Way back during our planning at home Jeff came across Scamper (basically a water taxi service) which would take you to different destinations around the Whitsunday Island area. Look up "Whitsunday Islands" and you're sure to see photos of bright blue water with white sandy beaches and a tropical smoothie blended beach/ocean. Most of those photos are of Whitehaven Beach which is a popular destination for tourists. Scamper has short descriptions of the islands it will take you to. Planton Island was in the more affordable group ($65 per person RT and only $10 per night to stay there) and allowed the lowest number of occupants at a time (6) which we liked because it would be less crowded. So we booked to arrive there on Halloween and head back to the mainland on November 3rd.
In order to get there we had to first go to Airlie Beach, a small coastal town full of backpackers. We made a reservation for a camp spot for 2 nights before Planton at a hostel and were set to go!
On 10/28 we left Wollongong for Sydney where we ran into Matt (Jess' husband) on the way and spent a few hours wandering around after we got there. We went to Paddy's market and browsed around for potential purchases for later in the trip if funds would allow and shared a delicious lunch upstairs. We then spent an hour or so in Belmore Park. We called our parents and talked about the upcoming trek.
The first train ride was 13 hours from Sydney overnight to Brisbane. We had seats at the end of the car right next to the toilets and where people would congregate before each stop so they could run out and smoke as much of their cigarettes as possible in 3 minutes. We saw one woman arguing with an attendant over why she couldn't be served alcohol after only taking 3 Valium and all the while the man sitting across the isle from Jeff just stared for at least 50% of the ride at us, occasionally mumbling something incoherent.
We arrived in Brisbane about 5:00 am and had 4 hours to kill at the train station before our next train to Proserpine. We looked for power outlets, drank coffee then sat in a corner on the floor (possibly having been peed on recently) while connecting to wifi. It was raining when we arrived in Brisbane and wouldn't be stopping anytime soon!
Our 23 hour train ride to Proserpine was pretty boring as it was just grey and drizzly outside so there wasn't much to look at out the window. We watched Forrest Gump on the iPad before making dinner - ritz crackers and a can of chicken (tomato and onion flavored). Very satisfying to us however our neighbor must not have thought so since he offered us a mystery sandwich (still not sure what the heck was in it) when we were done. We told him we were fine and thanked him but he insisted since he would be throwing them away if they didn't get eaten. I'm always really surprised at the generosity from strangers while we are out and about.
We fell asleep pretty early since we were due to arrive in Proserpine at 4:15 am and didn't want to be exhausted. It seemed like the longest overnight train ride ever! I must have woken up every hour to check the time that night. At one point I woke up and we were at a station and it seemed like the car was empty. Figuring it was just a 10 min stop and people were out smoking I went back to sleep. I woke up an hour later and we were still at the same stop and there were police officers outside. We were stopped at Mackay for about 3 hours because apparently a man assaulted a woman in a different car. Not sure what happened but hopefully she was alright!
We arrived in Proserpine later than expected but there was a bus waiting for us to take us to Airlie Beach. When we got to the hostel we had booked a campsite at they said it was too early for check-in but allowed us to store our bags for a few hours while walking around. Upon exploring we found that the "campsite" was just a mere patch of dirt a bulldozer was driving around on digging holes in... When we asked if the campsite had moved to a different area the girl seemed pretty clueless and said she would ask her manager. The manager was trying to find out when the construction would be done so we could camp there but we instead went to a different hostel next door with a much safer (and more quiet) area.
Those 2 nights in Airlie Beach we got rained on quite a bit but stayed dry with our double-tarp-makeshift-rainfly. The days were extremely hot and the sun intense with 50%+ humidity. We decided to walk 6km to Cannonvale to get some groceries and a lightweight hammer (frustrating trying to get tent pegs into hard ground without one). Luckily there is a nice boardwalk along the ocean so there is a nice view along the way! Airlie Beach has a Lagoon (giant public pool by the ocean) you can swim in for free so that was the first place we went after a long walk in the heat! Hurricane Sandy had hit in the days prior so we watched the news for a while. It's very tragic and I wish I could do something to help.
Halloween arrived and we were up at 6:00 am packing up our tent and belongings so we could head over to the Harbor and scamper our way to Planton Island! We arrived 15 minutes earlier than we were told but enjoyed the chilly breeze and beautiful view. A huge group of younger boys (boy scouts perhaps?) showed up and it ended up being another 2 hours before we finally were out on water. We were the first of everyone to get dropped off and before we knew it the boat was pulling away as we stood there on the island with not a single other person on it.
