Airlie Beach 29/06/2007

We're still at Airlie beach but we haven't been idle. On Wednesday we went on a boat trip to Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. There was some snorkelling but it was too cold for us so we stayed on the boat. Then we went to Whitehaven beach which is 98% pure silica sand, i.e. very white and fine and it never gets hot (or so we were told).

Lovely beach, shame about the weather. I would love to go back there when the weather is good, i.e. when the sun is shining. It was also here that we played cricket on the beach and I completely embarrassed myself by not being able to bowl the ball properly even after about five attempts.

The boat was cool too cause all drinks and food was included. Well worth it.

The boat was called the Camira and it was a big purple catamaran. The people on it were really nice too. I'd recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good boat trip out to the islands and Whitehaven beach.

Yesterday we went on a different boat to another part of the reef. It was out on this platform thing where there was more snorkelling and glass bottom boats, stuff like that. That day was a good day because at last the sun has arrived in Australia. It's about two weeks late but we'll forgive it if it stays a while.

There wasn't really much to do on the pontoon if you weren't snorkelling or diving. The glass bottom boat was interesting enough but we didn't manage to see the huge sea turtle that they said was lurking about. So I just tended to wander about and take photos of the guys in their very fetching wetsuits.

Oh and we saw some whales on the way out to the platform. They were about 400 metres from the boat and you could just about make them out when they surfaced. There were a few dolphins that came near to the boat and you could see them very clearly. So all in all two very good days out.

Be cool, Paddy.