Airlie Beach, Mission Beach and Sonofa Beach

The Whitsundays give you Wings
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Days 49 to 54 - Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays

Well, we made it up to Airlie Beach on our overnight bus, which was fairly painful it has to be said. The overhead shelf was designed to hold bags no larger than a Pot Noodle which meant we somehow had to mould our hand luggage around our legs. Oh, and the American guy opposite seemed determined to convince the rest of the bus that he had Tourettes, shouting "GET DOWN, ZE GERMANS ARE COMING" in a convincing Arnold Schwartzenegger accent at random intervals throughout the night.

I spotted a skinny (but quite long) snake slithering along right outside our bedroom door. Decided not to tell Naomi about that one. OUCH! I guess she now knows.

James had been warned about the box jellyfish but not the clinging Naomifish.
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Airlie Beach itself has had a bit of a face lift since I was last there. A scrappy area of land on the seafront has been transformed into a really nice big swimming lagoon area (free) which now means that there is something to do during the day other than play cards and drink. We stayed in a nice relaxed hostel overlooking the Bay, fittingly called 'Backpackers By the Bay'. The first few days were spent watching Australia amass a big score in the cricket which quickly tempered my Ashes excitement.

Whitehaven Beach. Not too shabby. Having fun at work?
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Fortunately we escaped from the cricket to go on our 3 day cruise of the Whitsunday Islands, on our catamarran, 'Wings'. We had a private cabin so only had to put up with each other's snoring. The boat also had a big screen where we could look at the day's photographs and underwater videos and watch a DVD if we wanted.

We spent 3 days cruising around the islands in glorious sunshine, stopping at regular intervals to go snorkelling (in our 'stinger suits' because of the box jellyfish), or to stop off to have a look at the beautiful Whitehaven Beach which was "not too shabby" as the Aussies say. The only slight downside was that Whitehaven itself has become quite popular so it was more of a sparsely populated paradise than a deserted paradise.  It was a good spot to swim with the stingrays, which are all on a charm offensive after the Steve Irwin incident.

Mission Beach.
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We really loved the trip.  Great crew, friendly group (25 in all), good food. You get the idea.

We stayed back at Airlie beach for a night after the trip. I spotted a skinny (but  quite long) snake slithering along right outside our bedroom door. Decided not to tell Naomi about that one. OUCH! I guess she now knows.

Days 55 - 56 - Mission Beach

We decided to miss out Magnetic Island as we were getting a bit short on time and the box jellyfish season would have meant hiring wetsuits to do anything, so we headed straight up to Mission Beach - another 8 or 9 hours in the bus.

We stayed at Scotty's which was OK ish. Very near the beach... and the crocodile warning signs. Fancy a swim anyone? Our room was apparently the best one, although it was still a bland grey dingy portakabin at the end of the day. Not quite the Radisson I had to concede. The pool was good though.

Next door to the hostel is a restaurant and a bar/club which is quite popular with the locals. We went in there to play some pool and were the first people in there. Naomi had a play around with the jukebox and selected a couple of her favourite tunes and returned very excited about her choices, which would be played at some unknown point in the future. My job was to guess when her songs came on. In the meantime the bar filled up with local 'salt of the earth' guys, who were clearly enjoying the 'cool' music which was blaring out  - think Artic Monkeys, The Killers, Eminem, Dr Dre etc..

For some reason, Naomi was becoming increasingly anxious to leave before her songs came on... and then they did... The first was Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. A perfect choice for the establishment... or would have been if in her excitement at finding this track she'd not mistaken a spoof recording for Nirvana's orginal. It's difficult to describe the version, but if I say that in place of the guitar solo was a person gargling water, you will get the general idea.

By this time I was quite concerned at what was to follow and was eyeing up the nearest escape route. Could it get any worse? Oh yes! The room was then filled with the unmistakable sound of Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight', a debatable choice at any time, but in a redneck bar equipped with a dancing pole....? We left Mission Beach early the next morning.