At the Whitsundays

We were here to spend two days in a boat.
But first we had to endure a night in a backpackers hostel in a shared room where a bunch of drunk idiot kids where also staying.
While waiting for the departure time we went out to the beach in Arlie Beach:


(The beach at Arlie Beach)

A good appetizer for what was to come.
The boat we were going to spend the next 2 days and night isn’t just any boat.
In fact she was built for the British Navy sailing team, launched in 1989 by some Duke in England, and participated in the whitbread round the world regatta.
Her name is the British Defender


(British Defender)

It’s a bit of a shame that such a great piece of naval engineering (for its time) ended up chartering people who can’t say the difference between the bow and the stern, but on the other hand it gives us all the possibility to sail in a Maxi Yacht (despite all the interior being rearranged and refitted for the chartering purpose…)


(British Defender, again)

And if you’re into this kind of thing, there are at least 10 different Maxis you can choose from. None of them very recent, but still… it was really cool!
The crew was all girls (4 in fact) who completely controled the thing


(the deck)

And in the end we got to get a bit of true sailing. The fellow with the purple t-shirt only left the spot he is in this photo on the end of the second day…


(sailing)

And you may wonder why is everyone sitting and not lying on the side of the boat.
They were before (I was too), but after I got up and went under to get a cheese sandwich, the girl lying most to the bow felt kind of strange, and threw up. We were heading upwind, and everyone (except for me that was under fixing the sandwich) was lying on the side. Do I need to explain what happened? Ok, basically everyone got a bit of the previous dinner (partially digested) on them.
After they realized that the wet feeling it wasn’t a wave or a drop of rain, they all decided best not to lye or sit on the brownish yellow stuff on the deck.
This is where I found them.
Enough about the boat. The Whitsundays is all about the 98.9% silica white sands and the crystal blue waters, so look at the pictures and feel envy!


(sand stretch)


(the white sands beach at the Whitsundays)


(the turquoise waters)

And the wildlife, in this case a Stingray that was standing in half a meter of water, right next to me.


(meeeen! It's a stingray!)

And because the boats go through this way everyday, when they come to these cliffs they just use a whistle, and a couple of eagles come to the boat.
Then there’s the “throw the sausage into the air so the eagle can catch it mid flight” They asked not to put photos on facebook, so I wont. But this isn’t facebook, so it’s ok.


(the eagle)

One of the most amazing places I’ve ever been, and one could easily spend one week or more sailing around these islands, and discovering these amazing snorkeling and diving places.

This must be the smallest airport in the world

I mean… this is not Africa, right?
So if you call something an airport, it should look like one!
We got to Proserpine airport, we left the airplane area through some doors, and all of a sudden we were in the middle of a crowd. As Pipa went to see how we could get to Arlie Beach – the final destination to visit the Whitsundays – I went for a smoke.
As I was outside, smoking, I remembered that we were missing one bag! We forgot to go to the baggage claim belt and get the bag we had checked in!
I wanted to let Pipa know so she could try to retrieve it, but I couldn’t get anywhere near the airport doors because smokers (despite being out in the open) are not allowed to smoke within 10 metres from the doors – and because we were in the end of the world, everyone seemed to be extremely zealous with their rules, despite no one under 85 worked at this so called airport.
Then Pipa got out of the building, and I told her about the bag. She pointed to the people standing on the corner of the building… it got me puzzled…


(people standing looking dumb just waiting for their bags... in the open)

Turns out, the small yellow rectangle you can see slightly under the JetStar banner read: Baggage Claim. Yup! For you to get your bags, you needed to wait outside the terminal, for them to carry the bags just next to the bus!


(here come our bags)

I couldn’t believe it!
In the end, everyone working at the airport was indeed over 85 years old, and everyone stuck by the rules to the most intimate detail. When we were coming back they detected a cigarette lighter “stashed” in the pocket of my jacket. They made me go back through the x-ray thing to take it out of the pocket, put it in a plastic tray and make it go through the machine again…
It makes me wonder: Do they think this is really necessary? Or they just do it because it’s written somewhere? And who on earth comes up with these rules?!?
I mean, never in any other airport I was asked to put the lighter in a separate tray! They usually thank me when I tell them that I don’t have anything in my pockets because I’ve put everything in the pockets of my jacket (that goes through the machine).
And despite all their efforts in keeping terrorists away, not even once (I mean in all the flights we took since we got here) they’ve check our ID’s… not during check-in nor during boarding… I could be Bin-Laden himself (in disguise ofc, because I'm much prettier) and I would board every plane in the country, no questions asked!

Finally at Brisbane

So, we caught the flight to Brisbane at 6:00 this morning. I’m completely dead. Didn’t sleep even one hour!
But we went sightseeing anyway!
So we got to Brisbane, and spent the next hour arguing with each other (clearly we both need our hours of sleep) - This is a lot more common than you'd think, but it's our thing!


(Weird placement for a church... or for a skyscraper)

After getting into town, and having something to eat we went to the Botanical Garden in the middle of the town, and spent the next two hours laying in the grass sleeping.


(weird drippy tree)


(nice purple flowers tree)

Had a hamburger at “Hungry Jack’s” (the local version of Burger King) and… we’re back at the airport to fly into Proserpine so that tomorrow we can finally get into the boat!
This is what we've seen of Brisbane (not much, right?)

The Whitsundays - Intro

As I said in an earlier post, I was living with my girlfriend in Australia, and we were traveling as much as we could.
At this point we decided it was time to go to some place warm and sunny (amazingly you can have 10ºC in Melbourne and about 30ºC in the Whitsundays).
For those who don't know, the Whitsundays is a set of islands close to the great barrier reef. When I say close, it is a way to put it because it will still take you about one or two days by boat to get there. Anyway, it's one of the places you can depart to get to the barrier.
One of the attractions here is to go sailing in an eighty feet maxi racing yacht. This is what we've done. We went sailing for 3 days / 2 nights aboard the "British Defender" with an all girls crew (very cool!).
Check out the following posts for a set of pictures so you can have a better idea of what this trip is all about.
As an advice, if you're planning on doing this trip, I can tell you a few things.
Firstly, book your stay at Arlie's Beach in advance. There are a lot of hostels to choose from, and they are almost all the same in terms of quality and price.
It's better if you book the boat in advance. There are departures almost everyday, in different boats, but in high season many of them are fully booked. You can actually get a discount if you book on site, but you take the chance of not getting a place. If you don't have a tight schedule and are able to wait for a vacancy to come up risk it, but if you have a tight schedule it's better if you book in advance.
Be sure you pack light for the boat. If you're taking a huge backpack or suitcase take a smaller backpack where you can put just a few items for the days you'll be at sea. The hostel will be happy to keep the bigger bags for you while you're out (it has a cost though).
Bring you flip flops aboard. You won't need shoes (in fact you're not allowed to have any shoes on while in the boat).
Bring your own alcohol aboard, but no glass bottles are allowed - They will tell you this in any of the liqueur shops on shore (they even have these plastic bags for you to pour the wine in).
Bring cash if you want to pay for scuba or some other extra drinks.
And that's about it.