Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays

Hello Dear Readers!

Having become fast friends with Katie and Shuaib, I decided to hop into their car in lieu of taking the train on the way up to Airlie Beach.

However, first, we headed down to Tin Can Bay to see some dolphins, on the advice of Katie and Cassi.

So, we woke up at 5am and headed the hour and a half out of the way in order to go hang out with some river dolphins at 7am.

Long story short, the dolphins, which were due to arrive at 7, in fact did not turn up until 9:30. So we sat, and waited, and waited, and waited some more.

We waited for so long that we took photos of the laminated action shots of the dolphins and pretended they were ours.

Finally! Two dolphins arrived and we got to spend a brief few minutes hanging out with them in the water before making the 13 hour trek to our hostels.

We were super authentic along the way, eating at Macca’s and (in my case) ordering only ice cream and french fries.

We didn’t get in until about 10pm, at which point we headed to our separate hostels. (We had already prebooked everything).

Mine was a little less than…great.

I was awoken bright and early by the sounds of my bunkmake noisily leaving, which I extra appreciated because she had kept me up with her snoring the night before.

So! Along the way to Airlie Beach, we five had decided to book a two night Whitsundays cruise together. Kati and Cassi met us separately, having driven their camper van up to Airlie Beach, so the next day we all met up and headed out to the boat.

Our first day started late, so we only had time for a bit of a swim before settling down to dinner and continuing on our way. We found out later that our swimming spot was a favorite hangout for sharks, but luckily none of us managed to get eaten.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the best part.

Look, I know space is tight on a boat.

But why did I have to sleep in a coffin?

Above the engine room?

At least we were all smushed in together, so we all got to suffer equally. That’s true friendship, you guys.

Anyway, coffin bunk aside, there’s something so unspeakably cool about having a (nearly) private boat sailing you amongst some of the nicest islands in the world.