Whitsundays

Once we had dared the darkness of the caves we drove to Whitsundays. We stayed in Airlie beach. This town was much more commercial and very busy. We stayed at a hostel that had a pretty big bar down below. The first night after getting unpacked, we all got ready. It seemed to be a harder task than ever since the humidity was very high and you felt sticky while putting on anything. Not to mention how mine and a few others’ hair did not want to truly straighten. But after a lot of effort the deed was done and we were ready to go downstairs. We chatted up a few new people. Wonder down the street to a couple other bars and had a good time.
The next day I took full advantage of free wifi and skyped with some family and friends in the morning. It was nice to catch up with them! Then I checked out the town and the beach. I am sad to say I wasn’t impressed with the beach. It was quite small and nothing really to it. I kept wandering though and fell upon a wonderful spot. Up the hill and around the beach was a little villa right on the top of the hill so you could see the whole town, beach and ocean. I felt so lucky to have stumble on such a jewel. The view was gorgeous and the view was an open shelter. No one else was around and I took full advantage. After traveling at this point for a week and half with 7 other people sometimes you just need time to yourself. Fortunately I packed all the perfect essentials in my beach bag. I had cheese, crackers, water, a good book and my beach towel. I laid my towel down on the floor of the villa and alternated from looking at the beautiful view of the ocean with the boats harbored to reading my book which was getting really good. I must have spent at few hours there. At one point I just had an Aha moment looking at the waves hit the beach that I was so fortunate to have had the opportunities that I have bestowed upon me. It was the most peaceful afternoon and I loved it.
That night we all gathered together after laying out a bit at the lagoon to cook some nachos. While I was off having my peaceful picnic in the villa some of the others had went to the grocery store and pick up an enormous amount of food to cook. We all worked together chopping up the onions, peppers and mushrooms, simmering the chicken in one pan and the steak in the other. We through it fresh veggies in the pans and added the fajita season that was out of this world with its delicious spices and it all made the best smell. After it was done we had an amazing feast. We had so much food we couldn’t even eat all the meat between the 8 of us which is really hard to do. We had decided to keep the rest of the meat for tomorrow and make nachos out of them.

The following day we got up early and ran around getting ready for our sailing trip. We were all hyped and so ready for this trip. We caught the bus and arrived at the harbor to see our awesome purple sail boat awaiting us. It was called the Cameria. When boarded we got comfy on the top deck and laid out in the sun that was perfectly shining down on us. We sailed into the great wide ocean. While laying there feeling so happy I thought of my family and realized that it was my father’s birthday. I ran to my phone and once again I was very lucky because it actually had service. I called them and sang only a few notes before my dad stopped me, said thank you but I have heard that song a little too much today. I chuckled then he put me on speaker phone so I could hear him and the family while he opened gifts and cards. It was so nice like I was actually there. After getting off the phone I saw that right afterwards I had no service. Talk about perfect timing. It was then time to for our snorkel instructions.
The crew told what we needed to do and then let us get our gear. I was so excited because I had never went snorkeling before and we were in the beginnings of the Great Barrier Reef.