After spending a night on the airport in Sydney I finally arrived in Cairns. For the next 20 days I am travelling down the east coast of Australia with Martine, Chris, Andreas and Bjørg, four Norwegians.

We spent just two nights in Carins, doing nothing and a small trip to the rainforest, before we got on the boat taking us to the outer Great Barrier Reef. As Martine missed her flight from Singapore she had to take another plane and luckily arrived just a couple of minutes before the boat left.

Two of the group did scuba diving – three dives a day. The rest of us (just) did snorkelling what was still quite amazing. I couldn’t convince my self to go for an introduction dive – sorry David, but the last picture in the Cairns/Great Barrier Reef folder is dedicated to you… Unfortunately I didn’t see reef sharks at the reef – I finally managed at Whitsunday Island. What I saw was quite a lot of fish in every size and colour, Nemos, turtles, corrals, etc.

Best part of the trip was to be on the sea again, feeling the waves (some got seasick), breezing the fresh see air, etc. I just love it. As everything has an end, after one night we got back to the shore. As we are driving down the coast with a rented car we had to pick it up. Luckily we got a free upgrade, so the car is bigger and nicer than expected, really comfortable indeed. So we travelled down to Airlie Beach starting point for our exciting three days sailing trip to the Whitsundays.

Our boat, the Southern Cross, a 68 feet long former America’s Cup yacht, waited for us and nine other travellers at the Airlie Beach marina. The yacht is quite old but still in good condition. So we sailed the Whitsundays, a group of islands, for three days and two nights. The Whitsundays are just paradise. Wide white beaches and a lot of corrals, fishes, etc. Furthermore there was a nice wind on the first two days, not strong but still lots of fun to sail.

The nights I slept right under the stars, the days we snorkelled and sailed. Again, I just love to be on the sea. I really liked to sail again, it was a good feeling. Hope we can go sailing when I am back in Austria (perhaps after finishing the summer term in Graz).

Tomorrow we leave Airlie Beach and head for 1770, another beach. Pictures are separated in two folders according to the different travel adventures I did (Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays).  

Hope you enjoy your time!