Hi all, Well what can I say? They say you learn a lot about yourself when you go travelling and I learned a big lesson yesterday. We'd booked ourselves a cruise from Airlie Beach (Shute Harbour) to Daydream Island, Hamilton Island and Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. The journey from Shute harbour to Daydream was fine. We got there in 15 minutes and got off to see a lovely small resort and spa, inhabited only by a few holiday makers and loads of exotic wildlife. It was as close to paradise as I could imagine. After an hour or so, we boarded the boat to Hamilton Island. We'd been told there was a rough patch of sea we had to cross and that we'd get through it in 10 minutes. Well, I was sitting outside when we hit the rough waters and i thought I was going to get thrown out of the boat. I gripped the rails hard and told Martine I wouldn't set foot on a boat again! We got to Hamilton island but I couldn't really appreciate things too much because I was still a bit shaken from the boat ride over. It had brought back all the memories of my rafting accident in Zimbabwe. Anyway, I DID get back on the boat, mainly because I wanted to see the beach that's 99% silica sand. It was a truly amazing sight. 6km of unspoilt bright white powdery sands and not a soul in sight, except the people from the boat trip. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't being kind to us and we had to run for cover when the skies opened and chucked buckets of water down but thankfully we got a good 30 minutes of sunshine out of the hour we stayed. But the boat trip on the way over was terrifying and even more mortifying was that I started crying on the boat!!! the friggin' skipper then decided the best place for me was in the driving seat so not only had about 10 people spotted me silently wiping away tears, i then looked like the kid who got to see the cockpit of a plane!!! I was so ashamed! Anyway, it was all worth it because on the way back, I sat below deck on the boat and discovered I was much more protected. All that fuss because I didn't sit on the lower deck from the start!! I think Martine thought I was losing it when I started laughing about it on the boat... So anyway, I'm sunburnt today and I look like a lobster, but i don't care because I'm damned if I don't get a suntan while I'm here!!! Lots of love Penny x