Hello again, well I'm moving up the coast fast so I had better give you all another update! First up, sailing... well I say sailing, but for that you need wind, what we had was a slight breeze! That small fact aside it was a lot of fun! The boat I was on was a Maxi class racing boat called Condor, in its day it was quite the champion, winning most of the races in the Maxi class, including the Sydney to Hobart 3 times! Now I'm not sure what I was expecting, but let's say the sleeping arrangements were, erm, snug at best! And due to a lack of air con and a lot of sunny weather, below deck things were rather hot and stuffy, by the second night I'd learnt my lesson... sleep on deck! All the air conditioning you need, and what better way to be woken up than by the sun creeping over the horizon, awesome! The 3 days on the boat were spent mainly sunning ourselves on the deck (There's not much to do on a racing boat with no wind!), reading, and naturally as soon as was socially acceptable, enjoying a drink or two. However these stints of inactivity were nicely broken up by a stop off at the stunning Whitehaven beach, which was stunning, white sand so fine you can polish your jewelery with, and so pure that it doesn't need refining to be made into glass! We also had a couple of opertunities to snorkle over the reefs that grow round some of the 74 islands that make up The Whitsundays. Having never snorkled before this was a pretty amazing experience, a window into an utterly alien landscape filled with some really weird stuff! Good pratice for snorkling over the Great Barrier Reef, which is something I hope to do over the next few days or so. We had a really nice gorup on the boat, a good mix of guys, girls and nationalities that made the lack of wind not so much of a problem! Upon returning to Airlie Beach I had a chilled evening with a few friends, in preparation for my last early bus on the East Coast... next stop Townsville!
Now, Townsville is really just a gateway to get to Magnetic Island, just about the last place going north that you can see Koalas in the wild. Now there isn't a whole lot to do on Magnetic Island other than relax, which is no bad thing! A bit of a bonus was that myself and a friend were looking through their jukebox casully and were asked to do a bit of manual labour, lugging 20 or so beer kegs into the Hostel's cellar, in exchange for free drinks at the bar and a cooked breakfast the next day... nice, and well worth half an hour of our time! I did at last get to see a wild Koala though, a few of us went down to a local animal sanctury to see (and handle!) some of the local wildlife, incluing Crocs, Lizards and snakes, and on the way out did a little bush walk and saw a lone, motionless Koala! I don't think it was stuffed! The bar at the Hostel was just about the only nightlife on the island, but a fun time was had, and once again I found myself dancing on tabletops with a little cheer squad... I'm a shy retiring one... honest! In all fairness it was at the request of the barman, and in exchance for a couple of shots of Tequila... good deal if you ask me!
Now if all that relaxing wasn't enough, the next stop up the coast, Mission Beach, was yet another relaxathon! The weather was awful, so we just spent our time round the rather lovely Hostel, which was just a big house converted for backpackers. Really nothing to report from there, we sat around chatting, playing pool, making cups of tea, relaxing in the pool, and watching the occasional movie... and in my case bouncing around due to a build up of energy with no real release! That'll be something I plan to fix now I'm back in civilisation, Cairns! With any luck I'll manage to find an outlet for some of this energy before I jump in a car with a trio of girls that I'm going to Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas with... otherwise I'll drive them mad!
Well, take care everyone, hopefully I'll have something exciting to report in the next day or so!
Now, Townsville is really just a gateway to get to Magnetic Island, just about the last place going north that you can see Koalas in the wild. Now there isn't a whole lot to do on Magnetic Island other than relax, which is no bad thing! A bit of a bonus was that myself and a friend were looking through their jukebox casully and were asked to do a bit of manual labour, lugging 20 or so beer kegs into the Hostel's cellar, in exchange for free drinks at the bar and a cooked breakfast the next day... nice, and well worth half an hour of our time! I did at last get to see a wild Koala though, a few of us went down to a local animal sanctury to see (and handle!) some of the local wildlife, incluing Crocs, Lizards and snakes, and on the way out did a little bush walk and saw a lone, motionless Koala! I don't think it was stuffed! The bar at the Hostel was just about the only nightlife on the island, but a fun time was had, and once again I found myself dancing on tabletops with a little cheer squad... I'm a shy retiring one... honest! In all fairness it was at the request of the barman, and in exchance for a couple of shots of Tequila... good deal if you ask me!
Now if all that relaxing wasn't enough, the next stop up the coast, Mission Beach, was yet another relaxathon! The weather was awful, so we just spent our time round the rather lovely Hostel, which was just a big house converted for backpackers. Really nothing to report from there, we sat around chatting, playing pool, making cups of tea, relaxing in the pool, and watching the occasional movie... and in my case bouncing around due to a build up of energy with no real release! That'll be something I plan to fix now I'm back in civilisation, Cairns! With any luck I'll manage to find an outlet for some of this energy before I jump in a car with a trio of girls that I'm going to Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas with... otherwise I'll drive them mad!
Well, take care everyone, hopefully I'll have something exciting to report in the next day or so!
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