Airlie Beach, Whitsundays, lots of animals and a sparkling finish in Cairns
The night bus to Airlie Beach was pretty nasty.. All seats were taken so not much space to sleep. Still managed to get through the night but definitely not one of the most pleasant experiences over here in Oz. Arriving in Airlie I made my way to the check in office for the Whitsundays cruise I would be going on the same day. Repacked my luggage and stored it and then had some more time to kill as it was only just past 7 and the cruise would only leave at 12:30. Met the 3 other Germans again and hung around with them. Treated myself to a smoothie at New Zealand Natural and then we went shopping at Cotton On. I scored two amazing shorts reduced from 35$ to 5$ each and another shirt for 5$! I know I should save money and have enough clothes but how can you say no to an offer like that?! Packed with even more clothes I walked to the Marina and met the other people who would be boarding the ship with me. After explaining a good couple of things and filling in some forms it was time to leave land and board the vessel. The wings 2 was a pretty new katamaran which about 25 people + crew could sail on. Our crew consisted if three people - the captain, hostess who prepared all the food and so on, and a guy for the entertainment, diving, snorkelling and all the rest. We gathered in the mess where pizza was waiting for us. Had a couple of briefings and then the afternoon was free to chill on the deck. Outside we got another snorkeling and diving briefing. The first day we headed to Luncheon Bay to snorkel/dive. I decided against diving because of money matters and hoping that diving is cheaper in Fiji. The snorkeling was pretty sweet though, the fishies were colorful and the reef with all the corals pretty interesting. I regretted not taking my own wetsuit though as the water wasn't as warm as I hoped it would be and the suits they provided obviously didn't fit.
After we all got out of the water we had some fruit cake and went back to chilling on deck/as it was getting colder some of us moved inside.
A bit later it was snack time again (they wanted to make us fat). The crew prepared two huge as snack platters, with different cracker, cheese, celery and carrot sticks, sour cream and sweet chili sauce dip for us. And as a backpacker you never say no to "free" food.
Dinner time was a bit later and it was buffet-style with garlic bread, caesar salad, potato bake and chicken roast and corn. The food was delicious!!!!
After tea we all got together in the mess and looked at photos of the marine species we have seen and watched video footage of the people who have been for a dive. They also provided dessert for us - chocolate and orange-poppyseed cake.
With the night bus the night before and not getting lots of sleep plus being outside and in the water the whole day I was quite knackered. Went to bed early and get up early the next day.
We woke up to beuatiful sunshine and I actually had a superb uninterrupted sleep. Awesome!
Everyone on our ship hopped into the little speed boat then and we headed to the next beach. We went a bit over a hill to a lookout, overlooking the world famous Whitehaven Beach. This beach is quite special, it's not actually made from sand but from 99% silica. It's recognized as one of the whitest beaches in the world.
The sun was shining and the view was simply amazing. After we took a couple of photos we made our way to the beach and jumped around in the sand, took even more photos, saw some baby sharks and searched for sting rays. We also discovered a whole lot of bright blue colored crabs which migrated as the tide was going out. The scenery was fascinating and breathtaking.
Just before lunch our vessel came to pick us up and everyone tried to get the best place on the deck of the boat as the sun was burning. We had a bit of lunch (bread rolls, egg salad, tuna salad, ham, salami, cheese.... everything!) and then went for another snorkel. That place we could see a big as fish, I'm not sure what it was called, but it was hugeeeee! I've also seen a nemo fish which was awesome!
It was snacks afterwards again and later on it was snorkeling again. We headed back to the place we've been to the first day.
Afterwards it was food again (what else) and we had some biscuits first and Nachos with cheese, salsa, sour cream and sweet chili sauce. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset and took quite a lot of pictures.
Chilling and chatting some more, we had a good relaxing evening. Dinner was pretty sweet again, with different veggies, rice, beef stir-fry...
Some people got into their drinks after dinner, but I decided not to, as we would need to get out of bed at 6 am the next morning. It wasn't much of a party going on anyway on the boat, everyone was rather in chill-mode than party-mode.
Everyone got together for another slide show and we finished the food bonanza off with rocky road slices and one guy had his birthday, so we had birthday cake as well.
The next morning was also the last morning on the ship, we had the opportunity to snorkel again and then our captain brought us safe to shore. I haven't had a hostel booked yet in Airlie Beach, so I decided to stay at the same that two English girls stayed at. We killed some time before we could check in. The hostel would have been 28$ but on the internet only 21, needless to say I booked online!
