28DaysInOz: Bus break at roadhouse on way to Cairns. 10 hr trip

Airlie Beach and 74 Whitsunday Islands

At 10am three days ago I checked in for a sailing trip out to the “fabulous Whitsunday Islands” and at 12 noon those of us who were going on the trip gathered under and awning down by the marina. Under the awning because of the sun? No, because of the rain. We all stared in trepidation at the sky with thoughts of huge rolling waves going through our minds. After a run on sea sick pills at the local quick mart we all boarded the SV Whithaven to motor out of the harbor under grey sky’s and light rain and wind.

As evening wore on the chop got larger and by nightfall we were heaving up and down, back and forth on waves the height of a lifted Suburban truck. Needless to say most of us were slightly worried about what 3 days on the boat might mean in this type of weather. TheCaptain seemed to know what he was doing, so it was a bit like rolling loaded dice to see if we would come out of the adventure in one piece…

The first night we headed into an inlet that provided some protection from the stormy seas, and we were able to settle down, have some dinner and get to know each other a bit. We had a very nice group of people on board from the usual countries (UK, Ireland, Scotland) as well as some folks from Sweden, Iran and Japan.

I was asked “the questions” yet again. “So Brian, what do you think of President Bush and who do you think will be the next president.” Those of you who know me well know the answer to the first, but I remain undecided about the second, so this provided for some good conversation. Everyone from other countries that I’ve met so far has a VERY strong opinion about the current and future US president. 99% of them agree with my perspective about the current guy in office and tended to agree with my analysis of the chances for each of the current presidential hopefuls. Time will tell if I gave good commentary to my fellow travelers.

Day two on the “Whitehaven” consisted of more gray sky and large wave action. Some people started to be sick and the future of the trip was looking a bit bleak. Yes were were in the middle of the most beautiful island group that I’ve ever seen, but a pitching boat and flat light are not the recommended way to see them. We did anchor in an inlet off one of the islands and despite limited 1 meter water visibility (lot’s of sand suspended in teh water due to the strong wave action) we managed to see some fantastic coral heads, many very large fish and some giant clams (live 2 meter wides clams are very cool looking.) We also motored over to Whitsunday island to go for a bushwalk in the rain in order to see world famous Whitehaven beach. WOW, simply stupendous beach. I’ve never seen anything like it and can’t do it justice in words. Hopefully some of my pics will turn out ok. Looking at the beach from above we saw clusters of dozens of stingrays, but mostly we saw vast horizons of unspoiled white sands and turquoise waters surrounding the islands. Oh yeah, and I ate two ants on the island. Called “greenheads” they tasted like citrus fruit, a little bit like a little squirming, lime flavored, biting mouthful (yes they bite back), they are very tasty!

Due to the continued rough weather we took a vote and decided to head to the port at Hamilton Island which is a VERY exclusive resort. I don’t think there were any yachts anchored there which cost less than 10 million dollars, and once huge gal that must have had a heli deck on the back. Vactionland for rich and famous folks from all over the world, the prices were reflective of this fact. As a boatload of backpackers we mainly used the free showers and then headed back to the boat for a night of boozing, storytelling and music. A fun time was had by all, except for Lynn, who not only lost her cell phone into the bay waters, but also found out that her grandad had died. I’m certain it was not her favorite night in Oz. The rest of us soldiered on into the night….and were awakend by the captain at 7am the next day. As we rolled over to look out the portholes we descovered a blazing blue sky and SUN SUN SUN!!!!!!!! Yes. This is why I got on a boat in the first place.

With only half a day of sailing left in the trip, we made the most of it. Another short snorkling dive entailed, with some ‘roos watching us from teh rocky shore nearby and then we headed back to Airlee around 12 noon. Tonight the group with gather for a few more pints before we all scatter to our next destinations….I’m heading to Cairns next and expect to have a few of my crewmates on the same Greyhound bus tomorrow. Should make for a nice 10 hour roadtrip. 

