We just arrived here last night, and we're still swaying from the sailing trip! Turns out it costs exactly the same to fly (1h15) and to greyhound (about 25 hours) from Airlie Beach to Brisbane. So, we flew!
The sailing trip was spectacular. We went on a boat called the New Horizon, for 2 days and 2 nights with 36 other 20-something backpackers. We sailed from Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach, to the Whitsunday Islands just off the coast. These are among 74 islands, all part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which border Australia's Northeast coast.
The group was fabulous! We met a super-friendly group of 5 Irish girls, all travelling the world together. They made me want to visit Ireland! We spent our days snorkeling and scuba diving on the coral reefs, lying on spectacular white sandy beaches, and swimming in the most perfect azure blue waters you can imagine. And we saw SO MANY cool creatures! There were heaps of dolphins swimming around the boat, playing in the water and competing for our attention (I swear they were putting on a show!). We saw a ton of massive and beautiful sea turtles too! They are apparently quite shy and rarely let you got too close to them, but we had one come right up to the little raft to eat some floating seaweed as we were heading back to the sailboat from the beach yesterday. It was close enough to touch! When we were snorkeling and diving, we saw hundreds of colourful tropical fish, including some that looked like zebras, some parrotfish, one called elvis, and tons more varieties. And We saw stingrays, manta rays, squid, and a load of colourful coral. And Dory from finding nemo. And some massive and aggressive fish called GTs which bullied all the other fishies. Cool to watch from the deck of our luscious sailboat!
The scuba diving took some major getting used to. I found it pretty hard to get over the idea of breathing from a tank, and of not being able to go to the surface whenever I wanted to. But we did it! And it was totally worth it for all the cool stuff we saw. The guide had to literally hold mine and Julie's hands at first until we were brave enough to swim on our own. I liked snorkeling much better, you have so much more control and you are breathing real air, which in my head makes more sense I think? haha anyway - it was fun, and now we can tick that off the list!!
After we got back from the sailing trip, we spent the afternoon relaxing by the Airlie Beach lagoon with a few of our new best friends, before collecting our luggage and heading to the tiny Prosperpine airport. On the way to the airport we saw a wallaby by the side of the road, and a whole family of kangaroos lying in the shade in a clearing right next to the airport! I am contemplating bringing one home, you know dressed as a human to get it through customs of course.
So we spent our only full day in Brisbane exploring the city and wandering along the botanical gardens and the river bank. We had a lovely lunchtime picnic in the gardens, as well as the MOST delicious iced coffee I've ever tasted - it had ice cream in the coffee! Brilliant! When I get home I am eating nothing but ice cream-coffee and Dutch bacon-pancakes. No that's a lie, I'm going to live off christmas cookies and candy canes.
So tonight we are going to a music venue / club called the Tivoli, which is famous for hosting up-and-coming Aussie bands in their early years. The band playing tonight is called Karnivool, and they sound pretty good!
Time to go get some dinner before the show - then early tomorrow morning we head to Launceston, Tasmania to see the chocolate factory, Boag's brewery, and 2/3 of our favourite Lukes!
Much love to YOU!
xoxo
Shanna
Hahah, I'm so jealous of you guys!
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