9th Feb to 28th Feb - Airlie to Coolangatta

It's probably about that time again when I should drag you hard workers away
from your work and annoy you with an update to this blog...

Last time I wrote, my little sis and I were halfway through a coach
journey to Airlie beach....

QUEENSLAND AKA THE SUNSHINE STATE...from my experience that is
b***s**t!!

We arrived at Airlie greeted by a torrential thunderstorm! As the
coach door opened I got a "welcome to paradise" from a soaking wet
backpacker. Then I stepped off into ankle deep water, broke both of my
thongs (flip-flops - I'm not that way inclined) and walked the streets
in search of a room for the night! Everything was soaked, including
the inside of our bags! Nice!

IS THERE SUCH THING AS A NON-PARTY BOAT ON THE WHITSUNDAYS?

We were booked on the British Defender, an ex-racing boat and as we
had it drummed into our heads "the fastest sailing the Whitsundays."
When we set sail, the boat was tilted at a near 45degrees and the
starboard (left) side was dipping into the water - we were flying! We
booked this boat thinking it would be more about the sailing than the
party, however once the sun set, the beer and goon juice started to
flow and it wasn't long before the music was booming from the cabin!!
We had a fantastic backdrop, anchored amongst the gorgeous Whitsunday
Islands with a starry sky overhead. Sleeping on deck under the stars
wasn't something anyone wanted to miss out on...that is until the
heavens opened and dropped what felt like a swimming pool of water on our
heads!! Quite a wake up! Funny to see everyone scramble for a bed - I
sampled 4 different sleeping quarters that night, braving the deck
twice more before rains forced me to finally settle on the breakfast
table with the captain! The islands were amazing, and the beaches on
them were brilliant - white sand so fine it felt like flour and warm
shallow water. There was even a group of about 10 stingray swimming
about where we were chilling in the water...pretty cool.

FRASER ISLAND - "SLOW IS SAFE" & DINGOES

We caught another coach to Rainbow beach taking us 20hrs as it decided
to blow up in the middle of nowhere. That is according to Fof, as I
slept through the entire charade until woken to move to bus 2 of 4
enroute! When we eventually arrived we got the longest briefing EVER
from a barefooted Ozzy called Allan, about how to drive and camp on
the largest sand island in the world. Basically he repeated "slow-is-
safe" over and over again until I was willing to run him down using
the 4 wheel drive option (which he detailed extensively) for maximum
effect - SLOWLY of course! Once we equipped the jeep with food, drink,
tents, cooking utensils and 10 adventurers we set out for Fraser
Island on a 3day/2night self drive tour. Driving on the beach was
awesome, and when we hit rough terrain on the way to the picturesque
Lake McKenzie it was even more fun - well as a driver it was, probably
not so as a passenger getting bumped around in the back - I had
abandoned the slow is safe spiel by that time!!

We camped on the beach both nights and had visits from some sneaky
Dingoes. I am convinced one of them scouted us out by 'pretending' to
sleep under the jeep before deciding to jump in the back when we were
busy chatting and eat our food!! Fortunately we caught him in the act
before he got out the fryer and started cooking any of our steaks!!
For Fof's birthday we went for a morning swim at Lake Wabby where we
had a catfish pedicure (very tickly), climbed to Indian Head for some
great views and broke the rules by driving to the Champagne pools
(small seawater pools formed by surrounding rock). The only downside
to Fraser was the sand, which gets in places you never knew existed!!
Imagine waking up with a hangover when your mouth feels like the
Sahara and then ACTUALLY crunching sand between your teeth!! Something
you have to put up with in this place I guess! In summary a great
experience on a cool island - it has everything, even a shipwreck from
1935!

Since Fof left I had a look at Brisbane and then checked out the Gold
Coast from a friend’s house, went to a music festival to see the likes
of Basement Jaxx, The Killers & Salt N Pepa and am now watching the
Quiksilver Surf Pro (in the freezing rain!) in Coolangatta.

Hope you’re all enjoying the freezing cold back home, the sun’s just come
out so I'm off to work on my tan lines at the beach....

Living the dream baby.
Will

PS. These blogs seem to be longer than I planned, so I’m sorry about
that, there's just so much to write and this barely scratches the
surface!!