2 Crazy Sheilas

Wow so here we are, I’ve already completed almost half of my journey down the coast and I can’t believe where the time has gone. We have done so many cool things thus far and I can’t wait to tell you about the Whitsunday Island sail aboard the Derwent Hunter. 

Miranda and I woke early, and slowly, as the night before we had some fun with new friends laughing at drunk dancers. As we tiredly put our bags in storage and headed for the marina I grew more and more excited for the next three days aboard the Derwent Hunter, which was a cream and green colored tall sailing ship.

We boarded the boat settled our bags into our bearths, learned how to use the head, and exited the marina where we set sail for a coral beach in the distance. As we raised the sails and gradually got used to the salty, sticky damp feeling of ourselves and everything we owned, we cruised along the water and eventually came to a coral beach and ripped our feet apart when we walked along. Luckily we headed straight for the water and did some snorkeling, which I must say was not nearly as good as the Great Barrier Reef. Swiming over to the dingy to see our deckhand throw fish food into the water and see the fish go in a frenzy to get the food was a really wierd sight to see. Especially (contrary to Mirandas blog which says I’m on the beach, where she is very wrong, I was right there with her) when the deckhand threw the fish food onto us and all of the fish swarmed me and jumped and hit my mask and skurried past me, whereby I freaked out. I must say I like the look of fish from a distance, not when they are hitting me! After an interesting snorkel and a lounge on the very unconfortable beach, we were taken back to the boat for a huge lunch and another ride to our destination for the night.

We dropped anchor and listened to our skipper tell us about the stars while we had a nice dinner and a glass of wine before we went below deck and headed to bed.

The next day we awoke to cloudy and rainy weather, ate some breakfast and headed to the famous (top ten in the world) Whithaven Beach for the afternoon. After making a stop in Blue Pearl Bay to do a bushwalk up the the lookout of Whithaven beach we headed around the island and dropped anchor where we had lunch and the hopped onto the dingy to be taken to the beach. When we arrived on the beach it immediately started raining abd didn’t stop until we were picked up again…go figure! At first I tried to stay dry with a raincoat but after awhile I decided it was no use and I ditched it to cover my things and went for a walk down the beach with Miranda where we collected sand and coral, and drew pictures in the sand. We learned that the sand on the beach was actually silica, which is essentially glass I think, and we learned that it acted as a really good jewelry polisher whereby Miranda and I polished our earrings and rings! Although it was raining it was a beautiful beach, I couldn’t imagine what it could have looked like if it had been sunny!

After being picked up from the beach our tall ship headed for the second night destination, a bay-like inlet that blocked us from the ripping winds. We had a chat, wine and good dinner on the deck of the boat before I headed to bed.

When I woke the next morning and climbed to the deck of the ship I was really glad to see that the last day of our sailing trip was sunny! We immediately headed for a island that had the name Black something or something Black and went to whore where we did some more snorkeling and lounging on the beach. I was envious to hear that some people saw sea turtles and sting rays while snorkeling, which is something I didn’t see. After our sunny afternoon on the beach we Headed back to Airlie Beach. 

Our trip came to an end and we hopped off of the boat where Miranda and I smuggled Whithaven beach sand a shells past the coral sniffing dog and headed back to the city to do some much needed laundry and showering. Later that night we met up with the people on our trip and ate dinner and had a few drinks at a bar named Beaches. It was a really fun night, but being that I had been on a boat for days I was wuite tired so eventually, once the Sangria and free beer ran out, I headed back to the Hostel with Miranda and headed to bed.

This morning Miranda and I were able to sleep in, which I took full advantage of, sleeping until 11 and waking to see that Miranda was not there. I was very happy to sleep in and gain back some hours of much needed rest. Miranda and I went for lunch, bagels (yumm!), bought some books for some light reading, and then caught up on our blogs…whereby I had a little more catching up to do! But now that I am caught up I am very happy!

Tomorrow Miranda and I have to be on our Oz bus at 6:45 am, hopefully we are at the correct place, and we head to Kroombit for the night. Kroombit is a cattle station where we will get the chance to crac a whip and round up goats as well as see a mini rodeo. I can’t say whether of not I am excited for my rural adventure, I will let you all know what becomes of it.

Until then thank you for reading!

~Claire