Airlie Beach / Whitsundays

December 14th - 17th

After leaving 'Campsite Deliverance' we headed north to Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday islands and stayed at a top campsite for a few days as we couldn't book a sailing trip straight away.

Saw our first wombats one evening as pointed out by the slightly mental older aussie couple camping next to us. They shimmied down one of the palm trees next to our van like furry little burglars (the wombats, not the couple - they weren't that weird) and headed in to the camp's kitchen on the hunt for food after Sarah gave them short shrift and shooed them away.

Our 2 day, 2 night boat trip to the Whitsundays was wicked and we boarded the SV Whitehaven with 20 other passengers and 3 crew really looking forward to it. Felt a little bit like hooligans as we seemed to be the only ones with a crate of lager as well as wine, but there you go.

First day we sailed to a great snorkel spot and we all donned 'stinger suits' to avoid the jellyfish before we got into the water. Essentially they were full length burkas which made everyone look pretty foolish, but were great for me as meant I could avoid my nemesis the Sun. A few of us also topped off the ensemble with hoods as well, but we quickly got rid of these as our snorkel masks kept leaking.

Evening was spent back on board for some food and beers and we had a good chat with everyone. It was so hot that a few of us decided to sleep on deck rather than in the really poky rooms and this was definitely the right decision when we spoke to a few others the next day. Me and Sarah had been given the short straw anyway and were given the smallest room at the front of the boat to share with a couple of Dutch lads that looked like they were in Klaxons - no thanks.

Was pretty cool waking up in the morning to see the sea and the surrounding islands, even if it was at about 6 in the morning with an absolutely stinking hangover and a back like Quasimodo.

The day was spent sailing to 2 more snorkelling stops where I stayed on board with a few others as I felt so bad, passing the time by sweating heavily and staring into the distance. Sarah got stuck in though, good work.

In the afternoon we headed to Whitehaven beach after a short jungle trek in the red hot heat. The beach was absolutely drawdroppingly beautiful and we spent a couple of hours in the sea down there and all the lads had a game of footy. P Guerrieria absolutely ran the show as you'd expect although still finished on the losing side somehow - definitely down to the pitch I think.

An evening of very funny drinking games followed (always good to have a few Irish lads and a Scouser involved) and then another night was spent 'sleeping' on deck - I reckon we got about 5 hours in total over 2 nights as it was so hot.

Got up very early the next day and headed to see some very old aboriginal cave paintings which though impressive, were pretty small and not what we'd all imagined. I think someone summed it up well when they just said 'is that it?'.

We were back at Airlie Beach by 11am and the trip was well worth it - a really great 2 days.