Airlie Beach And The Whitsunday Island's

P1030887

It was another bus ride for countless hours down to Airlie Beach from Magnetic Island. Luckily, the buses in Australia are comfortable and they are generally uneventful compared to those I remember from the chaos of Asia.

Airlie Beach is a stunning spot. Despite it's name though - it has very little beach - only a small stretch of sand, and thus an artificial lagoon has been erected to keep the local's and tourist's happy!!! The views out over the ocean though is where the magic is. It's just a short walk to the marina where you can view an abundance of sailing boats, catamarans and other exotic varieties of ship that could easily hold their own out on the ocean waves. For the reason that most (especially backpackers) come to Airlie Beach is to get out on one of these boats and sail around the surrounding Whitsunday Islands. Paul and I were booked onto a racing, sailing boat named 'The Samurai' but beforehand we had a few days to relax in Airlie.

The backpacker scene in Airlie Beach is thriving and along with it - so is the drinking scene. We soaked up the sun in the days and soaked up the alcohol in the evenings - meeting a lot of fun people including two insane Canadian girls. After a few days though - our boat trip was ready to depart.

The Samurai holds about 25 people. There were about 20 of us plus 4 crew. I made a lot of friends on our 3 day adventure. Namely a group of 6 Irish guys and gals who were a lot of fun, Chris from Leeds and Mira, Freddy and his sister from Germany.

I had never been on a sailing boat and wasn't quite prepared for it's mode of travel. A normal moving water vessel travels at an angle described as flat. Not sailing vessels though. When the sails go up (which we had to help get out) then the whole thing turns at an angle of 45 degrees and you end up holding on for dear life or risk rolling right across the deck and over-board. We soon all got the hang of it and it quickly became as comfortable as it was going to get. We sailed out for a couple of hours and spent the night on the boat. Below deck - the cabin beds were cosily small - but it was fine - I've slept in worse places during my travels.

The next day we sailed to the largest of the islands - Whitsunday Island. We couldn't get off into the ocean here and swim to the island as many on our boat would have liked because the oceans where teeming with Tiger Sharks - perhaps the most dangerous of all sharks, not because of their size but because they are extremely agressive and will eat just about anything - including a boat if it could open it's jaws wide enough. Instead we transferred across to the island via a small speed boat.

Once on the island it was a small walk to the famous lookout - and there it is before you......the incredible Whitehaven Beach. It is by far the most amazing beach I have ever gazed upon. If you type in on your google / yahoo search engine - 'top 10 beaches in the world' then Whitehaven will always make an appearance. If you wait long enough from the viewpoint you can watch the sandbars change formation as the tides come in and alter their direction - so each picture you take looks slightly different.

We then headed down to the beach. The sand is nothing like any sand I have seen on a beach before. It is 99% pure silica which means it is extremely fine and ultra white. You won't find whiter sand anywhere else. Of course the waters are crystal clear to add to the dramatic effect - and these waters you can swim in!!! We spent a few hours here before returning to the boat.

We then sailed to Luncheon Point on Hook Island. Here we snorkelled and got a scuba experience dive where we could see all sorts of coral and fish, although it wasn't quite as stunning as that seen up in Cairns. What I should have done at this point was to hire a quality digital underwater camera as was possible on my day out, snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef a few days earlier, returning with world class fishy snaps!!! Instead, I buy a cheap disposable underwater camera and hope for the best. The pictures eventually returned as near on useless - I will put up the least laughable ones but don't hold your breath - they are very disappointing and not representable as what I was viewing at the time, so you will just have to use your imagination on those ones!!!

We eventually headed back on board for the evening. I can't remember where the idea came from but someone had it, to have a toga party - so thats what we did. We used the sheets off our beds and headed up on deck. The stars came out in abundance as did the alcohol and of course the drinking games. The party continued till the early hours up on the deck, in the middle of the ocean - a perfect location really. Most drank beer - but if you have never heard of it before - a cheap alcoholic beverage is goone. It's basically very cheap wine in a box. The name goone, we think, comes from the Aboriginal word for pillow because if you take it out the box the wine / poison is incased in a silver, pillow like bag. If your a backpacker in Australia - you will at some point drink goone - and probably a lot of it.

The next day we got up and headed to another island with a large spit. From there we snorkelled again. we also saw a solitary dolphin happily swimming along which was cool and we saw many turtles popping up to the surface for air - you sometimes have to stop and realise what amazing things you see each day!!! We later headed back on the boat and sailed back to Airlie Beach as our sailing adventure came to an end.

For the next 24 hours (off the boat) it felt like I was drunk as I was so used to the swaying of the boat and it really did take some time to adjust to solid ground. I continued my journey south. It was a 12 hour overnight bus ride but finally I had made it to the gateway of Fraser Island......Hervey Bay!!!!