Whitsundays--(Airlie Beach)

NOTE: Drop me an email if you would like: fishywara@gmail.com but there certainly is no need as I have begun my travels through the OUTBACK with every little access to modern amenities--so please do not expect a rapid response back!

On a very sad note: i was informed by Marcus Chock that a fellow UofC student has recently passed (Sept 5): Dave Song. Please hold him, his family and friends in your thoughts.

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I arrived to Airlie Beach on Thurs afternoon, after an 8-hour bus ride from Rockhampton. What surprises me most about this Northern coastal area are the mountains that crop up here and there along the landscape, assuredly gracing the sub-tropical fields of cane and grass with lush hills against the cloud-spotted skies.
I cannot wait to get off the bus—but there is so much I have to do in the 2-hours that I have before boarding the Tongarra (my 3-day sailing boat to the Whitsundays Islands).
I run over to my hostel where I will be leaving my pack, run over to the travel agency to pick up my boarding pass, run over to the internet café to respond to some emails, make a few phone calls and rush over to the marina where I am planning to show up around 3:45pm because I was told that would be plenty of time for the crew to welcome me.
Not more than a few seconds after 3:45pm, still 15 minutes from the advertised boat depature, I receive a call from the boat asking me: where are you? We’re waiting on you! I responded with: I’m right there…
And before I knew it, two guys in red shirts come running up to me introducing themselves as Heather and Sue—it was at that very moment that I knew I was in for quite an interesting trip!!! Afterall, men who call themselves women (and gawdonlyknew what was in store for the rest of the trip)—well, we all know something is fishy about them!

Here are 2 of the crew members (Ed and Ben with a tid-bit of Ash) as we take off for our trip—studly young sailors with quite the flair for the cabaret (you’ll see what I mean)!!

Here is a photo of our boat from one of the amazing sand-bar islands that we were let off to wonder around on our third day:

This one without any need for explanation (but here I go anyway) is a sunset from the boat on our first evening as we headed out towards the Whitsundays islands…and marking the beginnings of quite an entertaining journey on the Tongarra boat:



The evening announced itself to be quite exciting with all of us cracking open beers as we set sail (there were only 15 of us including 4 crew members—with a maximal capacity of 24 with only a usual 2-crew members!! We were going to get highly individualized attention!!). A tasty evening meal was served (catering to my highly inconvenient dietary restrictions!!)—the perfect “breaking of the ice” activity for all of us travelers from England, Germany, Isreal, Ireland and Canada.

Unfortunately I was the first to bed, passed out at the hands of Mark (Makers) and tea, so when the serious excitement began I was rudely awoken before even midnight to the ho-hollers-and-hums of the rest of the boat: here I was witness to some serious crew participation in some game where the boat was divided into two teams and we were to pretend that we were saving each team representative from freezing to death in the Antarctic!! (bloody nudity games on a sailboat—who would have ever thunk!):



Our sleeping arrangements were fairly basic on the top deck of the boat with some tarps as protection…but a good sleep indeed I had, as I began my evening of sleep far too early:

and as always, I was the first one up to watch the sunrise:

Our second day was full of incredibly beautiful sightings!!!!

-Islands:



-Beaches (White Haven)—absolutely stunning!!!





And if you were unfortunate enough as I was on my last day on the boat, I had my first and hopefully last close-encounter with a jellyfish at 5:30 in the morning as I took my morning dip (while the rest of the boat slept):

but luckily it was not of the box-jellyfish variety, but seriously irritating nonetheless for the next three days where I thought I might have to pull my skin off as it itched and itched and itched relentlessly!!!
(The pharmacist--called Chemist around these parts--told me that it would probably take up to 2-months to "clear"!!!! WHAT THE F---??? Luckily she was wrong. Within 1 week, you could barely even see it!!)

On our last night, the crew graciously served us dinner in their “hot” drag attire—there’s something up with all the homo-erotic behavior rampant on these sea-vessel boys (seamen as they were)!!!




But overall, our three-day trip was fantastic! including snorkeling, superb weather conditions and a generally relaxed atmosphere topped off with some fine inter-sail-boat competitions as we rolled back into the harbor (I even got hit in the face with a flour-bomb and was apparently famous on the radio for nearly losing an eye—as these sailors have a knack for throwing things at each other as they sail past and heckle each other…sailors, man, they are pretty crazy lot!!)

After we came back to shore, still suffering from a great deal of land-sickness (the motion of the ocean even on firm and sturdy land our boat-trip and crew members all gathered (after a well-needed shower) at a backpackers called Reefos for one last drink…and an evening to be seriously remembered (or forgotten) with special Tongarra shots and free pitchers of beer—as for me…well, I was in bloody-fine company that evening with a beautiful Isreali girl (Inbal) on my left arm and a fine English sailor (behind the camera) on my right:




but then had to rush off at 1:30am to catch my mid-night-ride to Cairns—my very last stop on my East-coast tour. In Cairns, I was to meet up with Sofie again!!! (my friend from Melbourne) with next, Cape Tribulation, Daintree Rainforests and last but not least: the Great Barrier Reef!