Capricorn Coast to Whitsundays

Sunday 28 October

We arrived at Mackay, the sugar cane capital of Queensland for lunch. No fancy stuff, just McDonalds or Maccers as the Aussies call it. Ordered the Honey Mustard menu, a quite large burger, chips and a Fanta. After lunch we had a two hours drive to Aerlie Beach.

In Aerlie Beach we had about 1.5 hours of free time to spend. I needed to check my e-mails and buy some groceries for our stay on Long Island. I walked to the beach and watched the relaxing sea for a while. I bought an underwater camera on my way back to the coach. Comes in very handy for the Great Barrier Reef trip later on.

Underway we dropped off Keith, Mark and Nick for their three day optional sailing trip around the Whitsundays, while the rest of us was moving on to Long Island. We had some time left before we could board our jetty. We waited at the wharf for a while and finally we could board and made our way to Long Island. Which was only 15 minutes away from the mainland.

On arrival an activity guy told us what's going to happen these couple of days. We got the key to our rooms. Quickly unpacked my stuff and went off to the laundry, needed to wash them because I'm running out of clothes. Shared some wash powder with Debbie and Katherine. Showered before dinner time. In the restaurant sat down with Tanya and Simone for a chat. Enjoying the meal and the lovely evening. It was pretty warm, fortunately they had air conditioning.

After dinner we went to the bar which was only a couple of steps away. Have a drink and a chat. 8:30 PM. The entertainment starts, three groups were made. Group 1 was Mr Jenkins, group 2 Belony Ponies and group 3 ATB. The first two groups were from Contiki, group three were other travellers.

Contests were like to fit as many people as possible in a small square, trivia questions, knight and lady, balloon positions, mummification with toilet paper, swapping clothes underneath a blanket, eating and drinking, move an apple by a swinging hand between your legs.

Really an interesting evening with quite some funny moments. I also participated with Simone on a game called "Knight and Lady" or something like that. The knight has to hold or carry the lady in some positions and in a certain time procedure. Quite funny to do I must say and a great laugh too!

We ended third place, second place was ATB and the first place was Mr Jenkins! Our price was two bottles of wine. Hey, that isn't too bad! A toast for victory! After the contest and games we had a couple of drinks, or just went to the dance floor. This evening our morning song "I got you (I feel good) by James Brown came along. So everyone got on the floor to dance and sing out loud. It was pretty warm inside the Sandbar, although they had air conditioning placed here and there. But it was still warm! I had drunk lots of orange juice to cool down. Around midnight went off to bed.