After a 16 hour overnight bus trip I arrived in Airlie Beach where it was so humid you could feel the sweat sprouting out of your pores. I had a couple of days to kill before I got on the Solway Lass, so I minly hung around the lagoon, swimming when the heat got unbearable and lying in the sun. I'd lost my sunglasses so I got a couple of pairs for $25, bargain me loves. Then I went and checked in for my trip around the Whitsundays where I was given a little black bag because you weren't allowed to take bags with zips onboard, or alcohol.
The next day I put my stuff in the luggage storage at Peter Pans and cracked out the mosquito bands. We got on the Solway Lass around 7pm, and went out to sea, where we had some food and a few drinks and a chinwag. In my room there were 4 beds but only me and Harj, a lovely English woman who used to work for the BBC and told me she was instrumental in making BBC iplayer happen, and thus, I was in love with her.
Our first day on the Whitsundays was a day of first for me. In the morning I went SCUBA DIVING, for only $60. In my little group was John and Andrew, the Canadian fellows, and we went around for about 30 mintues and got just below 10 meteres. It's something I never really thought I would do but I enjoyed it so much, I really want to do it again. I also learnt that SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. Then after an amazing lunch and a load of jumping off the boat and ropeswinging, we went snorkelling and I saw a TURTLE. That evening after dinner and beer and the cardboard box gang (picking a box off the ground using your mouth, no hands and only feet on the ground) we heard some splashing from the side of the boat and we looked over and this DOLPHIN was playing in the water really close up. And that was an awesome awesome day.
The next day we went for a little bushwalk and saw some aboriginal cave art, licked a green ants arse which tasted very strongly of lime, did a whole load more ropeswinging and snorkelling, then ended up on this beach watching the sunset, being brought beer and food by boat by the crew, which was lovely. That night on the boat we had a ridiculous relay race, which my group lost but who cares!? We still got some free champers. Then we all chilled out drinking and staying up late chatting on the deck.
The next day was our last and we woke to a big downpour which made breakfast hazardous, but it cleared and by the time we got into port, none of us wanted to leave, and Jenny actually had a cry because we'd all had the best time and everyone got on so well. But we met up that night for a meal and some dancing, and I had a lovely salsa with Sebastian, a jive with John and some weird mix of both with a random Sewdish guy who bought tons of drinks for us all. Which was lovely.
Overall, the Whitsundays on the Solway Lass has been the highlight of my trip so far. We all said it was a holiday from our holiday and I couldn't fault a single thing about the crew or the ship. We got turks heads (little anklets that you have to cut off) so everytime I see it I remember what an amazing time I had and how lucky we were with the weather and each other. Miss you guys xx
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