I think I have found my heaven.
I think I have seen my future.
I'm going to go out, make a whole lot of money and then buy a sailboat and sail around the world.
Sounds fanciful? Well thats what I spent the last four days of my Queensland journey doing. We started out towards the Whitsunday Islands from Airlie Beach and were greeted at our resting spot by a very friendly dolphin! He continually swam around our boat making us oohhh and ahhhh. Amazing (Warning: I will use that word alot). Then in the morning the crew got up ridiculously early (4:30am) and began to sail. When we surfaced around 3hr later we were in the middle of the ocean with only tiny specs of islands in the vast distance. We found ourselves 40miles off the coast and this is where we were diving. Now I'm not afraid of much, but the things that make my heart race all reside in the dark abyss of water. And however calm it was still rather dark water. Then the tide began to go down, my hear rate with it. The bottom of the blue-green water began to appear, and we dove 24m down. This brought us face to face with unbelievable corral, fish you think only exist in aquariums, and caverns, which our resident diver Shawn took us manouvering through - intimidating when you have an extra 8inches of height strapped to your back.
I should mention now that to save considerable confusion later that our boat was lovingly named "Spank Me"
So the scuba diving was one of the coolest things I've every done, and after half an hour of turtles, wobbigongs (which measured in at 2.5m and Shawn called "a small shark") and every colour under the sun we made our way back up to the boat, where we took a little rest and then went snorkeling. By lunch time, the tide was down and you could see the corral from the top of the water - it was like land was slowly surfacing while we were still in the middle of nowhere. After we headed back intowards the islands, found our place to stop right near Whitehaven Beach, and had supper and some delicious hard lemonade. There were 22 people on the boat, not including the crew of 4, and they were all fantastic - we had a lot of fun having a few drinks and watching the sun go down!!
The second day, we went hiking over to Whitehaven Beach which is very beautiful and will be on any postcard or picture of the Whitsundays. And the water was unbelievably warm! Then we made our way to a different island where we got back in the water for another, longer dive. Again, saw some amazing things that words would not even be close to describing. Then, because the weather was riculously beautiful and windless and being on a sailboat, that means no sailing, our skipper Gary took us to Long Beach Island Resort. The whole ship went to the bar, had way too many drinks and then went back to the boat, where we started a fabulous dance party and drank the night away!
The next day there were some rather green faces....
but nothing another snorkelling trip wouldnt fix. By 11am we were heading back to land, where we hopped in our gas-guzzling tiny red hyundai and drove the 11hr to Hervey Bay, then another 4hr to Brisbane, caught the 2pm bus to Casino than the 7pm train to Sydney, which got us home around 7am yesterday.
Phew.
So ya, found my heaven aboard a sailboat with amazing people, great food and a whole "ship"load of fun. It is definately going on my recomendation list for anyone coming this way (the list is getting rather long by now, but very very stellar stuff)
umm, so ya, now I'm back in the city and starting school tomorrow. enough said on that subject. moving on...
I have a job. Both Kristine and I. We're working at a little Organic Cafe called Size Matters. Between the both of us we have full time hours so its working out perfectly!
Hope you all are doing great and I would love love love to hear from you. So drop me a quick line just so I feel connected and not completely oblivious to all the fabulous things you all are doing. So please, WRITE ME! I thought everyone liked to talk about themselves. haha
Cheers all and will chat soon!
I think I have seen my future.
I'm going to go out, make a whole lot of money and then buy a sailboat and sail around the world.
Sounds fanciful? Well thats what I spent the last four days of my Queensland journey doing. We started out towards the Whitsunday Islands from Airlie Beach and were greeted at our resting spot by a very friendly dolphin! He continually swam around our boat making us oohhh and ahhhh. Amazing (Warning: I will use that word alot). Then in the morning the crew got up ridiculously early (4:30am) and began to sail. When we surfaced around 3hr later we were in the middle of the ocean with only tiny specs of islands in the vast distance. We found ourselves 40miles off the coast and this is where we were diving. Now I'm not afraid of much, but the things that make my heart race all reside in the dark abyss of water. And however calm it was still rather dark water. Then the tide began to go down, my hear rate with it. The bottom of the blue-green water began to appear, and we dove 24m down. This brought us face to face with unbelievable corral, fish you think only exist in aquariums, and caverns, which our resident diver Shawn took us manouvering through - intimidating when you have an extra 8inches of height strapped to your back.
I should mention now that to save considerable confusion later that our boat was lovingly named "Spank Me"
So the scuba diving was one of the coolest things I've every done, and after half an hour of turtles, wobbigongs (which measured in at 2.5m and Shawn called "a small shark") and every colour under the sun we made our way back up to the boat, where we took a little rest and then went snorkeling. By lunch time, the tide was down and you could see the corral from the top of the water - it was like land was slowly surfacing while we were still in the middle of nowhere. After we headed back intowards the islands, found our place to stop right near Whitehaven Beach, and had supper and some delicious hard lemonade. There were 22 people on the boat, not including the crew of 4, and they were all fantastic - we had a lot of fun having a few drinks and watching the sun go down!!
The second day, we went hiking over to Whitehaven Beach which is very beautiful and will be on any postcard or picture of the Whitsundays. And the water was unbelievably warm! Then we made our way to a different island where we got back in the water for another, longer dive. Again, saw some amazing things that words would not even be close to describing. Then, because the weather was riculously beautiful and windless and being on a sailboat, that means no sailing, our skipper Gary took us to Long Beach Island Resort. The whole ship went to the bar, had way too many drinks and then went back to the boat, where we started a fabulous dance party and drank the night away!
The next day there were some rather green faces....
but nothing another snorkelling trip wouldnt fix. By 11am we were heading back to land, where we hopped in our gas-guzzling tiny red hyundai and drove the 11hr to Hervey Bay, then another 4hr to Brisbane, caught the 2pm bus to Casino than the 7pm train to Sydney, which got us home around 7am yesterday.
Phew.
So ya, found my heaven aboard a sailboat with amazing people, great food and a whole "ship"load of fun. It is definately going on my recomendation list for anyone coming this way (the list is getting rather long by now, but very very stellar stuff)
umm, so ya, now I'm back in the city and starting school tomorrow. enough said on that subject. moving on...
I have a job. Both Kristine and I. We're working at a little Organic Cafe called Size Matters. Between the both of us we have full time hours so its working out perfectly!
Hope you all are doing great and I would love love love to hear from you. So drop me a quick line just so I feel connected and not completely oblivious to all the fabulous things you all are doing. So please, WRITE ME! I thought everyone liked to talk about themselves. haha
Cheers all and will chat soon!
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