The nomads Airlie Beach was super pretty, the dorms were in little huts and the hostel was like a resort with a swimming pool in the middle. The dorms also had an ensuite-bathroom with two showers and a toilet. The other people in our room were super awesome as well. I sorted out my clothes and gave some to the others (who were happy, cause free clothes!) and then I sorted pictures out, uploaded them....
At night it was after party time for all the people from our ship in a bar. We had to be there at 7 - 7.30 ish. Us girls got ready before and played drinking games with our rooms mates. I had a little too much though, made it to the bar but went straight back and eventually was in bed at 8pm. Awesome night haha. When I woke up the next morning I still felt slightly drunk and proceeded to have a bad bad hangover.
After checking out at 10am I had another 10hrs to kill before my bus to Cairns would leave. I took turns chilling at the lagoon, occupying the computers in the local travel shop and wandering around. Eventually I ended up meeting some people and chilled with them, exchanged photos from the cruise and stuff and then I went to get food and ended up getting a pizza at Domino's for 6.95 and met the guys that bought the yellow car off Raphael&friends and had a talk to them. Also my brother saved me, with iMessaging me for quite a while.
Finally my bus came at 8.10pm and I even managed to get two seats to myself. The bus ride was rather boring, but okay. Arriving in Cairns at 5.45am it was more waiting because my hostel wouldn't open before 8am. Finally I got around to dropping my bags off over there and faced the other challenges I had to accomplish. I closed my bank accounts, booked an airport shuttle for sleeping at the airport tomorrow and arranged to someplace to store my luggage, as I can't do it in my hostel because of the weird office hours. After that all done, walking around the cities for like ever, getting something to eat, checking in finally and having a shower, I met up with two girls I knew from the hostel in Noosa. Spent the day chilling with them at the lagoon and then we went shopping for a bit and in the evening we met again to redeem a free meal voucher.
This morning I went on a rainforest tour. I got picked up at 6:55am and hopped on the bus. Our guide for the day would be Shane and he was a really entertaining, enthusiastic guy and informed us very well throughout the day.
After picking everyone up a few of us went to a Wildlife Habitat while others ventured into the town of Port Douglas. I went to the Wildlife Centre and saw lots of interesting species, that actually can all be found in the areas. There were birds, wallabies, kangaroos, crocodiles, turtles... and lots more.
We got picked up again and drove to the Mossman Gorge. There was a little bush walk through the rain forest and we went to a big freshwater river, running through the rainforest. Getting on the bus again we then headed to our lunch stop in the Daintree National Park. The ride was amazing, the lush rain forest surrounded us throughout the journey and we stopped at little creeks and went over a river with a cable ferry, drove through endless sugar cane fields and then at 12:30 arrived at our lunch spot. There's a little hostel up in the rain forest and they also have a cafe. Lunch was included in my package and I got an amazing steak with chips and salad and also a fruit platter. After lunch we made our way to the beach and it's pretty unique - the rain forest meets the Great Barrier Reef at this point called Cape Tribulation Beach.
Getting back on the bus we drove back past a lookout point to the river we crossed by ferry earlier and went on a crocodile cruise. With sunny, humid, warm weather crocs enjoy we were really lucky and spotted a couple big ones. We also had the chance to see two different tree snake species.
After the croco cruise we basically just drove back to Cairns. We arrived back in town at 6pm. Now I'm just hanging out online, writing this. Will grab some food in a minute as I still have amazing 30$ left and this is my last proper evening in Australia. So I'll treat myself to a subway sandwich. Wow. Get excited people!
Tomorrow morning it's an early start again, I get picked up to go on the Uncle Brians waterfall tour at 8am and have to have breakfast before + pack up all my stuff and bring it to the luggage storage place. Busy busy. Tomorrow night it's gonna be sleeping/not sleeping at the airport in Cairns. (unfortunately the airport is closing for 3 hrs at night... well at least it's warm and humid up here in the tropics). On Saturday at 6am I am then off to Fiji where I'll meet my buddy from surfcamp Sophie again. I'm freaking excited to see her again and go explore Fiji with her. Also I'm a bit travelled out so it's gonna be nice to just relax at the beach and do nothing. And to have a travel buddy again will be nice. I met the most amazing and fun people on my way up the coast and I'm really grateful for that, but I can tell you guys - it's hard to be social at all times.
I'll drop another line over here before I leave Australia for good (well I'll stopover in Perth for like 9hrs on the way from Fiji to Bangkok again but that doesn't really count) but I'm not sure about the internet availability in paradise aka Fiji.
Write me on facebook though and tell me how you're all going. Just one more month and I'll meet lots of you people again. Crazy to think about this Australian adventure being over in like 1 day with all its ups and downs. It's been a freaking blast over here and made memories that will last longer than a lifetime.
Till then - love you all x
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
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