East coast, Pacific Ocean! Townsville to Whitsundays

On that Saturday night we arrived in Townsville with a roadworthy test booked on the Monday morning. We stayed in a campsite that weekend as I didn’t want to drive without the van being registered.
It’s a nice town with a great promenade, interesting markets on Sundays and a cool rockpool for swimming safely without stingers. The little jellyfish can give a very serious sting here from October to April. Many places have net in the water to create a safe place to swim, otherwise you have to wear a very nice stinger suit, to cover you from head to toe.
While we were there we managed to catch the Full Moon Drum Circle. Held each month on the full moon everyone in the crowd is given a drum, shaker or bell and a rhythm to beat or shake and is great fun.

As for the van it didn’t pass the test for a few silly things, not important but expensive to repair, like a tear in the driver seat and the door seal not being too good. I couldn’t get my hands on spares from wreckers anywhere in Queensland so there was a bit of stress for a couple of days. I got in contact with the guy who sold me the van and managed to get it reregistered in his name until I can get everything fixed.
Phew that was a load off my mind; I could drive the van again. As we had been in Townsville a few days now it was time to head south to Airlie Beach the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands.
Airlie was quite a contrast to everywhere we had been while up north, a total tourist town full of backpackers and other holidaymakers. We also had the misfortune of getting there just at the start of the school holidays!
Running out of money now we needed to find work so spent a few days looking for work on boats, hoping to get a job on one of the many tourist cruises operating around the Whitsunday islands or even just cleaning work, something for a short time just to keep some money in our pockets.
The trip to and around the islands is one of the must do things in this area but is a bit expensive and touristy with the tour companies here. I really wanted to get on a yacht and do some sailing; I hadn’t been on the water at all for two months at this stage!
Luckily we found a guy with a private yacht who took us a german girl and another couple out the islands for only $45 a day each!
He has a lovely wooden boat called Bright Morning Star a 15 meters long and one of only two of that design, the other fitted out for performance racing. Our skipper John is an interesting character who lives on board, cruising up and down the coast.
It was fantastic to be out on the sea under sail in such a gorgeous vessel and the scenery of the Islands was amazing. The beach on Whitsunday Island itself had the finest, whitest sand I had ever seen, being 98% silica. Snorkelling was great too, almost as good as the Ningaloo reef. It was a shame to be back on land after three great days although the trip back was a bit rough and Iris didn’t feel so good. I wouldn’t mind swapping the van for a yacht though!
We didn’t find any work in Airlie Beach so we booked ourselves onto a course for working on farms/stations in the outback with a company called Outbackpackers. The main reason was they guarantee a job before the end of the week course. It was over a week before the course started so we were very keen to do some surfing before going inland again!!! So it was time to head south again to the closest waves!!