Following my goodbye to Magnetic Island its attractive beaches and all its charming critters I once again boarded another bus, this one only 4ish hours and zoomed on down to the famous Arlie Beach and the world famous Whitsunday Islands notorious for boasting one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the entire world, I had to check it out. Getting there I headed to Arlie YHA and ran into Carmen (a friend of mine and my original trainer from Sydney Central YHA) who was so pumped to see me and quickly got me looking at Whitsunday cruises choices which I did not think I was going to do prior. I signed upon the Brisish Defendor (an ex 1980’s racing sailing ship) for a three day two night sailing trip to the Whitsundays, I had no true idea what I was truly getting myself into. The eve before bed I shipped out I got what I thought was going to be a quick drink with a few people from my bus( a French Guy, an English guy and a Swiss Girl) and ended up talking spirituality and life with the Swiss girl until three in the morning, what beautiful surprise spiritual friends you can meet over a beer. Her name is Linh and she was a short black haired smart little German Swiss girl. This mixed with an equally quirky sense of humour as my own and very good yet strange version of English we laughed till we cried between deep spiritual talk and mistaken understandings of each other’s English and I knew I would also meet this one again in my travels.
The next day brought me upon the British Defendor, self-proclaimed sexiest boat in the Whitsundays but its three quirky hilarious ozzy crew members. These three Ozzies along with the sixteen other people signed up for the trip left us with a hodgepodge of Americans, Germans, English, Dutch, French, Japanese, two crazy lovely Finnish and one Belgium in a Pair tree. We spent the next two days eating like kings and queens, Snorkelling beautiful reefs and lounging on the deck of the sailboat in the sun. I also got everyone addicted to making hemp bracelets as I brought a few spools along from Sydney, and after a few classes I had more than two thirds of the boat members Macramé-ing themselves souvenirs in the sun. The nights were spent drinking (of course) playing games, talking the night away and enjoying the peaceful sound of the waves and the crystal clear starry sky. Due to the face that it was winter season although the weather barely showed it, the Night sky was the clearest I had ever seen it with an almost 180 degree view of it from the boat over the water. It was like being in a private Planetarium with only a few others and what a magical feeling it was, I had also never seen the sky so clearly upside down before, as trying to find my familiar stars alluded me until I realized the sky I was use to was on the other side of the world. You don’t realize these funny realizations until they sit staring you in the face but I know I will remember that view for the rest of my life. The second day brought us to Whitsunday Island and the White sand beaches best seen in magazines, movies and porno’s(we actually passed a small island with a beach that was famous for the Porno scenes filmed on it in the 80’s, funny). As I walked through the sand that squeaked with each step white as snow across this massive beach that spanned what felt like a desert and was surrounded by crystal clear shallow water and picturesque green island mountains locking it all in I could barely close my gaping jaw or stop from laughing. I sat to meditated in-between the crabs that scurried to and fro and stingrays that jetted through the shallow blue heading to some important secret stingray gathering and was thankful for every little part of my life good or bad that had led me to this moment. Being alive is a wonderful thing
Upon returning to town after the trip sunburned, hung over and awed I tracked down Lyhn who had just gotten back from her separate boat trip. We talked about our silly boat experiences, laughed, made Jewellery ate sushi and she walked me to the bus and gave me the biggest hug to send me on my way, we knew we would run into each other again but if we didn’t I knew I had met another kindred spirit.
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