Whitsunday isands
18.12.2008 - 26.12.2008
34 °C
View
Rob and Jo's Adventures
on rob_harvs's travel map.
So after a day at Mossman gorge and another day of R+R in port douglas we headed back down to cairns for a few hours while jo got he hair cut nice and cheap at the hairdressing academy! She was lucky though and it turned out well unlike the girl next to her who was screaming at the woman for ruining her hair haha. I parked up at the stinger free lagoon they have built in the middle of the city and had a swim for a couple of hours. We left cairns late afternoon and made it to a little village called Babinda just before dusk and the suicidal kangaroos that like to ruin your car in the process! Babinda…interesting little place, it consisted of a derelict factory a hotel/pub and a Spa mini mart that closed at 5pm…we arrived at 5.15. we managed a rubbish meal in the rubbish free campsite and went to bed so we could escape early doors!
A five hour drive and we arrived in the capital of north queensland, Townsville. If we thought that heading further south would mean it was cooler we were wrong! It was BOILING! We spent 2 nights and 1 day there and during the heat of the day we went to the reef HQ aquarium and imax cinema which was a good laugh!
The day after and another 4 hour drive brought us to Airlie beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. We got straight on and booked a 2 day 2 night adventure sailing trip to the islands from the 22 to 24th. The boat was called the British Defender, a 84ft racing yacht with a 115ft mast. The British Army raced it round the world in 1990 and now the old bird is retired up here. 28 of us were packed in but it wasn’t that bad in terms of space!
The 1st day the wind was the strongest its been for months and we were almost perpendicular to the water!
Jo looked very unsure what I had got her into but the wind died down and it was nice and relaxed and much easier for us grinding up the main sail!!
After a bbq and a night on the boat we woke early for a sail and breakfast in tonge bay while green sea turtles surfaced all around the boat.
We then jetted over to the shore and walked up to the Whitehaven beach lookout!
The beach is recognized as 1 of the top 10 beaches in the world with it being 99% silica sand!
We got a few hours on the beach before getting back on the boat for lunch.
(the food was excellent by the way haha). After eating and more sailing we arrived at one of the reefs for snorkeling for as long as you wanted really.
We then went for more sailing and afternoon nibbles on 3foot spit (3 foot out of the water at high tide) and watched the sunset with a few beers/wines.
We did more snorkeling in the morning and then sailed back to port for lunchtime!
Christmas Day was good! Up far too early to open a few little prezzies and in the afternoon we had the typical aussie barbecue with some irish people and a couple of aussie boys we met on the camp site! A good day was had by all but of course we missed you all at home!
Thank you for all your presents and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!
Love Rob and Jo xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Posted by rob_harvs 18:36 Archived in Australia Tagged boating Comments (0)