics!)
Tues 1st dec
Trip to paradise!
Whitehaven Express day trip
First stop hillside inlet lookout point – here we are attacked by horse flies – nasty big flies, the size of big bumble bees. Once they land on you, after about 3 secs they insert their sting and bite you! Cue lots of arm waving and jumping about.
The lookout offers phenomenal views of the surrounding bays, in particular white haven beach! Such vibrant colours, crystal clear waters and bright white sands!
Whitehaven beach - as the boat pulled up, we were given the option of donning a stinger suit (head to toe lycra suit, including built in gloves) to protect from the jelly fishes and swimming to the shore. Quite a few of us decided to go for it, it was a little further than expected and the stinger suits weighed you down when they got wet – but we’re glad we did it. We’ll never forget just sprawling on the bright white sands once we’d made it. Time for BBQ lunch by the beach – delicious. Managed to have a giant lizard circle us and numerous black crows move in closer (HUGE crows ! They even started to look through some peoples bags!) Also became a little concerned about what was moving amongst the leaves around our feet! We were all a little on edge
Time to enjoy the beach
Due to the constitution of the sand (99.6% silica) it has one particularly amazing property of being able to polish jewellery! 5 mins of rubbing our wedding rings, they are gleaming again! Fantastic!
Boarding the boat was a little tricky as the wind direction had changed and the motorised dinghy struggled to get to shore. Ever so graceful boarding of the boat, the skippers just haul us in, so we are in head-in-bum-up-in-the-air positions! Final stop for the day, an area of reef to snorkel in next to Hook Island! We are given a briefing on snorkelling safety and told to identify ourselves if we haven’t snorkelled before! I of course shoot my hand up in the air...and im told i’ll be given a lesson. Well, by the time I have my stinger suit, snorkel/goggles and flippers on – everyones in the water. So i decide to just go for it!
Everyone has opted to use a ‘noodle’ float – which is brilliant! The lesson seems to go out the window, Andy swims over to join me and off we go hand in hand! Its amazing to see the whole underwater world. We see lots of brightly coloured fish and a few raaaaather large ones! After just under an hour bobbing around in the water, we head back to the boat. It has been a brilliant day – from what we have seen of the Whitsundays, they really are paradise! The water conditions that day are particularly choppy due to the wind directions, so we have a pretty bumpy ride back to the marina! At one point the boat was taking on quite a large amount of water!
After our sailing adventure we met up with Jen and Chris, who have been in Airlie for a few days. We head out for drinks and spend the rest of the night catching up on our recent escapades, plans for the next few days....and of course swapping wedding stories! Its great to meet people who are in a similar situation to us. A great night out! We make plans to catch up again our next destinations
The next day is spent lazing around the lagoon! We manage to see Jen and Chris again before they head off that night on the overnight greyhound. We also end up sitting with Stefan (from Cairns) for drinks in the eve, we see a girl we sat with travelling from mission beach to Townsville....and we even see a girl who stayed at our hostel in Fiji!! Its a small world.
Apart from trips to the Whitsundays, there itsnt a great deal to stay in Airlie for. The Lagoon is brilliant, much bigger than the one in Cairns. Also, there is a lovely feel in the town, with lots of little clothing/surfing shops, cafes and a couple of bars to satisfy the drinks cravings! You could spend easily spend a fortune here.
We don’t do a great deal for the rest of our time in Airlie, apart from trying to plan the coming weeks. Our departure from Airlie sees us taking our first overnight greyhound trip down to Hervey Bay...just 13 hours away....
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