Bad luck, a change of plans and finding Nemo

The moment we set foot back on the mainland, after Fraser Island, the heavens decided to open again! Thankful that we had had 3 perfect days of weather we weren't too worried and used our last day in Rainbow Beach to chill with new friends, share more Fraser stories and have our first OZ BBQ (even if it was UK BBQ weather) and duly piled on the meat for a fantastic feed and a great way to end an incredible few days.


Next stop was Airlie Beach and a three day sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, paradisaical in every sense of the word, and so still travelling with Irish Steve the Leprechaun who was booked on the same boat as us, we braved another night bus with excitement running high. However on arriving in Airlie Beach we found yet more heavy showers and some light breezes to boot. Slightly annoyed that we were going to have to sleep on a wet deck in the days ahead, we headed out for yet more volleyball world records in the Iriganji-free lagoon and afterwards a few beers and some NRL viewing. By the following day, these light breezes had picked up dramatically before finally, upon check-in, the bombshell was dropped, the boat was cancelled and with a tight time schedule and no obvious weather improvement foreseeable, our Whitsunday dream was over! All the good luck we have been having, and the disasters that have been following in our wake, have finally caught up with us with devastating consequences.

A time for a change of plans to turn this bad fortune around was decided upon, and after moving our funds over to a Great Barrier Reef trip in Cairns we made a big call to move our flight forward to Singapore by 4 days with Australia not holding much more interest for us and time looking short in Asia. We then proceeded to get 'Transmogified' on Goon to drown our sorrows and hatch new plans, under the severe influence to Fruity Lexia.

The one last box we were both desperate to tick before leaving OZ was the Great Barrier Reef and with Cyclone warnings constant we crossed our fingers and prayed to the gods for some mercy. Thankfully they finally obliged and we set sail and what turned out to be an unforgettable day.

Come 6.45 the alarms went off and we were ready to roll, the first stop was Green Island for a an hour or so chill before heading out to the Wall, a famous part of the Reef that only our boat, the 'Ocean Freedom' goes too. A quick stop to devour some delicious lunch was then taken before we jumped in the slightly choppy, 28 degree water for some snorkeling and were treated to some spectacular views, with the reef in touching distance even from the surface. However, we didn't have long before it was time to don our diving equipment, both slightly nervous with Steve losing his diving virginity and me failing miserably with a rubbish sinus system at the last attempt. But with crazy Becky at our side it could not have been any better. In the 30 minutes we saw some of the best Reef the GBR has to offer with hundreds of different types of fish and coral, including Nemo, and even managed to get down to 9m, much deeper than other first time divers. The pictures we took on a cheap underwater camera don't really do this underwater paradise justice and it was certainly on of the best things we have done on the trip so far. The only dodgy point being when my body, which had not enjoyed going down too much, liked coming up even less and saw thousands of tiny stars on the way up which required a long sit down afterwards. Not fun. The trip concluded with a glass bottom boat ride and some more incredible food, if Carlsburg made day trips.....









We concluded the day with our hostel's, Asylum (prison themed hostel...), Mad Monday Pub Crawl which got very messy, very quickly with plenty of games and new friends being made. A great way to round off one of the best days of the tour so far and our last major day in OZ. The next blog post will be coming from Continent number 4 of the trip....