We arrived in Brisbane around 10pm on Thursday night and settled in our beds immediately so we could get an early start the following morning. Turns out you don't get much sleep in a busy 10 bed dorm hostel! Not quite the 5 star lifestyle we were used to. By 1.45am I thought I could drift off but the noisy girls in the other beds ensured I never. 7am I decided to get up,shower and head out for coffee. Brisbane turned out to be a lovely city. Perfect weather for a beautiful morning cruise down the river. Runners passed us every few minutes and I felt pangs of envy as I hobbled passed feeling sorry for myself. From posters I could see that the city marathon was taking place this weekend. I wondered if some of these runners were on their taper and getting excited.
The 5 hour bus journey to rainbow beach was pretty painless but disappointingly not very scenic. That may be because it got pitch black around 5pm. With it being around 25 degrees and sunny I was forgetting that this was Australia's winter. I was dreading checking into the next hostel and I had right to. It was a busy friendly place with live music until the wee hours catering for the young backpackers but I just couldn't get comfy in my bunk especially with many snoring roommates! I tried to knock myself out with wine but no luck.
7am and we were up for free pancakes but no chance to nap in the bus as it was a bumpy ride over to the biggest sand island in the world, Fraser island. The trip was magnificent. We stopped off to swim in the lakes, spot dingoes and hike the dunes. And the fantastic news was that we weren't camping as expected but we were staying in a nice beach resort hotel - bliss!
We travelled back to the hostel for a shower and cheap burger before catching the overnight bus. 14 hours on the bus to airlie beach ended up being reasonably and strangely enjoyable. I watched top gun and then fell into a deep sleep - better than the hostels!
Due to my experience with dorm rooms I phoned ahead to our next hostel to request a private room which we were willing to pay extra for. Our new hostel in airlie was more like a hotel with lots of gardens and a pool area. Unfortunately the morning was rainy so we did the laundry, grab breakfast and caught up on the internet before the sunshine came out. Although it was still too painful to run I managed to swim in the gorgeous manmade lagoon by the beach. The resort was filled with students so the bars had loads of deals so we got some cheap pizzas and beer for 18 dollars before heading home for tea and milky ways - rock n roll!
After another wee swim we arrived at the jetty for our whitsundays cruise in the blazing sunshine. The boat tour started with a roar as we sped off into the crystal blue sea. At least my running jacket came in useful for once, it helped me keep dry from the waves and the occasional shower later. Imagine my surprise when 20 minutes into the journey we spotted humpback whales playing in the water. This would be the first of two sightings of the majestic creatures as they migrated up the East coast from the Antarctic to breed. The ocean rafting tour then took us snorkelling to 2 different locations where we swam amongst the most amazing colourful fish and coral reef. We did a bush walk to the lookout point over the white islands before an anchoring for lunch. Despite a little rain I couldn't stop grinning after such an incredible experience.
I felt pretty guilty ordering icecream after dinner since I've not been doing any running but it was so delicious! We got to pick different flavours and favourite chocolates (Caramel, hazelnut with flake and m n m's) before the girl mashed it all up into the cone - yum yum YUM! Time for bed as it's a long drive, around 500 miles, tomorrow!
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