Whitsundays Sailing and Magnetic Island

After I left Allison and Fraser Island I headed to Airlie Beach on the night bus. It departed at 8:30pm and arrived at 9am. I was hoping it would be empty enough that I would get 2 seats to myself so I could get a good nights sleep but I forgot that every backpacker in OZ books the night bus so they can save paying for accommodation. I had been up since 4:45am and was ready to crash. Luckily I sat next to a lovely Aussie boy who, after about 4 hours struggling to sleep in awkward positions and chatting it up with him, allowed me to rest on his shoulder. I passed out for at least 5 hours after that.

I arrived in Airlie Beach and immediately booked a 2 night sailing trip to the Whitsundays Islands. There is really not much else to do in Airlie other than sail. My boat had about 15 people on it and most were quite friendly (which is always a worry when you're travelling alone). Although all but 1 boy were couples. Thank god for him. BARF!

This is what the boat looked like...

This is one of the beaches we sailed to and got to hang out for a few hours. It was fairly cloudy the whole trip but luckily still very warm and in some ways perhaps that was better since we spent most of our time on the deck and I probably would have been burnt to a crisp.

These Bat fish came swimming up to the boat and we fed them bread. Who knew fish ate bread!?

We also got to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef for a few hours which was really cool. My favourite was these corals that looked like big purple mouths and would retract when you swam near them. They reminded me of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera so I could show you what I mean. The wetsuit made me look very sexy, as you can see...

This lazy seagull was hitching a ride on the motor boat that took us to and from shore on our various expeditions...

Here is our Skipper Steve and our Host Loz. It wasn't really raining, they were just being silly. Steve had the best laugh. It was so contagious. and Loz made the best food for us. Spaghetti Bol, BBQ'd chicken and roast beef yum!

Here are some of the people who were on the boat. Bernard was the only other single dude I was telling you about.

Mari and Christian...

Lindsay and Sophie...

Um... what were their names again???

Shayna and me. Even though she was there with a guy she was dating she made a big effort to hang out with me:)

Christian...

Here I am standing on the bow...

A lot of our time was spent sleeping on the deck...

Playing "Who I am?"...

Reading...

And playing cards...
The boat was rather small so with 15 passengers they really had to cram everything in. This is the shower/sink...

This is where I slept. My very own coffin.

To get a better idea of how small it was, here I am asleep in my coffin. There was only one moment when I felt really claustrophobic when I woke up the second night and the waves were a little stronger then the first night and I could hear something (most likely the anchor) rubbing up against the boat and it was pitch black. So I went up on the deck as the sun was rising and felt much better.

These were the beds surrounding mine. There was a couple sleeping in the bed below mine and I had to literally step on them to get in and out of the bed...

A few other beds in the cabin...

I'm sailing!!!

On the second night we got to have a bonfire on the beach.

And what do you do at a bonfire? Well you play drinking games of course! This game had us all making chicken noises...

One of the most favourite memories from the trip was when we were having breakfast on the deck at about 8am the second day and there were dolphins swimming all around the boat. I would have taken pics but my camera was downstairs and I didn't want to miss a moment of it. Shayna and I decided to join them...

After Airlie Beach I spent 2 nights on Magnetic Island. This is the island, which departs from Townsville, from the ferry...

I pretty much instantly fell in love with this island. It was like as soon as you got there the vibe relaxed. There are no stoplights on the island and there is only one bus that runs once an hour. When you get on you tell the driver where you want to go and he will drop you off at the front door (and pick you up anywhere along the way if you flag him down). I stayed at a quaint hostel called Travellers Hideaway and had a few drinks with the owner the first night I was there. He loves Canadian chicks and by the end of the night he had offered me work for accommodation in the hostel which I am considering doing for my last month or two in OZ. This was the view from the beach right by the hostel.

I went on a Forts Walk where forts were set up for war-times. It was a very beautiful lookout. One of the things that happens when you travel up the East Coast is that you tend to run into the same people over and over since you are pretty much doing the same itinerary, just a few days apart. On the Forts walk I ran into Bernard (the only other single dude from the sailing trip so we ended up doing another walk together, then making dinner at his hostel and playing some pool at a bar nearby. It was lovely to have company for the day!

Self portrait before I met up with Bernard. If I look sweaty and hot it's because I was.

Another one of the lookouts on the walk...

One of the things I fell in love with about Magnetic Island is the amount of wildlife running around. I saw Wallabies in the wild...

and in the backseat of this Rangers car who Bernard and I hitched a ride with since we just missed the bus. His Mother had died and he was being taken care of until he was big enough to be released back into the wild. The best thing about the ride was that the Ranger was about 50 years old, decked out in full kacki ranger gear and blasting Lady Ga-Ga. Awesome!

Possums were everywhere. The cutest though was a Mother Possum who was transporting her babies across a fence. She would put one on her back and bring it to the other side of the fence, it gripping on for dear life and then go back and get another one and repeat. There were also a ton a cool sounding and looking birds on the island. I felt so relaxed there.

Now I am in Cairns and Trent and Conrad are here as well. It's been nice hanging out with people who I know. I was getting a little sick of having to the "Where are you from? How long have you been in OZ? What are your plans next? Blah blah blah" talk with everyone. I am also sick which sucks but I rested up today and will hopefully be feeling better by tomorrow. The worst is that I have a fever. Conrad lent me his laptop and I hung out in my room and watched "Seven Pounds" with Wil Smith. Sad movie. Very very sad. But good.

Tomorrow I am going on a 2 day/1 night trip to Port Douglas and the Daintree Rainforest/Capr Tribulation, which I heard is amazing. I get back on Weds and by then Brady and Mark should have caught up with me and then on Friday all 3 of us fly out to Darwin to meet up with Nerys who has been in Ireland for a wedding the past 10 days. I reckon she will be exhausted as she flies from Ireland to Melbourn and then Melbs to Darwin the next day. I think the plan is to drive down to Broome and then I am unsure as to what I am going to do after that. It depends how much I am enjoying the West Coast I suppose (btw, thanks to no one who gave me any advice for my next move on this journey...jerks:p) Another factor is money as I am spending it much faster than I had anticipated, so Magnetic might be a better option for that reason as well. I am pretty sure at this point that I am not going to do S/E Asia on this trip so after OZ I will head to NZ for a while where I will hopefully get some work and then it will be hometime. Ahhh hometime! I can't effing wait to see everyone!!!

Number of hours spent on a Greyhound Bus in the past month: 57.25

Number of KM's travelled in that time: 3921

Currently reading: It's not about the Bike by Lance Armstrong (thanks to Trent who passed it on so I wouldn't have to spend money on another book). I didn't even finish Twilight. I'm confused as to why they were so popular. I guess it's beacause the fans don't know Joss Whedon.

Exes and Ohhhhhhhs!!!