We had previously been to Townsville and stayed there for a few days last year when we came over from the West coast. There is a really great animal sanctuary there called Billabong I have added the photos from over a year ago but better late than never! There's nothing particularly special about Townsville really it's just one of the largest cities on the North Queensland coast.

So today we headed for Airlie beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Upon arrival it was the usual business of trying to find a place to pitch tent. We had seen a backpackers that was in the centre of town and had tent sites to we pulled up there to see what the story was. It was far more appealing on the website than what we actually came to see, great if you're not camping. There was a small patch of grass which already had about 6 tents on it all next to each other and only a stones throw away from quite a few presumably busy bars and a nightclub, the kitchen was a trek away and we had to pay for car parking which would almost equal paying for an extra person per day so we saw sense and carried on the search. Finally we found a very nice camp site not far from town with a bus stop right outside, handy if we wanted to have a night out.

The weather had been picking up so we enjoyed the sunshine at the man-made lagoon and booked up our boat trip to the Whitsundays for the next day. When we booked the lady there explained that they had a cyclone hit the coast and the press had reported that Airlie was written off and deterring people from going, from what we could see there was no sign of damage and we wouldn't have known anything had happened.

We don't seem to have much luck with the weather when it comes to our trips as it was raining and overcast for our Whitsunday experience, we were given massive yellow anoraks to wear on the boat and the combination of speed and rain made us feel like our faces were pin cushions. That said though it was a great boat journey, full of speed, sharp turns and the driver of the boat knew how to make the most of it seen as the weather wasn't going to make it amazing.

First stop was the Whitsunday island where we walked to the lookout and saw the view of the estuary inlet, which most would have seen on postcards of the Whitsundays and I've seen many friends pics which look just as good but this is as ever dependant on the weather, it still looked great but I have seen better.

The sand on Whitehaven beach was brilliant white and squeaky which always pleases us, small things you know! We had lunch on the beach and the guide had a trick he was trying to accomplish with an eagle that frequents the beach, this entailed him hurling a chicken leg into the air and the eagle swooping down to catch it in mid flight, this wasn't that successful and the seasgulls were ready at every opportunity to swipe it away.It appeared that the guide gave up, the eagle almost got it on numerous occasions but the chicken leg was thrown in a last attempt, it did hit the floor but only for a second and the eagle as quick as lightening darted down, bowling the seasgulls out of the way and got his snack for the day.

Part of the trip also included snorkeling, it was quite choppy today so the visibility was poor but there was plenty of fish around that were obviously used to the boats coming there as they all swarmed around the surface when the food was dropped in for them and also joining them was huge groupers which I would guess were easily the length of a 50 inch TV and just as wide!! A lot of people bolted from the water at the sight of these fish but we found it great to be that close to them, they didn't care we were near them.

The trip was good and the highlight for me was probably the boat journey itself, the Whitsundays are heavily reliant on the weather but we had a good time.

The rest of our time there was spent at a slow pace relaxing and admiring the huge houses built onto the hill with the most amazing views not bad if you can afford it!!

We did really like it here and it would be on the list of places to go back to if we ever come this way again.