July 28 - Airlie beach, Whitsundays, Brisbane and Australia zoo

July 28
Hello everybody,
Alright, now for an update, so here is the latest on my Australian journey.

Ok so as I mentioned previously, it was raining in Airlie beach as the shuttle took me to my hostel (Airlie beach YHA) on the main street on July 22nd. So I wandered around a bit and checked in at Oz adventures. It continued to rain most of the day. I went to bed early that night.

On Wednesday the 23rd Prosail called me to let me know that my sail that was supposed to leave that day was cancelled because of gail winds and rain, but I missed the call (I was still asleep) and I didn’t have phone credit, so I couldn’t call them back. I checked out and went across the street to the office (pretty convenient!) and they gave me the option of going on the same tour on a different boat the next day. That would be good, but I had to check if it would work out timewise and I needed to find a place to stay for the night. I went on the net, talked to Mattias and Joshua on skype, found out I couldn’t change my flight to Brisbane, and went back. They found me a hostel down the road (backpackers by the bay) and got the shuttle to pick me up directly after the sail trip was done. So the rest of the day it was still raining and pouring, I wandered around, had some coffee, put more money on my visa (yikes) and just tried to kill time. I went for steak dinner after having a good chat about God with a Jewish guy in my dorm room, it was interesting.

On Thursday the 24th, I woke up and, thank God, it wasn’t raining. I checked out and walked down to the main street, they hadn’t called me so that meant the trip was a go! Awesome. After talking to my Mom on the phone, I walked down to the harbour with all my gear and got to the boat. The sailing trip was a 2 day 2 night sail with about 30 of us, going around the Whitsunday Islands, doing some snorkelling and going to famous Whitehaven beach. I met lots of new people on the boat that day. On the trip there were quite a few people from the UK area (Ireland, Wales, England), some people from Germany, a group from Spain and some people from Holland, along with 3 Canadians including myself. We got to an Island and stopped for snorkelling, we were outfitted with stinger suits (for the unlikely event of a jellyfish in the middle of winter) and the standard snorkel gear. I was nervous about going in, I didn’t think it would be that good, I had not enjoyed snorkelling in high school (in a pool haha) and I am not a good swimmer. But I’m in Australia, so I jumped in, and almost everyone was jumping in, also I had paid for it. It was cool, I got used to it, but ended up a ways from where I wanted to get to (I had no direction while snorkelling), after seeing a little bit of reef and swimming around in a circle, I came back in. We had chicken for dinner (they joked it was seagull, maybe it was, no worries) and basically at night talked to people and most people played drinking games....interesting, not suprising, too bad there wasn’t anything else to do.

On Friday it was sunny all day, we had a morning snorkel after brekkie and motoring to the dive spot. I was a little more excited this time, and they dropped us right over the reef this time. It was beautiful. The water was so clear, the coral was so close, I was swimming alongside colourful fish while watching the coral sway back and forth in the water like trees in the wind. Green, yellow, red, blue, purple, pointy, rocklike, bushy, antlers, leafy...all kinds of things, it was pretty cool, swimming around over the valleys, trying not to hit the coral, for over an hour. Afterwards we sailed for almost 3 hours to get to the access point to Whitehaven beach. It was a good sail, really long, we went super fast, tacked a few times and saw whales and big turtles, and of course had some good chats. The whole area just felt so tropical. We docked in a bay and they brought us to the Island in a little boat. We hiked up to a lookout point to see the 4th most photographed thing in Australia from above. It looked beautiful and huge. Afterwards we walked down to the beach and the 99% silicone white sand, and the uber shallow clear water. A few of us wandered around in the water and I was amazed by how far we would go out and still be able to see the bottom and stand on it. Not really sure how to describe it, but it was pretty cool. We had a few hours then went back to the boat. After just hanging out and talking to each other (had another good chat about religion with a girl from Israel) we had steak and mashed potatoes for dinner, yum. That night everyone played drinking games and listened to music again, I played with my solo lemonade and a big bottle of water.

On Saturday we woke up to the sun yet again and sailed back to the marina. They rushed me back after saying goodbye to everyone and I ran from the dock to the Marina street where I got to the shuttle pickup just in time and then flew to Brisbane from the beautiful tiny tropical Whitsunday airport. I got to Brisbane and it was sunny and warm. I brought my bags and checked in at Chill backpackers (love the name). Then I set out to explore Brisbane and find some Starbucks and some food (hadn’t eaten since brekkie at 8). I wandered around the Queen street markets for awhile checking everything out before everything would close around 5. I had a good chicken wrap at Red Rooster and went back to my hostel. After going on the internet for awhile I looked up Starbucks, then walked to it only to find it closed at 4:30. Oi, Australia can be a little frustrating, everything closes earlier here, even on Saturdays. So I went to coffee club and relaxed for awhile with an expensive coffee, and typed up my thoughts on Capernwray.

On Sunday I woke up at 9ish and took the train to the Australia zoo, getting there around 11, its an hour and a half train ride, crazy. I walked into the zoo and right away realized how huge this zoo is becoming, by the way it wants to become the greatest zoo in the world, it has 75 acres developed and it owns i think 1500. I wandered around the zoo, walking with the Kangaroos, petting them, and then a ton of other animals, pet a koala, finally saw a Tasmanian devil, and saw the famous crocodiles, and a bunch of others like dingoes and echidnas. I took the super long train back and hit up a Starbucks that was actually open at 5ish and went down to the riverfront and walked along the river for about an hour. It was really nice, too bad it got dark and started raining. I went to Queen street to find some food, ended up going to Subway, and spending like 10 bucks for just a 6inch sub and a drink (at home the same thing would be about 7 bucks, but then I went into Krispy Kreme and they gave me a free donut! Sweet as. Went back to the hostel and did some laundry, got ready for surfers.

Today is the 28th, and I checked out of my hostel and walked along the Brisbane river parks before heading out to Surfers.

Picture count =4948 ....that is a ton, only 52 more to reach 5000...too easy. And about 420 videos. Im going to have to go through and delete a few when I get home...maybe haha.

So I’m off to surfers for a two nights, checking out the theme parks and the beach, then to Byron bay for a day and 2 nights, then to Sydney for my last weekend (fri and sat night). On Sunday the 3rd(i think) I’ll head to the school and stay two nights, before flying to Singapore for two nights. Then I fly home to CANADA on the 7th.

Thats about it, getting excited to head home, while seeing the last few things and spending the little money I have left.

Thanks for reading.

From Down Under,

Adam