Saturday 31st May
White Water Rafting is possibly my new favorite sport, it is amazing!! I want to do it again even after all this time after doing it I want to do it again, brilliant!!
I got picked up at 8.00am, only just made it through my cocoa pops – was on a bit of a go slow – still not much of a morning person!! Anyway got on the bus and everyone was really quiet – not a good sign! But once we got to the main area for our first briefing it was all good, people started chatting and I sat down with a couple, Nicky and Max. Max comes from Kingston and Nicky from Staines – not far away at all, small world and all that! Well anyway I get put in a group with them – I reckon they probably regretted that as soon as we went down the first rapid and I started screaming my head off!
Now anyone who has ever heard me cream will appreciate why our guide soon called our team “Team Scream” and why the other guides came over to our boat to find out who was making all the noise and then proceeded to dunk me when they tried to get me out of the boat and I held on with my legs so they just pulled me back by my lifejacket and held me under the water!! I also went swimming when I fell for a prank played on me by the guide – he asked me how I felt about leeches and I said I didn’t know why and he told me I had one on my leg and pointed I looked down and he tipped me over!! Luckily other people in the boat were fooled by similar pranks so I wasn’t the only Muppet!
To be honest the dunking and screaming was what made it much more fun , Nicky and I were at the back of the boat providing the encouragement and screaming – luckily for me she is a fellow screamer so we had great fun! It was such an adrenaline rush trying to steer through a load of rapids which you know people have died in! Yes you ready that last bit right, two deaths in the last two years – they don’t tell you that until you’re safely in the boat and on your way!! You start wishing you hadn’t signed the disclaimer!!! To be honest a few times I thought we were going to go over and so you start paddling faster and faster and harder so you don’t go over, once you’re through and in the calmer water you’re ready for the next one. Thirteen rapids in total, and when you finish the last one you want to do it all again. Don’t get me wrong it was a bit chilly when out of the sun and wet but it’s a laugh when your doing it that you don’t notice. I even jumped off a rock in the middle of a calmer bit of water – yep, I, jumping off a rock. I must admit I had to hold Nicky’s hand on the way up there but I jumped off all my own – screaming of course!!! I would recommend it to anyone, was such a brilliant day!
Those of us who were staying in Misson Beach met up that evening for dinner and I exchanged details with Nicky. I’m in Sydney at the moment and have spent the last few days hanging out with her; tonight I’m going to the Sky Tower for dinner with her and her family – should be good!
Sunday 1st June
I can’t remember if I mentioned meeting up with the Bristol Boys at Mission Beach again but the guys James and I met in Ko Tao were working at Scotty’s Mission Beach and on the Sunday I was sunbathing and Tom and I played Gladiators over the pool. Basically there is a wooden log over the swimming pool and they have a load of foam tubes which you use to try and knock the other person into the water. Now if you had felt how blooming cold the pool water was you would have done as I did and tried extremely hard to stay on the log!! As it was we both didn’t want to go in so much that we stayed on for ages and actually called a truce because the foam tubing was actually beginning to smart!! As we started to walk off I cheated and got Tom so he fell in but then later as I was chatting to some of the other girls he managed to push me in!! Damn it! Was fun though!

Monday 2nd June
Got on the Oz Bus and headed towards Magnetic Island, had to get a ferry over there and made some friends on the bus. One of the girls I was in Mission Beach with, Monisha had kinda attached herself to me and without sounding like a cow (which I know I do!!) and I was having to try and sort out how to loose her, not that she wasn’t a nice girl but she was just a bit weird. Bit of a strange habit of asking a lot of questions and as we all know I haven’t got great patience! When you have someone who stresses as much as her she really needs to be with someone who will answer her questions and be very soft and gentle. Not going to happen here I’m afraid! When you have the following bombarding you on the bus when all you want to do is listen to your IPod it gets a little tedious! Things like…What time do we get there? How do we get there? Do we have to get a ferry pass? How long do you think the ferry will take? Do you know what time we get there? So do we have to take a ferry and then what? Have we paid for this? How much is it? Do you think we will have to pay for a bus the other end? Is there a bus the other end? How do we get to the hostel the other end?? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Now you and I know that I am not Mystic Meg but I’m not sure that Monisha didn’t think I had some sort of 6th sense and after the millionth time of saying that I didn’t know most of the answers even when she re-worded them to say the same thing but in a different way I still didn’t know I knew I was going to have to hatch a plan! Luckily I met two really cool girls called Anna and Ellen on the bus, they seemed really sound and come from Kent, we hit it off straight away. Somehow I managed to get in a room with Mon (Short for Monisha) on my own!!! Yeah not very impressed!! Anyway luckily for me everyone arranged to meet up for some dinner at the hostel restaurant so I knew I could get away! That evening I had a really good night getting to know the other girls on the bus and especially had a laugh with Anna and Ellen who I felt like I had known for years! We played pool, well attempted to play, I think the first game lasted about an hour!! We decided we were probably better when we hadn’t had a couple of beers but then a few days later we confirmed that wasn’t the case. I am actually really bad at pool generally and every now and then I get a freakily good shot. Ellen on the other hand is always pretty good but when she has a few beers and probably influences by me comes down to my level of playing!! We had such a giggle playing pool and dancing to some old school tunes, it was so nice to meet up with people who were on the same level with me.
Tuesday 3rd June
The following day us girls all met up for some brekkie and heading to the beach, which incidentally was two steps from the hostel. We stayed at Base backpackers which is in such a good location. It’s a bit out of the way of the main shops and other bits and pieces but for just lying on the beach its perfect. Its actually on the beach and you can rent out Kayaks and Snorkels and even go diving but the visibility was terrible while we were there so it wasn’t worth paying the money. It was lovely to spend a day in the sun just chilling out and listening to people’s travelling stories, I managed to get away from Mon for mos of the day although she did put her towel right in front of mine, so much so that I Sharon(one of the other girls on the bus) actually had to move from where she was so that she could lie down – just plain weird!
