Well well well where did we last leave you. We think it was Just getting into Airlie Beach so lets start off there.
We attempted to go out on our first night in Airlie Beach but nobody else at our hostel wanted to join us, so we went out on the town to see what was going on. Apparentely on a Sunday nights not much goes on in Airlie. We had a couple drinks at Beaches but werent feeling it so we decided to go back to the hostel. Until this girl grabbed us and informed us of a foam party (with free cover) was going on. We have never been to foam party and thought it would be an excellent idea to check one out. So we went in there for a while and it was alright but not ahuge crowd and then the big beach ball burst so we figured the fun was over and headed back to the hostel. Conveniently enough McDonalds was on the way so we stopped for a late night snack :) The next day we went to check out the lagoon so we just hung out there and got some sun and went for a dip. On our way back to get cleaned up we ran into Jenny from our Fraser Island trip and she was leaving the next day so we couldnt turn down her invitation on a night out so that's just what we did. After dinner started into the bevvies and were joined by our Swedish friends Richie and Emil...we played some drinking games with them and some others from our hostel but unfortunatley the games got the best of Richie and he wasnt able to make it out with us for the rest of the evening. We headed over to Beaches to meet up with Jenny and her sailing crew and proceeded to have an excellent night of partying. Once we finished up there we headed over to another club called Mama Africas which was also awesome...we drank, we danced, we neckchopped(FYI never teach a Swede the neckchop...they are aggressive)...it was a delight! The next day we just hung out by the pool and around the hostel as our Whitsunday sailing adventure was departing at 7pm that night.
So we boarded our ship, the grand Solway Lass at 7pm, were shown to our cabins and gathered on deck for a briefing. We had a group of 32 ppl, mostly english girls, a few canadians, a couple germans and irish folk and a few other randoms of all different ages. Our crew was Captain Mark, Bunsen was Millsy, MIkey was the deck hand, Kylie was the cook, Tess was the bar girl, and Benny was the volunteer for the trip...the whole crew were really awesome ppl and made the trip what it was. So we cruised a bit that night, had some dinner around 10 and then we played Connect 4 with Tess...she was very excited as it was the new game on teh ship. We headed to bed at a reasonable hour as we had to get up at 7am the next day. We both slept really well on teh ship, no intense rocking or anything so that was good, so we got up at 7 for breakfast of cereals and toast and then cruised over to Whitsunday Island to go to White Haven Beach. On the cruise over the sea was very angry. A lot of people from our group got seasick but for the most part we were ok. Whitehaven Beach was beautiful... we relaxed, went for a swim and played some cricket. Cricket is actually really easy to play just a lot of wierd rules. Back to the boat for lunch and then we set sail for the afternoon. Once we ancored we got to try out the rope swing on the boat which was excellent. We were the envy of every passing boat not only because we were a pirate ship, but we had a rope swing. We ancored there for the night, had a delicious dinner (they just kept feeding us AND the chef was also GF so there was still plenty for chels to eat too!)and played some poker. The next day we did three different snorkels, all with beautiful fish and coral and we even swam with a couple of sea turtles. Supposedly there was a sting ray but we didnt see it. It rained most of the day but we were already wet so it didnt matter. The clouds broke a bit late afternoon so we took the evening snack with us to the beach where we watched to sunset. They took us back to the boat where we had yet another delicious dinner, watched the sealife at night (first the fish came, then the squids chased the fish, then the reef sharks chased everyone away) and played some more poker and connect four. The days on our voyage flew right by but we had an Outstanding time and went out with the crew that night. We started at a restaurant called Fish Divine which was delicious and had a few drinks there as well. We bought a round of Sambuca for the crew and in return a very drunken Millsy bought us around as well. The crew have to be completely dry when they are on the ship so back on land they really like to party. From the restaurant we headed over to Beaches again and spent a while partying there which was a lot of fun. Then some people went to Mama Africas again but we went to Paddy Shenanigans which was a lot of fun...most of the group ended up there at some point but we spent a lot of the night with 2 Germans from our boat, Ralph and Marco, Kylie and a couple others...it was a lot of fun! The next morning we were a little slow to start but eventually made our way to the lagoon for a lazy afternoon. Not much else went on in Airlie after that for us...we just took it easy.
THe next morning we caught the 9am bus to Townsville from which we ferried over to Magnetic Island. Unfortunately the weather didnt cooperate for most of our stay so we didnt get the best impression of the island and were glad to only have sta yed 2 nights. Our hostel was located on an Eco reserve so we could have done a tour with koalas, snakes and crocs and stuff but we had already seen so many Koalas etc we figured it was best to save the cash. We did a big hike one day where we walked up thru an old fort from WWII...it was quite interesting actually and a good workout at that. The hostel had its own restaurant and bar and our rooms were separate little cabins with 8 ppl per room but nothing too exciting really...somehow the hostel just won best hostel in Australia but we couldnt really figure out how.
ANyways, after 2 nights there we headed back over to Townsville and caught a bus up to Mission Beach. About an hour before we got to our destination the rains came...the fields on either side of us were flooded and there was so much water flying at the bus it was insane. Our whole purpose of going to Mission Beach was to do a skydive with a beach landing and to go white water rafting but with the poor weather we were unable to do either. Seriously we had never seen rain like this, it was a complete washout. The hostel shuttle picked us up and took us to the hostel which was called the Treehouse...it was a neat little place but so far out of "town"... and I say "town" because there really wasnt much of a town as much as it was just a street with the grocer etc...so we spent 2 very soggy nights in Mission beach...other then going to the grocer we didnt leave the hostel at all ..it wasnt so bad as the hostel sold booze haha but still, it kinda sucked. We had originally planned to spend 3 nights there but with the storm we figured it best to change that to 2 nights. The rain was so bad that even teh white water rafting wasnt operating. Anyways, we met a couple of nice people there and played a lot of cards...again. ON our second day we were told we might not even get out the next day as the buses couldnt run due to flash flooding. Lucky for us we were bumped up to the 11am bus the next day and this ended up being the only bus that ran all day so we were 2 of 50 very lucky people to make it up to Cairns. Apparently Cairns just had the heaviest 24 hour rainfall in over a century...madness! So we got into Cairns yesterday, on our way to find the hostel we saw our Scottish friend Heather and found out it was her bday so we made plans to meet up with her and her friend Cathy that night. The weather wasnt great so we explored the mall, bought some new clothes, and then got cleaned up and made some dinner. The hostel is nice, very clean, great kitchen/bathrooms, and a nice pool...so far so good anyways. We met the girls over at Gilligans and had some drinks there and then headed out to a club called Woolshed. It was another great night of partying. We ended up running into another girl from our Fraser Island trip, Harriet, which was funny. That pretty much brings us to now...we are currnetly booked in here until SUnday but we are gonna see how the weather looks. We want to head farther north but the roads are s till closed I think so we may hang out here a little longer(which isnt so bad...we like it here so far) and see if we can make it up north, otherwsie we wil lstart back down and hopefully get our skydive in at mission beach (fingers crossed). Anyways, think that's it for now, its been great hearing from you all- keep the msgs coming, we love you and miss you! Ciao for now!
