my first vision of airlie beach was through a window of pouring rain. this was no nice, breezy, northern california rain, but a torrential downpour that was not at all lessened by the length of time that it continued to rain for. I had an overnight bus ride that night, and was awakened in the morning by rain dripping down through the emergency exits on the roof of the bus. I arrived at the bus terminal at 6 am, and didn't even bother seeking cover. 2 seconds in this downpour would guarantee that you would be soaked.

my hostel was a cute little place with ensuite cabins. ensuite means that the kitchen, bathroom, and tv are all in the room with you, as opposed to a dorm, where only the bed is in the room. my roommates were a japanese girl from brisbane, and two korean girls. being that the heavens had decided to drown the world on that day, we were pretty resigned to spending the day in our cabin. when you've got four backpackers stuck in a room, what do you do? why drink and play cards of course! so masa and I elected to make our way to the supermarket down the road to purchase the necessary ingredients.

our wet journey was successful, and we returned with beer, wine, vodka-cranberry in a can, and some food of course. we decided that we would cook in shifts, and I got to make lunch. I just made a grilled chicken cesar salad, which fascinated the korean girls because apparently raw vegetables are not at all common in korea. the real treat came later on that evening when the korean girls cooked. they made three of the best dishes I have ever tasted, all of which involved rice, eggs, vegetables and spices. I have no idea, really, what was in them, but it was fabulous. so good that it's making me hungry right now as I sit here writing this. so that's how we passed our day, drinking, eating, talking and looking at photos. in writing, it sounds a bit dull, doesn't it, but we had a good time.

the main reason that people travel to airlie beach is to take a sailing trip to the whitsunday islands. I of course was no different, although I was a bit hesitant to book something because of the rain. I was assured by the booking agent that it would not rain as heavily out at sea (I think he was lying, but I chose to believe him) and thus booked a 3 day sailing tour on the club atlanta.

there were 5 of us who met at the marina the next morning, and were then escorted by dinghy to the sailboat. this was no sleek, white catamaran, but an actual wooden sailboat, complete with patched white sails, two grizzled seamen and a kelpie dog. we were all excited that there were so few of us, and I must say that we were lucky that we all got on so well. I was with masa, the japanese girl who I met in airlie, a british couple from manchester, and a swedish guy.

the whitsundays were beautiful, and even though it did rain on and off, and the skies were a bit overcast for the first day, it was still warm and the clouds ensured that we didn't get sunburned! we anchored on the first night off of hook island, and went snorkeling -my first sight of the barrier reef. the coral there was so beautiful -purples and reds and neon yellows. I had an underwater camera, which was pretty much a piece of crap. It's very hard to take pictures underwater while swimming, and everything in the photos just looked blue once I got them developed. there were fish of all different shades -my favorite was a very dramatic black fish with bright purple fins and tail. after the snorkeling, they put up hammocks on the deck of the boat, so that we could lay out and look at the stars. the stars at sea are so much more brilliant then they are on land, and you just feel surrounded by them. it was beautiful. the next few days were very peaceful. we just sailed through the islands, with a few stops to snorkel and explore whitehaven beach. the owner of our boat had sailed it around the world twice, and so we got to hear his stories and even watch a video about some of the places he and his daughter visited on their round-the-world trip. it was a magnificent trip, and I would recommend it highly. after leaving airlie, I heard stories from travelers who went on sailing trips on bigger boats that had 20-30 passengers, and they all seemed a bit unhappy about their trip. so I felt a bit smug and happy then about our happy party on its little sailing boat!

I am nearly caught up, but the next section will be a big one since I was in Cairns for nearly 2 weeks. check in sometime next week for those stories. I am so happy that people are still reading, and that cely & patty signed my book. hello & good luck at the conference to you guys!