I’m still having trouble loading a lot of photos, bandwidth is in short supply, so you all may need to wait until I get back to my DSL line in order to see the full breadth of the images I’ve captured. Needless to say they will be varied and worth your time. Ciao for now. 

Rockhampton and Great Keppel Island

I arrived in Rocky at 9pm, a slightly longer trip than planned due to a crap bus, but I made it in time to walk down to the older part of town to grab some dinner. Uneventful, but a wonderful steak as could be expected from this town that is a thread of the Outback out to the coast. Yes, it’s a cow town. Yes there are a lot of drunk (and sober, but mainly drunk) cowboys here.

The next morning (after a terrible, mainly sleepless night freezing my tush off in the very spartan Rockhampton YHA) I ambled down to meet the mini-bus shuttle that would take me from Rocky to the Great Keppel ferry terminal about 30 minutes away. Three minutes after I sat down to wait, up walked Rosemary. She and I ended up spending the next few days together and I said goodbye to her late last night. But I get ahead of myself.

The fast cat to Keppel is a pleasant ride with an interesting ending, when the boat docked not at a ferry, but simply coasted up to a beach with a close deep water dropoff. In this way we could simply walk down the gangplank and onto the perfect white sand beach for a 2 minute stroll to the Island Resort YHA. The water, as we walked down the plank, was crystal clear, turquoise blue and teeming with fish around the coral heads.

After checking in and getting settled (consisted of saying g’day to the staffers and dropping bags in room - very laid back on this island) I walked down the “yellow brick road”, the local equivalant of the main road but in reality just a brick pathway set into the sand, to get a “flat white” coffee. Of course there were more Rainbow Lorikeet’s here, very tame (more about that later) but also some massive crows and Kookaburra birds (which are a type of Kingfisher.) This first night Rosemary and I got to know each other a bit, then walked down to the beach to watch the sun set.

Rosemary is from Shopshire (sp?) in the midlands of England and has been traveling in Australia for the past 15 months. This is not unusual of the British that I’ve met. Many tend to work, travel, work, travel and stay as long as they can. Americans are not allowed this luxury due to our lack of a work agreement with Australia for US citizens. Bummer. I’d love to stay and work here for some time.

Day two on Keppel was spent by hiking, snorkaling the reef, hiking some more, laying on a beach (only one other person on it), then hiking some more. This was so relaxing and fun that I decided to extend my trip to a third night so I canceled my second stay in Rockhampton, which forced me to take a midnight, overnight bus last night in order to meet my Whitsundays sailing tour on time.

Back to day three on Keppel. This was the perfect day. No wind, no clouds, about 23C degrees. Rosemary and I went for a VERY long hike, transiting the entire island where we spotted a herd of wild goats just as we arrived on Wreck beach to find that we had it all to ourselves. Not only is Wreck a very large and shallowly sloping beach covered in exotic shells and broken bits of coral, but it also has a very nice snorkaling reef to explore. As soon as I set my feet in the water I looked down to see a fairly large Skate (like a stingray) on the sand about 2 meters away.

On our way back to the other side of the island we saw innumerable small beautiful beaches, but we also passed through two clouds of large blue spotted butterflys (looked like blue monarchs) which was a fantastic experience kind of like walking into a silent storm of falling leaves.

I’m leaving a lot of details out simply beacause there was so much to see, but unfortunately my time on Keppel came to and end. Back to Rocky we went (Rosemary, myself and another American named Ryan) and had a final dinner together where we watched the second game of an important Rugby series in the local pub. That was a blast, but my bus was leaving at 11:55pm, so I said my goodbyes and trudged off into the night.

This morning at 6:15 (still dark out) I landed in Airle Beach before everthing was open. Actually I found one place open, so I did some laundry and am now about to run off to meet my boat in 30 minutes.

I’ve uploaded a few more photos, so take a look at Flickr or the LightTable to see them and I’ll write more after my sailing trip is over.