Cruisin' the Stormy Seas in the Whitsundays

Last Tuesday our bus arrived at Airlie Beach, Australia. The town is quite accurately named - it consists of a handful of hostels, restaurants, travel agencies, and about 500 meters of beach. Besides that, there's nothing. The town doesn't offer too much beyond a good night life (all the backpackers coming in make for a very good bar scene). However, Airlie Beach's real claim to fame is as a stepping point to the Whitsunday Islands. Countless boats offer 1, 2, and 3 day tours of the islands.

Since I will be doing a 3 day, 2 night live-aboard scuba trip on the Great Barrier Reef, I opted to do a simple daytrip. And so, on Wednesday morning I boarded the Camira, an 85-foot purple Catamaran, for a day of snorkeling, feasting, and lounging around in the sun. Well, at least that's what I would have done had the weather cooperated. I still managed to do the snorkeling and feasting, at least. As it was, it was either cloudy or rainy for most of the day. At least it cleared up enough that we were able to go snorkeling.

After admiring a friend's waterproof camera during round I of my trip last year, I bought my own waterproof camera to bring on this trip. This was the first time I put it to the test, and it performed extremely well. Because we had fewer than 40 people on our boat we were able to go to a smaller bay with really good coral / sea life. It was amazing. I got some great photos of parrotfish, coral, and a bunch of giant clams, including one over a meter in length!

After snorkeling we went to the famous Whitehaven beach, where it promptly began to rain. We didn't let that stop us, though, and played volleyball and cricket on the beach. The rain eventually let up and I wandered the beach for a bit. After the beach we retired to the boat for a giant BBQ. Determined to get my money's worth despite the bad weather, I went to town on the buffet. Waaaaay better than the food I'd been cooking in the hostels.

It began raining again, so we headed into the cabin and spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding the rain and weathering the tough seas. Strangely enough, I discovered that rough seas make me sleepy, so I ended up taking a nap.

In the evening I got dropped off with a friend at one of the Whitsunday islands (Long Island) to spend the night in a resort/hostel there. The resort was gorgeous - tons of palm trees, gorgeous beach, free kayaks, mini golf course, etc. Unfortunately, the weather continued to be uncooperative, so we weren't able to take advantage of the facilities, although I did manage to get in a trail run around the island the following morning before it started to rain again.

It would have been great if the weather had been a bit nicer, but still it was a fantastic trip. And the snorkeling was amazing! But don't take my word for it - check out the photos for yourself:

Our boat. Note the cloudy skies. Unfortunately, that's how it looked all day (when it wasn't actively raining on us)

the weather may have been crappy, but the food was great! Here Kate (a fellow OzExperience traveler) and I are enjoying the pre-lunch shrimp cocktail

because it is "stinger season" (stingers are nasty jellyfish that can make you very sick and possibly kill you), we had to wear full body singer-suite when in the water. And these guys on the beach decided to rock it out on and too. Definitely the height of fashion - I imagine these will be popping up on the runway around the world soon.

I seem to be making a theme of getting pictures while jumping off of stuff

snorkel photos - cool anemones and a clam

neat coral outcropping

look a the size of this clam! I was really curious to see what it would if I poked it, but decided not to test it - it would be rather embarrassing if it clamped on my arm and I ended up drowning. Can't get much worse than being killed by a clam. . .

check out the parrotfish!

neat oceanscape pic - managed to get a lot of fish in this pic