Dan's "Big Lap" of Oz: Airlie beach & Townsville

From Mackay I headed to Conway beach for a night, and then headed to Airlie Beach, a pretty popular tourist and backpacker mecca for reef trips and the like. I decided on a day trip to the reef to get a taste and to see the famous Whitehaven beach. Airlie was touristy but I liked it, the water was spectacular as were the Euro backpackers suntanning by the lagoon- and I spent the afternoon fishing, or rather feeding prawns to an assortment of small tropical fish that kept nibbling away at the bait. I caught a few exotic sorts of things, would love to tell you what they were but I have no idea! Here is Whitehaven beach as seen from a little lookout on Whitsunday Island:

Myself on the boat:

And another shot of Whitehaven beach- the white sand comes from the high silica content apparently-

Well, when I jumped on the boat they asked if anyone wanted to scuba dive- I'd never done it so I volunteered as did an English couple, Adam and Caroline. I guess that put us in the same boat and we got talking, firstly about the indemnity form we had to sign, which had in bold letters the word DEATH, right above where we signed.

They were from Northern England, and we had a good time all round. The scuba dive was pretty cool, definitely something I'd do again. We got down to about 10 metres and cruised around the reef, we saw a few schools of fish but the highlight was simply breathing under water- freaky! Anyway scuba diving is off the 'bucket list' now. I ended up having a night out in Airlie with those guys, and the following day I packed up and headed for Townsville, mostly to return a stupid rooftop tent I had bought- to cut a long story short I ended up with a trusty Oztent, much happier with it.

Townsville was a very cool town I thought- I arrived there and it was 25 degrees, balmy, and was so nice with its beachfront, city marinas packed with snazzy yachts, and the streets lined with stylish buildings. I was pretty impressed, and was even more so when I pulled in three nice Trevally off the jetty the next day. Here is a view of Flinders Street:

One of the Marina's

And Magnetic island seen from the beachfront:

The highlight of the whole Townsville effort was sailing from Magnetic island to Townsville with Geoff, a guy I had met (along with his wife Maree) at Carnarvon Gorge. He had given me his number and told me to ring him in Townsville, which I did, to discover he was moored at Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island. I took the ferry over, caught the bus to Horseshoe and he came ashore in his dinghy and picked me up. What a life the yachties have- they were all pretty social out on the water, if someone needs a spanner they just jump in the dinghy and motor over to the next yacht. We went ashore for dinner, then stayed at Horseshoe on the yacht overnight(I had a cabin in the bow), then sailed for Townsville in the morning. All up a great experience so thanks Geoff!!

Poor old Captain Cook never sailed with a VB in hand, though it might have explained the Endeavour running aground