Almost time to sail!
Hello from the party capital of Australia, Airlie Beach! We last talked to you from Mission Beach after booking our sailing trip that leaves tomorrow! We're very excited and the weather has been absolutely perfect the last couple of days. Let's hope it holds up.
We didn't have any interesting stops on the bus from Mission Beach to Magnetic Island. It was only a couple of hours before we got the Townsville where we had lunch and then jumped on the ferry to Magnetic Island. We got to our hostel which was a mini resort of a hostel. It was right on the beach and had its own restaurant and bar. We went sea kayaking with the Oz Experience group, but spent most of the time on a beach a short paddle away relaxing and trying to knock each other off an overturned kayak. We spent that evening in the bar with our Oz Experience group. We've decided that almost all of the backpackers around here are from England or Germany.
The following morning we went on a bush walk, again with the Oz Experience crew. We walked up to the highest point on Magnetic Island which was a military lookout and gun turret location during the Coral Sea War. We were guaranteed to see koalas in the wild but for the first time in our guide's experience there were none to see. :-( Even so, Stefan got to eat ants that tasted like limes and the views were spectacular! Then we hopped on the bus again and started out for Airlie Beach. In a few short hours and with stops only at the giant snake in Ayr and the giant mango on the side of the road we were in Airlie Beach. They told us that Airlie Beach is the party capital of Australia and it wasn't too long before that was confirmed. Our room in the hostel was right above the bar and was rocking early in the night. Our group met down at the bar for dinner and heaps of free beer to get the night started. The hostel reminded us both of Totem because people were running up and down the hallways all night and the fire alarm even went off at 4:30 in the morning.
It was fun for one night, but in the morning we set out to find a quieter hostel for our next two nights. It took five tries before we found a double room that was available, but we ended up with a very nice room with our own balcony. We spent the rest of the day cruising the main drag of Airlie Beach and relaxing at the lagoon. Airlie Beach is poorly named since it doesn't really have a nice sandy beach; they've had to build a lagoon for people to swim in. We also checked in for our sailing trip that leaves Monday and took a quick walk down to where it leaves from. In the evening we took a trip to the bottle shop and tried boxed wine for the first time (we're not allowed to bring glass onto the boat, so we thought we'd give it a try.) What a deal! 2 litres of wine for $15, who can go wrong! We may even have to get another box for the boat!
Well that's it for now. We're off to relax and read our books in the sun! We'd been hoping to upload some pictures to this blog, but we haven't found a place that will let us yet. I guess you'll have to wait until we get back to see some pictures.
We didn't have any interesting stops on the bus from Mission Beach to Magnetic Island. It was only a couple of hours before we got the Townsville where we had lunch and then jumped on the ferry to Magnetic Island. We got to our hostel which was a mini resort of a hostel. It was right on the beach and had its own restaurant and bar. We went sea kayaking with the Oz Experience group, but spent most of the time on a beach a short paddle away relaxing and trying to knock each other off an overturned kayak. We spent that evening in the bar with our Oz Experience group. We've decided that almost all of the backpackers around here are from England or Germany.
The following morning we went on a bush walk, again with the Oz Experience crew. We walked up to the highest point on Magnetic Island which was a military lookout and gun turret location during the Coral Sea War. We were guaranteed to see koalas in the wild but for the first time in our guide's experience there were none to see. :-( Even so, Stefan got to eat ants that tasted like limes and the views were spectacular! Then we hopped on the bus again and started out for Airlie Beach. In a few short hours and with stops only at the giant snake in Ayr and the giant mango on the side of the road we were in Airlie Beach. They told us that Airlie Beach is the party capital of Australia and it wasn't too long before that was confirmed. Our room in the hostel was right above the bar and was rocking early in the night. Our group met down at the bar for dinner and heaps of free beer to get the night started. The hostel reminded us both of Totem because people were running up and down the hallways all night and the fire alarm even went off at 4:30 in the morning.
It was fun for one night, but in the morning we set out to find a quieter hostel for our next two nights. It took five tries before we found a double room that was available, but we ended up with a very nice room with our own balcony. We spent the rest of the day cruising the main drag of Airlie Beach and relaxing at the lagoon. Airlie Beach is poorly named since it doesn't really have a nice sandy beach; they've had to build a lagoon for people to swim in. We also checked in for our sailing trip that leaves Monday and took a quick walk down to where it leaves from. In the evening we took a trip to the bottle shop and tried boxed wine for the first time (we're not allowed to bring glass onto the boat, so we thought we'd give it a try.) What a deal! 2 litres of wine for $15, who can go wrong! We may even have to get another box for the boat!
Well that's it for now. We're off to relax and read our books in the sun! We'd been hoping to upload some pictures to this blog, but we haven't found a place that will let us yet. I guess you'll have to wait until we get back to see some pictures.
posted by Stefan Moser at
6:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home