Airlie & The Whitsundays

Out drinking with Ally and Denise, banishing bad weather blues...and looking slightly worse for wear!
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After the long drive from Kroombit we arrived into Airlie Beach in early evening and after a brief tour of the town in the bus we were droppped off and I went to check in at my hostel Beaches. I was very glad had booked in there when saw that had a tv, nice bathroom and mini kitchen area-real luxuries in the backpacker world! Added to that had nice room mates including a couple of German girls who'd been in my dorm room at Hervey Bay. Didn't do a whole lot the first evening just went out for some dinner and made use of having a TV as the new series of the OC was on! I had the following day free in Airlie Beach before starting my Whitsundays cruise the following day. I was due to be on the Waltzing Matilda but when went to check in with the sailing company I found out that it wasn't running and they'd put me on a shorter trip instead on a boat called the Dream Catcher, was a bit annoyed at first but as it was already raining i realised that a two day/two night trip would probably be more than enough as the weather was due to get worse if anything!

Cruising the Wetsundays!
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My boat trip started in the afternoon so after getting things organised in the morning and leaving main bag in storage I walked down to the Marina where we had to meet for a short meeting before departing. We were also given out rain coats although i had my own, but mine was just plain blue whereas everyone else had very fetching yellow ones like fishermen although to be fair they were probably more effective! The two crew on the boat were Dieter the Austrian Skipper who'd been in Australia for nearly 40 years and Craig who was an Aussie and who was the one who cooked all our meals as well as generally helping Dieter with all the boat stuff. The bad weather did prevent us from seeing much of the Whitsundays and we didn't get to places like Whitehaven Beach which was bit of a shame. The Crew were really good though in trying to make the trip as enjoyable as possible and plotted a route that would give us as much shelter as possible. I was lucky as didn't get seasick but felt sorry for those who did as the weather did make it pretty rough. With a full day on the Sea we went on a bush walk for a couple of hours in the mornning through rainforest which was quite fun but like walking through a river but thankfully the Flip flops coped with it although did nearly lose them at one point! After that we donned our stinger suits to do some snorkelling. I was a bit reticent about doing it bearing in mind the weather and fact had never done it before but was really glad I overcame my doubts as it was fantastic despite the weather. We did it in pretty shallow water where it was more protected from the elements and was amazed at how close we were able to get to the coral and saw loads of different types of fish! The food on the trip was a definite highlight and was all the tea and coffee which was much appeciated after getting soaking wet outside! Did spend a fair bit of time below deck too just relaxing and playing cards etc but didn't want to be down there all the time so braved it outside too despite the rain! On the final morning had a brief go at steering the boat which was good fun. Overall it was a good trip and was lucky to have a good group on board most of whom tried to make the best of the shocking weather & have fun anyway...bringing drinks with us for the evenings probably helped with that too!

When got back to Airlie found out that all the roads in and out were closed due to flooding and that accomodation was really scarce but thankfully had pre-booked my room at Beaches. Got my bag and all and checked into dorm and was funny as the two English girls from my Fraser Trip were in same dorm so caught up with them which was nice and in the evening all the girls from my dorm went out for a really nice meal at posh restaurant. After that I went back to Beaches and down to the bar where met up with the rest of the people who'd been on the boat as had table reserved there. Was a fun evening stayed out quite late but was nice to have something to do as going out pretty much the only option in a raining Airlie! In the day time really didn't do a lot just caught up with some internet, read my book, watched tv etc! Really reminded me of being back at uni, spending all day doing nothing waiting for the evening to come around to go out! On the Sat evening met up with Ally and Denise who I'd met at different points on my trip but who had met on bus so knew each other and had good goss about me on way up to Airlie! There were defintely worse places could have been stuck but really was looking forward to change of scene as was getting a bit bored of being in the same place in the rain!