Wednesday 4th June
Had another lazy day on the beach, in the afternoon me, Ellen and Anna decided to go rock climbing over to the next bay, unfortunately what we weren’t prepared for was the tide coming in and almost as soon as we could see the next bay in our sights we had to turn back and made very quick moves back to our bay otherwise we would have been stranded!! Was great fun – felt like a kid again! Once back on the beach we decided we had worked hard enough to reward ourselves with white wine spritsers and the night continued on from there with a few more cheeky white wine spritsers and more amazing pool playing and crazy dance moves.
Thurday 5th June - Back on the Oz Bus and headed towards Airlie Beach (Gateway to the Whitsunday’s islands)
Saturday 7th June
Checked out of our hostel and checked onto our boat “Power Play” a catamaran which would take us around the Whitsundays for a few days. Anna and Ellen had decided to come on the same boat as me, as had Monisha unfortunately, however to be honest by this point she had actually made me laugh a lot and was definitely growing on me. I felt a bit mean about taking the mickey out of her so much, she was harmless and actually a good laugh she just has to know what’s going on at all times and worried about things. We met our crew, Pete the skipper, Stu the dive instructor, Kerry the cook and Velenska the hostess. There were 16 people in total on the boat which was a really nice number, we had a good mix of nationalities; 1 Spanish girl, 2 French Canadians, 2 from the French part of Switzerland, 2 Danish, us 4 English girls, 3 other English guys, 1 Aussie girl. Everyone was really nice and got on well. We headed straight out for Haymen Island to Blue Pearl Bay for our first Dive or snorkel. Again I was really nervous about going diving without James but I had done it three times before so i managed to get over it, it helped that i was diving with Tina and Andes a really nice Danish couple who had also learnt to dive in Ko Tao. They suggested the three of us diving together as buddies so that the diving instructor Stuart could lead us around the reef. It was really nice of them to include me liek that and it made the dive much more enjoyable to know that i had two backup's!! The dive itself wasn't that great the Fish were HUGE which was very cool. There were massive shoals swimming all around us, apparently because some of the divers feed the fish they often swam around other divers as they expect us to have food. We also saw the biggest fish i have ever seen, i must admit i was every so slightly peeing my pants when i saw it! Its name is apparently Priscilla and she was a massive napolean fish, about 1 metre long and about that long again, scary!! The visability wasn't that great which was a shame, also the coral looked quite dull in comparison to the coral i had seen in Cairns, i think all the boats and divers must be killing it off which is quite worrying. At the end of the dive i must admit i was very happy, i was shivering and apparently my lips had gone blue!! I did tell them i should wear two wetsuits but they didn't believe me and told me i would be ok! Stupid people, they should know i'm always right! It was so nice to have a cup of hot tea when we got back on the boat, i was soooooo cold! That evening we had a BBQ and all sat around chatting, was really nice to hear other people's travels and what they do back at home etc. Going to bed was strange and i was a bit worried when i lay down that i wasn't goign to be able to go to sleep but i woke up in the morning so i guess it wasn't so difficult!!

Sunday 8th June - We were woken up at 6.30am, so glad I had gone to bed reasonably early! We headed towards Whitehaven beach which is a beautiful beach with bright white sand and clear blue water. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy but it was still lovely to be on this beautiful beach, we had a running race and played some team games which were very funny. One involved turning in circles 20 times and then trying to run back in a straight line back to the next person in the team, needless to say quite a few people nearly threw up – far too early for games like that!! The sand on the beach is so fine that you can actually clean jewelry with it! It also squeaks as you walk on it, really strange! I didn’t go all the way in to the sea but I did get up to my waist. (Just to say I had done it!!)
We then got back on the boat and travelled over to the lookout point where you can see the Whitsunday islands and some beautiful beaches, such a pretty view. The photos I took just don’t do it justice! Then we were off again to a place called Luncheon Bay for our second Dive/Snorkel, again the visibility was crap and although I was a little warmer in two suits I still wasn’t in any way warm!! Didn’t really see too much of massive interest, one thing which was really cool is that Stuart showed us some anenomies and sea stars and told us which ones we could touch. There was one which was really sticky and it kinda grab hold of your fingers, really strange. There was another which was so very soft it felt like animal fur and one which was really rubbery like rubber gloves. Touching that was very cool as I haven’t ever done that before. The weather didn’t get any better during the course of the day and it was quite choppy heading towards our anchor for the night – I’m very glad I had kept up the travel sickness tablets!
Monday 9th June – Our last day on the boat, woken up at 6.00am and told it was our last chance to go for snorkel if we wanted to, the weather still wasn’t great so we couldn’t do any more dives so I donned my wetsuit and off we went! In the water and snorkeling before 7.00am on a Monday morning – what a start to the week! It was well worth it we were rewarded with seeing a massive sea turtle, I was so busy swimming around trying to find it that I nearly kicked it with my flipper!! It was awesome, it wasn’t as clear as when we saw one in Koh Toa but it was still very cool! Then we were back on the boat for some much needed breakfast! It was a bit of a choppy ride back and I am glad to say I wasn’t the only one feeling a bit sea sick – woo hoo!
That was our Whitsunday trip over, I must admit I was disappointed with the weather but you can’t have anything, it was good fun, I met some lovely people and saw some amazingly beautiful sights, you can’t have it all!!