22nd - 29thMay - Brampton IslandBrampton Island is at the southern end of the Whitsunday Islands, not very much bigger than Ayers Rock.It is mainly rainforest, has several beautiful beaches and one small resort.The island is reached by boat or small plane from Mackay.When I say small I mean VERY small, we should have read the signs when we couldn't find a check in counter at the airport but were told to 'sit over there, and the pilot will find you'!Sure enough a young lad of 22 came over and asked us to all be weighed with our baggage announcing that he was our pilot and needed to log all the weight information.We then walked out to our plane, had a safety demonstration on the tarmac (we needed to know how our life jackets would work as we were about to fly over water!).The plane was a 6 seater Cessna, single engined machine!Rob was co-pilot, Rich sat in the back with the luggage and Sue and I in the middle two seats clinging onto each other for dear life - at one stage she even bit my shoulder in fear!!Fortunately the flight only took 15 minutes and it was a very calm bright sunny day.The island resort was very quiet, as this is their low season.We still managed to find lots of people to chat to, they were all very interested in our trip.They had lots of activities on offer.The boys had a sailing lesson and were then able to go off out on catamarans.Sue and I booked into the archery class.I had just got the hang of it when it was time to pack up!I was rather disappointed to find out that if I got my arrows in someone else's target they didn't count (my points score would have been much higher!).We all had a game of golf, they had a 6 hole pitch and putt course - we weren't really very good, but trying to hit the ball between two kangaroos sitting on the fairway didn't help.Rich managed to hit his ball right in the middle of a large spiky cactus plant, fortunately for him Rob found it. The activities were governed by the tide times as there was a strong current that ran through the channel, plus at low tide there were lots of sand banks.During low tides we were allowed to snorkel in an area they called 'The Fish Bowl', most of the fish that could be seen were resident in the area.We had two green turtles, two wobbegong sharks (ugliest creatures ever), that used to hide under the rocks.A few anemone fish, some large coral trout, painted sweet lips, beaked coral fish, lemon damsel fish, parrot fish, a couple of large six banded angel fish, scissor tailed sergeants, barracuda and a few other varieties.There wasn't much coral to be found.If we went onto the rocks at the end of the runway we were able to see lots of blue dotted rays, shovel nosed rays and black tipped reek shark basking in the shallow waters - it was amazing.Most of the island is national park, we could walk around the island and get access to the secluded beaches, a couple of times we went off walking and tried snorkelling at other locations.On the opposite side of the island to the resort we stopped at western bay and saw around 7 or 8 black tipped reef shark chasing little fish, we stood about 2 foot apart in around 12 inches of water and they were swimming between us!Rob donned his snorkel gear and went out to see what else was around, the water was very shallow and he could touch the bottom with his hands, he saw a 'stick' pointing out of the water, was about to put his hand down when it moved - the 'stick' was the tail of a huge Sting Ray!He was a bit spooked, and if we had been able to verify his swim time he probably would be representing Britain in the Beijing Olympics!!Rob decided to join the fishing trip, as it was only using handlines Rich couldn't decide whether to go or not, but at the last moment Sue put his name down.They got into the little motor boat, Rob slipped over and gashed his shin (to go with the grazed arm and leg!), they caught a few fish then Rich pulled one out big enough to keep.The specimen (a coral trout) was brought back and the chef oven baked it for their dinner!I managed to get a massage session in just to finish off our chilling out session.It has been lovely to leave the car and the long drives behind for a few days.The weather has been a bit mixed, but I suppose when you are an island predominately rainforest it doesn't get it's name for always having unbroken sunshine.We have tried and learnt new skills, met some great people but all good things come to an end.Time to return to Mackay in another huge plane - help!!!Tuesday 27th MayWe made it!The plane ride was rather more bumpy as there was a storm over the mainland as we flew in.This time we travelled in a Piper some thing or other, it was slightly larger than the Cessna, Sue was worse going back, at one point I thought she was crying.I have a major fear of heights so we just clung onto each other again.The actual landing was excellent and it was a relief to be back on terra firma!We had booked to stay the night in the caravan park again, which gave us the time to catch up on the washing!