Airlie Beach, Australia

There wasn't much sun in Mission Beach but it was a nice little place, not too busy, and I got to relax a bit. I bumped into Catherine, who was leaving the accommodation I'd just checked into, and we had a short but good catch up before she got on the bus to Cairns. The first day I just lay on the very yellow beach, and though it was windy the sun peeked through a fair bit! Reminded me of Scottish summer days on North Berwick beach, just without sandcastles and 99 ice-creams! The next day was rainy and I spent the morning reading at the hostel and then went for a little (8km) hike with Yvonne, a German girl from my dorm. We planned to just go for a little stroll but kept going to see what was around the next corner, and the next, and the one after that! Good walk along the beach and then along a path through raiforest, where we were warned we may be confronted with crocodiles or cassowaries, but they didn't make an appearance, which is a good thing as far as crocodiles are concerned. The next day I travelled to Airlie Beach by bus (a glorious nine hours). A young German girl sitting next to me had been WWOOFing on a farm nearby, which was interesting. She said the work was hard but she met loads of other nice travellers on the farm. The Australian family she stayed with were very welcoming but apparently had no idea about current affairs in Europe and showed some interest but she thought their attitude was that it was far away and as a result didn't concern them.

Airlie Beach is another touristy seaside town but has some nice shops and restaurants and though there isn't a decent beach there's a pleasant lagoon area to sit around in and look out at the pretty yachts moored in the bay. It acts as the jumping off point for the Whitsunday Islands, and I was supposed to leave for my 3-day sailing trip around them on Thursday, on a beautiful old ketch called Enid. When I arrived at the pier however I was informed she'd got water in her engine and the engine had exploded! After changing the dates of my bus journey, accommodation, and Fraser Island trip I was able to book the last available place on a different boat, leaving on Friday. This one was two days (two half and one full) and two nights on the boat, and the vessel, Eureka II, was a bit smaller and geared towards racing, without a sun-bathing deck. No great loss though - it was good fun just to sit on the side with my legs dangling through the railing or wedged in a corner behind the skipper when the yacht was heeling (tilting up). The skipper was a jolly Australian called Pete with a glorious orange tan that could have got him a job in fake tan advertising if he ever wanted to give up sailing. Every British person on board must have been impressed because they all decided not to wear sun tan lotion, and by the end they were as red as lobsters. Our deckhand Charlie was in his 20's and had grown up in Zimbabwe and England and studied at Oxford Brookes before getting stuck into sailing in England and Australia. It looked like pretty hard multitasking - everything from assisting Pete on deck (usually doing complicated things with ropes to the sail) to cooking our meals, cleaning up after us and taking us out in the dinghy to go snorkelling. He said he enjoyed it though and was going to be taking his exams soon to be a skipper. The other passengers on board were five crazy Irish girls, in their mid-twenties, who were primary school teachers (apart from one accountant, who seemed to be the sensible one); a fun young Irish couple who had originally booked Enid as well; two motherly Irish ladies from Dublin who were holidaying together (one cheerful and one sour-faced); a loud Scot and a nice Englishman (who went to Warwick!) who had spent the last year and a half living in Hong Kong and were returning to London via Australia; and a quiet Swede called Gustavo who was taking a week off from his work experience at a naval architecture firm in Sydney as part of his engineering degree.
We left in the afternoon on Friday and sat on deck watching Charlie and Pete do their thing, with some of the guys who'd done a bit of sailing before joining in. It was very cold when the sun wasn't out and after we'd moored and gone in for dinner I thought I might have to have my feet amputated as they were utterly numb (no shoes allowed on board, so our feet suffered the cold). The food was good - we had chicken with gravy and potatoes and veg the first night. The dining area didn't seat enough people though, so half of us ate outside under the stars, and then went in to play cards (with some of us standing round the table). After a couple of beers the Irish girls were moved to demonstrate a jig for us, which was hilarious! They'd arrived hungover and without any alcohol (it was BYO) at the pier but luckily for them Sandy the Scot had a large supply he was happy to share... Pete said he liked to have Irish people on board because "even if they go a bit over the top with the alcohol they always have a good time". After the fun and games we went to bed at a fairly reasonable time, and were up at seven the next morning for fruit salad/cereal/toast for breakfast. We set off again, passing Hamilton Island, where George Harrison had a house and used to sit in a booth in the local pub in the eighties and entertain the locals with his guitar-playing. We moored at Whitehaven bay, and Charlie ferried us across to the stunning white beach, where we lazed about in the sun for two hours (with quite a few other tourists!). In the afternoon we went snorkelling at another site but the visibility wasn't great and coming out of the water into the wind was a shock! Although the water supply on board was limited there was just about enough for a short hot shower each - and when I say short I mean I'm not sure if I managed to rinse all the shampoo out of my hair. That evening we played a very wild game of Spoons, which is basically a card game, but the relevant part is the scramble for a kitchen spoon from the pile on the table when someone gets four of a kind. We were all squeezed in like sardines and certain people of a certain nationality (!) had had a bit much to drink and it got violent! There were girls scratching each other and wrestling spoons from each other, and I came away with a gash in my finger after someone slashed me with a spoon! As if the violence wasn't enough someone suggested that each round the person left without a spoon would have to shed an item of clothing, hence Strip Spoons was invented. Let's just say I was glad I was wearing lots of layers and (invaluable) socks! It was good fun, and luckily we invented it so late in the evening that we all went to sleep before anyone reached their last layer...
Today we set off at about 8.30am back towards Airlie Beach and we all got to have a go at steering Eureka II! Pete said I was a natural and was "driving her like a starlet" at 8 knots. We were racing Silent Night, the other yacht on the two-day trip, and outran her just as we got into the harbour.. great fun, and we had music on board so the girls put on "We Are the Champions" at maximum volume as we overtook Silent Night. Ha ha.

Because I lost a day through Enid's demise and because my friends in Town of 1770 may be hitching a lift up north before I can get there, Town of 1770 and Noosa have been knocked off my itinerary. I think I was a little bit ambitious in my planning of stopovers. with just 28 days here! Next stop is Hervey Bay, from where I'm off to Fraser Island for a three-day jeep tour, which should be good. If there are Irish people there it will definitely be interesting...