We arrived in Airlie beach at some unknown hour of the morning, We had a little brekkey then went to check-in for our sail the next day, we were sailing on a Catamaran called Wings, the owner is a total boat nut and just spent AUD $2 million on there newest boat. Wings takes 24 people and 3 crew, there were 23 in our group.

The next day we packed up and bought some pink goon before heading to the boat. We met everyone and did the awquad hellos before boarding and getting our rooms sorted out. Rach and I ended up with a quality double bunk with curtains, very comfy.

We set sail... well, motored for a few hours out and around some of the islands, we stopped in Blue haven bay and did our first dive, we went down in a group of 4 and saw some cool stuff, to be honest I think the snorkelling would be just as good as we didn't dive much deeper than 7m. There were these huge fish that live in the bay and would swim right up and kiss you, the leader was called precilla and she was going through a sex change at the time.. crazy things.

We then headed further south and did some more snorkelling before stopping for the night. Our cook CJ was Canadian and she fed us so well, loads of food and it was all really tasty. The evening was spent drinking cheap wine, playing guitar and chatting.

The 2nd day was an early start with us being dropped on the beach around 7:30, we spent a few hours messing on the beach taking stupid photos then headed up to a lookout where you could see this crystal clear bay with little sand islands, it was quite a sight. I'm starting to think we may become beach snobs as we've seen some of the worlds best, Felixstowe just won't be the same.

Once back on the boat we headed north and found Mackerel bay where we did our next snorkel / dive. I was minding my own business as this shark swam up from behind me and passed beneath me! It was over 1m and shocked me a bit, they're harmless White tip reef sharks but you are still a little cautious. That evening as we were sitting around waiting for dinner, the under boat lights were on and attracting loads of fish, then a dolphin showed up and started splashin around and chasing the fishicles, it was pretty crazy as he arced out of the water for air then dived back down, they are really agile and the little fishies had to work hard to avoid being eaten. The stars that night were amazing too, with very little land in sight and no clouds the sky was a mass of dense stars, a sight you can't believe until you have seen it yourself.

The 3rd and last day we were up early again, this time diving before breakfast, unfortunately the snorkelling was pants and I still haven't swam with a turtle which I am desperate to do! It seems like everyone but me saw them.

On return to dry land most of the group met up that evening and had a lil party with some drinking games at a bar. We did our goodbyes but we'll bump in to them again at some point on the trip.

Next day was a fabulous bus / ferry up to Magnetic Island.

We arrived in Agnes just after 6pm and made our way to Beachside Backpackers hostel, it's about 200m from the beach and is a brand new hostel built by some people that own the yuppy resort next door. This hostel is definitely the nicest we've stayed in, we had a double with ensuite and aircon - check us out!

Everyone we have spoken to about 1770 said you have to do the Scooteroo tour so we booked ourselves on to that for the next day and settled down for an evening of Scrabble and Masterchef.

Next day we took a stroll along the beautiful beach and into Agnes for some food shopping and a lil explore. It was a very little explore as Agnes and 1770 are tiny tiny places consisting of about 10 shops.

We got picked up for the Scooteroo tour in the afternoon and it was awesome fun, this old biker dude takes everyone out on mini Harley Davidsons and you cruise around,, going 80km/h on a little bike is exhilerating to say the least! Although I did feel a little fat as we went up hills and my bike was spluttering to do 40. During our drive we stopped at the side of the road to see a load of Kangaroos. We rode up to 1770 and sat at a pub eating wedges as we watched the sun go down.

The next day we borrowed some push bikes and headed to 1770, there's a national park atop a cliff and it looks pretty cool, although the journey wasn't far it took us probably over an hour, a mixture of laziness, hot sun and bikes with broken gears slowed us down. When we eventually arrived the view was pretty amazing, you can go out on the cliff and view up and down the coast, Rachel and I jumped off the path and climbed down to this rocky area that would have looked more at home on Mars. There was a little beach there too that we had a short chillax on before heading back, pushing our bikes half the way (apparently that's why they are called push bikes).

Our 3rd and final day we spent lazing around on the beach and generally being bummy before a had to catch the overnight coach up to Airlie beach to go sailing.

As always the overnight bus was heaving and this time had a lovely aroma of piss and dampness the whole journey, our driver was a yank with an odd sense of humour, such fun!