Airlie and the GBR

I awake as the coach arrives at Airlie beach and soon we are off the coach and heading to our hostel. We can’t check in right away but are able to leave our bags there. A large group of us head to a local cafe called Treehouse near the man-made beach. The cafe is decent enough and we have a good time but a couple of the staff are rather grumpy for some reason, but maybe that can be somewhat expected when turning up with a large group and no booking. In our defence the cafe wasn’t busy though. Once we had all had our fill I head to Cotton On as, in a couple of days we are doing the Whitsunday boat tour and are having a white party, and I don’t have any white clothes. Luckily Cotton On come through and I get what I need. After the clothes are purchased I head back, check in, and spend the afternoon just chilling in my room. As good as I have become at sleeping on coaches, it is never the best night’s sleep you get, so I am feeling a little sleepy and there are some bars/clubs I wanna hit tonight.

So after my rest a group of us head out for a mini-pub crawl. We end up hitting Boatys, Magnum and Africa. It is a fun night, with the drinks flowing the tunes blasting and as always the hips swaying. Not everyone is able to make it until the end of the night though. The survivors consisting of Aron, Matt, Alex, El and me. A little tipsy and the worse for wear, our walk back to the hostel is a funny one. I don’t have the strongest of memories, I was maybe a little tipsy, but I do remember we spent virtually all of the walk back cracking jokes and laughing our arses off. Like most of my previous experiences of going out it isn’t always the club that’s the best bit but the mucking about with your mates pre and post the night out. Anyway, we finally all make it back. This hostel is like a complex with different rooms and houses all over the place. Luckily for me the room I am in is basically right at the entrance, which is a touch.

Once the flight is over and we are back in Airlie I head out with Dan to pick up some drinks for the boat, as we leave tomorrow. As we pass the shops he suggests I buy a pair of sunnies, as he got told by a friend that when looking over board the light can reflect off the water and make it hard to see any of the fish around the boat. So having travelled in perpetual summer for almost a year I finally buy some sunglasses. After we have dropped off the beers in our rooms Dan and I head to KC’s bar. Some of the group are coming here for lunch to have their platter but Dan and I get there a little early to have a beer before lunch. The platter, which most of the table get, is a variety of Australian meats: spicy wild boar meatballs, emu sausage, charred kangaroo loin and charred crocodile skewer, along with beetroot relish, creamy garlic sauce and chips and salad. My personal favourite is the kangaroo steak a little tougher than beef and a more gamey taste but nice nevertheless. Boar was something I have had before and enjoy, the emu was okay but nothing special, the crocodile however was not for me, it had way too much of a fishy taste and the texture was a bit mushy for me. Afterwards Dan and I head to watch the UFC fight at a bar before the night out the group has planned. It is a great series of fights and a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

With the fights over we head back to the hostel to get ready for tonight’s activities, Pub Golf. The group is split up into teams and I am paired up with Chiara and Raphaela the two Germans, forming a power house team called GTG or German Tom German, similar to one of our favourite restaurants GYG. I am pleased with my team as Germans are known for their drinking and in certain circles so am I. My high hopes are upheld as we work our way through the night, my team downing drinks like champions. I struggle with one rule that says the first to go to the toilet costs their team points. Dan and I both struggle as we have weak bladders and have been drinking since before lunch. Luckily the promise of a round or two convinces Dan to be the first to break the seal. Later in the night my team are in a tie break with another team consisting of Amy, Alex and Aron or AAA. I attempt a handstand chug to get the lead but only manage to get half my pint down before I can’t hold the handstand any longer. The games are pronounced a tie with a tie breaker to happen on the boat. It was a fun night and the group goes to bed excited to head out on the boat tomorrow.

Hamilton Island

Heart shaped coral reef

Australian meats

I find out the next morning that my other survivors did not have the cleanest of arrivals back to their room, waking up most of the other beds by someone falling off the ladder on their bunk. Luckily the room is filled with people from our group so no innocent bystanders lost sleep. I wake up feeling not too bad to be fair and after a shower make my way to the hostels restaurant/bar and chug down a cup of tea, excited for our next activity. A lot of the group has signed up for this one and I am not surprised – we have a scenic flight over the GBR, The Great Barrier Reef. We get on the transfer bus and head out to the runway that the flights take off from. We have to sit through a safety briefing and get to watch as different little planes leave and return. A few of our group are worried about feeling sick on the flight, not helped by the number of people who seem to be getting off the returning flights looking a shade of green. I imagine they weren’t looking that way when they first got here. One guy almost even collapses in front of Dan and me as we are waiting. I am lucky I have never been one to get motion sickness and the group I am on the plane with all seem fine.

Handstand chug

Team GTG

Ready for take off

Flying over the Great Barrier Reef

The flight is amazing the reef is beautiful, I even spot a couple of sharks as we soar over. We fly over Hamilton Island where the 1989 thriller Dead Calm, starring a young Nicole Kidman and New Zealand-born actor Sam Neill, was filmed. It is an amazing experience that we all really enjoy, a highlight is the heart shaped reef and the fly along we do when we end up with a plane either side of us from the air strip. It is really a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Tracking my flight path

Formation flight back