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We drove to Airlie Beach from Agnes Water via Rockhampton (Rocky to the locals). Panic in Rocky as we decided to celebrate Valentine's day by not booking a meal, but by wandering through town past record numbers of statues of Bulls, on the assumption that Aussies were not romantic and there would be plenty of tables available. WRONG! Like a latter day Mary and Joseph were turned away from several places before finally finding a table at a newly opened Thai restaurant. Even then with a tinge of guilt, as we had unwittingly queue -jumped a local couple who were also waiting. Good meal though.
Not that keen on Rockhampton but, as the leading cattle town, it does have a bit of a wild west feeling about it. As we walked we kept a keen eye out for gunmen on the balconies or clay pipe smoking grannies in rocking chairs on the front porch.
We have just returned from a 2 day sailing trip around the Whitsundays during which we have been regularly rained on and shared pretty cramped living conditions with 9 other guests and 3 crew - and guess what - we just loved it!
The night before trip the rain pissed down like an incontinent camel but when we awoke next morning .. it was still pissing down, so it was with a growing sense of apprehension that we set off for our Whitsundays cruise. To make things more interesting we organised a taxi to nowhere near the meeting place then walked the rest of the way to a place where no-one else turned up for long enough to cause a minor panic. Eventually though the rest of the group turned up then a middle aged hippy looking bloke called Luke turned up, declined our offered boarding passes, didn't want to bother about paperwork, confiscated our shoes and took us to the boat. Here we met the other two crew members, Sean a stereotypical looking chain smoking Aussie complete with gold tooth , and a young Englishman called Tim.
Turned out first impressions were a bit misleading Luke was the owner of the company that ran three boats doing Whitsunday trips, Sean a latter-day renaissance man who was a source of information about astronomy, geology , the plants and animals of the area and aboriginal lore. Tim was on a gap year after graduating from Exeter University and spending some time raising sponsorship for his father who is currently rowing solo across the Atlantic, before beginning officer-training with the marines.
I must admit that I spent the whole time in a continual state of being wet or damp and very quickly ran out of dry clothing as we had been quite circumspect with our packing. We had 3 wonderful snorkelling trips over the coral and saw a huge array of fantastic fish and some incredibly beautiful coral. The boat was a one-time racing yacht which is now used for tourist cruising. Roger was asked to help with some of the sail hoisting and in typical testosterone fuelled style pulled on the ropes with such gusto that he was only narrowly saved from falling overboard by one of the crew. He was awarded the accolade of best deckhand however! The weekend finished with a visit to Whitehaven Beach which is acclaimed as the most beautiful beach in the world - with every justification!
We had to wear stinger suits every time we ventured into the water to protect against jellyfish stings. They are made lycra and cover from neck to toe. Initially we were rather reluctant to don this body armour but having seen the vast numbers of jellyfish which inhabit these waters we soon perceived their value. I became quite adept at batting jellies away with my arm! Rog also felt that his suit acted as a rather effective corset and had to be forcibly divested of his at the end of the trip.
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