After walking around for a few minutes we started setting up Dumbledore in the little jungle area where most people camp, trying to ignore the GIANT spider webs connecting trees and whatever else could be crawling in there. We then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the sun, occasionally jumping into the warm ocean and reading. There are also a lot of giant flies (March Flies) that bite on the island which caused us to do the "Aussie salute" pretty often. We started a death tally as we one by one smushed them (which ended up being more of a massacre by the end with the final count being 26). Since we didn't have costumes for Halloween we dressed as each other in our swimmers and took some photos. Jeff looks better in my bikini than I do! We ate rice with spam and red capsicum for dinner and watched the sunset while listening to Ben Howard. It was pretty perfect.
Nighttime came along and as we were getting in the tent we noticed HUGE bats flying from tree to tree. The bats were so huge you could hear them before you saw them and they would screech and fight with each other in the treetops above us. Jeff had to keep reminding me that they aren't vampire bats as I was too scared to leave the tent. I had watched Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom too many times apparently.
You know when you're camping and you wake up in the middle of the night having to relieve yourself but try to hold it because it's maybe raining or cold or you don't know if a bear is lurking around the corner? Maybe it's just me, but I was terrified that if I left the tent the heaps of bats were sure to dive bomb me and attack. After hours of laying there, wide eyed and sleepless I couldn't take it anymore and braved the darkness with my miners lamp strapped on my forehead. I'm glad we were alone on the island so nobody could see me burst from the tent, run through the dark mumbling profanities and find a place to go all the while probably covering my head with my arms in case of attack.
Day 2 on our private island was Jeff's birthday! We watched the sunrise and little fins pop up throughout the ocean around us. There were also these fish that would shoot out of the water and skip across the top really fast that was pretty fun to watch. For breakfast we had cupcakes we had brought for the occasion but they had gotten very melty in the heat and humidity there so we had to eat them with spoons. As the day went on without much of a breeze we realized we probably shouldn't spend another full day sitting under the direct sun (we used almost a whole tube of sunscreen in one day) so we grabbed a tarp, stick and some tent pegs and made our own shade on the beach! We were pretty proud of our work and spent the entire day laying under it, reading and even napping. In the evening we moved our tent to the beach hoping for a better night sleep and a bit of a breeze to keep us cool.
The next morning with a little bit more sleep we woke up at 5:00 am to a very windy beach. We were actually pretty happy about it because it gets so hot during the day you can't really do much besides cook yourself. As beautiful as the island was we both agreed 2 days would have been perfect and spending another full day in the sun and restless night on the beach wasn't the most appealing. Oh well, what's one more day? By 10:00 it was so hot and the wind didn't exactly have the cooling effect we had hoped (more like the feeling one might have if several people stood there blasting them with a few hot hair dryers). We attempted to make shade again but the wind was too strong-- after several failed attempts we accepted our demise. I randomly asked Jeff if he had considered calling Scamper the night before to see if we could get picked up a day early and he said he had. We then kind of had this silence while looking at each other thinking the same thing at the same time. It was about 10:30 which was when the boat would be out and about picking people up. I made the call and Sandy said she would try and get in contact with the boat and call us back if they could get us. Not wanting to pack up and end up having to stay but also not wanting to have to rush if we got the call we kind of paced around for the next 30 minutes feeling very anxious. Finally the phone rings and she's telling us they will be there in 5 MINUTES (just as we see the boat turn the corner to come for us). I'm running down the beach towards Jeff yelling "WE HAVE 5 MINUTES!!!" then we were frantically throwing everything into our bags, completely unorganized and in a spastic manner while mumbling profanities and somehow managed to get it all on the boat without having to make them wait! Next thing we knew we were enjoying the wind and mist coming off the front of the boat knowing we would get to enjoy cold showers soon.
Back in Airlie we were smelly, hot, dirty and desperate to find the cheapest private room we could for at least the first night back. After checking around we found that Magnums had rooms for $56 or a special $48 if you book 2 nights. SOLD! Off we went to our room with an amazing giant ceiling fan, refrigerator and cold showers around the corner.
Our next couple of days were spent sleeping in, connecting to Internet in between swim sessions at the lagoon and eating 30 cent ice cream cones. One night someone told us the bar downstairs was having a special for FREE drinks. What?!? So we went down to check it out and sure enough they came by every so often with free stuff. From shots of bailey's Irish cream to full pitchers of beer we were set! We met a couple from Canada and chatted with them for a bit and at some point a bloke accidentally bumped our table, spilling the smallest amount of beer, and then offered to buy us more (which of course we declined) before inviting us to join him and his group of rugby teammates at their table. All of them LOVED Jeff and kept calling him Jack Johnson all night while occasionally throwing up a fist bump, high five or other random gesture. They sort of reminded me of the boys of the G.N.C. from Greenstreet Hooligans and got us to dance around the club for hours late into the night. They all had little toy soldiers in their pockets and whenever their team captain, named Mouse, would hold his up and yell in a really loud and epic manner "SOLDIERRR!" they would all reenact what their soldier was doing, some of them laying on the ground in the middle of the dance floor. At one point one of them had dropped a soldier and Jeff pointed it out on the ground. Next thing you know an extremely thankful player was handing us two free drinks. I don't want to know what the consequence is if you are caught without your soldier by the captain but this guy was very appreciative and said we saved him. It was quite the experience. We definitely didn't expect that after a day of being lazy we would end up drinking in a bar I'd compare to the Bistro (boise bar) with a team of big rugby players, dancing the night away. If you have seen the movie Greenstreet Hooligans, I swear one of them looked EXACTLY like Bruva.
