Airlie Beach & The Whitsundays

I have finally completed 88+ days of farm work and I am free to do what ever I want! I had such a great time during these three months and met so many nice people and the best of all - made new friends! The families who have hosted me have been absolutely amazing and given me an excellent understanding of Aussie lifestyle. I have been spoiled rotten and it has been a true eyeopener! I have flown a chopper, mustered cattle on a ute, gone through hell to get one bull into the yards, fed baby calves and got one named after me. That is a real compliment from the family I stayed with. Plus I got my new iPhone tax fee and a nominal amount paid by my host saying it was a leaving pressie and she cannot thank me enough for all the things I have done. It has been an absolute journey and without a single doubt in my mind I would do it all over again (if needed). For now I am very happy to do what ever I want - chill out on the beach, not cook, not eat meat every day, enjoy meeting new people and get new experiences. The best thing is that I have not met a single Estonian in the 8 months that I have been in this country!

Righty-O, my adventure started a couple of days ago when I caught a coach from Rockhampton to Airlie Beach. It was an overnight journey of 6 hours. I even slept for a while. Just when my bum started to feel like the shape of the seat we arrived in Airlie Beach. It was 7am in the morning and I could already feel the heat and humidity. It felt nice. There was a pick up car from the hostel waiting for its guests so I did not even have to worry about how to get to the hostel. Airlie Beach itself actually doesn't have a beach, except for a small strip of sand. AB is famous for the 74 islands situated off the coast known as The Whitsundays. My plan was to spend four days at Airlie Beach and then move on. Tough luck, I ended up postponing my bus booking for three times. I was supposed to leave yesterday morning at 7am but thought it would be better to stay for another day and take a boat tour to Whitehaven beach - the highlight of the Whitsundays. I had seen photos of the place before but it is stunningly beautiful and completely exceeded my expectations!! It is a paradise!

Airlie Beach itself is a famous party destination for all backpackers. The party is on 7 nights a week. There's not much to do during the day if you're not sailing or cruising around the islands. There's an outdoor pool called the Lagoon which is free to use for everyone. The lagoon is there for a purpose - from Nov to May is considered a stinger season and swimming in the ocean without a stinger suit is not recommended. Apparently, there are some deadly jellyfish that can put you through a lot of grief or even kill. The most popular stinger around here is called Irukandji. There have not been many fatalities but these have greatly increased the awareness of the jellyfish.

Back to my adventures. I spent the first day of arrival at the lagoon and soaked up the sun. For second day I had a sailing trip booked with max 8 people on board. It was a great day out. All I had to do was sit back, relax and enjoy the views. Well, within the first 45 minutes I spotted a hammer head shark. Shocking! It was so random. It put me off snorkelling for a bit but the skipper assured we would be snorkelling in an area that doesn't have sharks. There have not been any shark attacks in this area in general. Sounds pretty safe to me.

We did a bit of snorkelling and I managed to swim with two green turtles. They would have been around a metre or 1,5 in length. I felt amazing diving under water and swimming side by side with them. Such a beautiful experience. Later on I got surrounded by around 10-20 bat fish. They were quite big and scary in the beginning but it was fun to play around with them. 

My second tour was an ocean safari type of trip that took us all the way to Whitehaven Beach. The "sand" there is all natural and there are heavy fines for attempting to take any of it with you. The sand is actually not sand, it is 89% pure silica. It is so white and thin as powder. The sand stretches over seven kilometres and it is the most photographed beach in Australia and the third most photographed landmark in Australia.

Apart from sightseeing I had such a great time at AB that I kept pushing my departure forward continuously. Why would I have to leave if I have no time constraint? So I decided to stay a night longer.

At the moment I am on my way to Cairns, just got on the bus and hour ago and will have to survive another 10 before I get there. Next update from Cairns already!