The next morning we had to check out by 11 and move on to camping again at the hostel we had stayed at prior to Planton Island. We found a great shaded spot in the back corner next to a group blasting Bob Marley. Jeff was pretty happy about it. Later in the day we were walking back to camp when a guy sitting outside his camper said hello and didn't have an accent! After finding out he was Canadian and chatting for a little bit he invited us to sit down and hang out for a while. We ended up sticking around for the rest of the evening, grabbing a pitcher at The Shed and having some great conversation. Mike and his Australian girlfriend, Lana, are doing a tour around Australia in their custom campervan just stopping and working for short periods of time in different places. They had been in Airlie Beach for 6 weeks and would eventually make their way down the coast finding more work as they went and stopping at a few music festivals in the process. What a life! Lana was at work most of that evening but we had a long conversation about what animal we would choose to take to battle with us if we could choose any. Jeff's initial choice was a Lion, Mike's was a Polar Bear and I said Moose. We eventually settled on either an Ape, Bigfoot or a Rhino (opposable thumbs are a bonus). We agreed that traveling for long periods of time with your partner is a great test for a relationship as you are literally spending 24 hours a day every day together while going through different stressful things you may not be used to like fighting over who has more of the armrest on the trains or who gets to hold the map in the new city. Jeff and I, as well as Mike and Lana, feel confident in our relationships and rather enjoy experiencing traveling the world together. Mike and Lana have a pretty great set up out of their van with a full covered porch, kitchen area, couches that fold into a bed and lights that wind around the porch for a nice comforting glow. We definitely admired their home in comparison to our little tent, affectionately named Dumbledore, but talked about how it all works once you get your "system" down in getting it all set up and livable.
At one point another resident stopped by to chat for a bit. He has a network of tents that make up his "home" called Tent City. He said when he first came to Airlie he only had one tent, no tarp or rainfly and not much else. After several nights of rain and finding a job that would pay him enough to buy a tarp he realized the importance of them. He went off on a rather hilarious yet very great rant about tarps and how great they are and everything you can do with them. He now has multiple tents with pathways under tarps lit up with lights to connect them, making tent city. *Hey dad- maybe tarps would be the cheaper way to get the roof replaced!*
The next day we hit up the Lagoon pretty early in the morning, then went back to camp where Lana and Mike were getting ready to head to a beach area we hadn't been to so we tagged along. Boathaven Beach had a giant area surrounded by a net that keeps out box jellyfish and other sea creatures that would keep you from staying in the water long. We enjoyed, maybe for the first time, a long and comfortable swim in the warm ocean without fear of getting stung, snatched or nibbled on.
We finished the afternoon by grabbing 30 cent ice cream cones and some beer before heading back to camp for some lounging. We played Beersbee (a game involving a frisbee, pegs with cups on them and beer) for a couple of hours before listening to music on their porch, munching on cheese and talking about different places in Australia. In Queensland there are heaps of these bright green ants, Green Tree Ants, that are about the same size as carpenter ants and get all over everything. Mike told us that at one point in his life he had been told that they taste like lime and he had tried it. All of us thought he was full of it and laughed at him but after persistently insisting that we try it, one-by-one we all picked up a green ant and LICKED it. I was the last to try and I can confirm that they indeed do taste very strongly of lime juice. Upon further investigation later on I found that people actually eat them as a source of protein and vitamin C, will also boil mass amounts of them and drink the water to cure colds and you can pour them on your chest and let them bite you all over to cure a fever... Eventually, realizing none of us had eaten dinner (and we weren't about to eat ants), we all made a trek into town to look for some late night snacks. We ended up at Clancy's Pie shop and had the best meat pie I'd ever tasted in my life. It was Steak, tomato and onion and I could have eaten 15 more!
I called my beautiful and much missed mother to wish her a happy birthday and we exchanged contact info with our new friends the next morning. We said our goodbyes and happy travels as they got ready for work. They'll be touring Canada (getting jobs at ski resorts and snowboarding) in the next year and want to try and make it to Sasquatch Festival with us over memorial day weekend! The rest of our last afternoon in Airlie we took one last dip in the Lagoon, ate one more cheap ice cream cone and watched the sunset on the ocean while talking about how great this trip has been and our plans for the future.
During times of intense homesickness, Airlie Beach had comforted us, recharged us and we truly enjoyed (and will never forget) our stay there.
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