Thursday 17th April - Day 74

'Camira' is written on my itinerary. I realise this morning that this is the name of the Catamaran that is taking us to the Whitsunday Islands. It rained quite a bit last night, I wonder if the trip will be cancelled. I leave the hostel at 7:00am to catch the bus and get to the harbour.

It's an impressive looking boat. It was previously know as Tsunami but had its name changed in respect to the events of 2004. I read it cost $2million Australian dollars and can carry about eighty passengers. There's only about thirty of us and and I'm glad there aren't more because the seating would have been a bit tight. As we start our journey the weather is getting worse. At one point the rain is lashing down and one of the crew members is wearing divers face mask; I guess he's doing it as a joke. The journey to our first destination will take quite a while which gives us time to get to know each other. Not for the first time, the friendliest people I talk to are Germans. You would think the British might be more approachable once they see you have an English accent, in which case, at least for me sometimes, this is not the case.

An older retired gentleman tells me about his work for NATO. I've never met anybody who's worked for NATO. He could have told me anything I suppose, but his life story is an interesting one. I'm not going to be repeating it here.

At times the rain stops and a few of us venture outside; except for one crazy/eccentric Canadian who has been outside most of the time even during the worst rain. After a few hours we finally reach Whitehaven beach. Amazingly, the weather has turned and it's nice and sunny now.

We're taken by a small motorised boat to the beach while lunch is being prepared for us on board the catamaran. For an hour or so we play beach cricket or just sunbathe. I could get use to this - I wish. On board we have a big a la carte lunch. I venture to try the seafood too as I'm sure it's all fresh.

Next we're off to another site where we can do some snorkeling if we wish. As the snorkelers are getting off the catamaran and on to their boat, we notice a school of dolphins. Slowly we try and get as close as we can on the catamaran. The dolphins make sure they keep their distance, but at least we get to see them. Seeing them jump out of the water is a bit too much to ask for. We head back to the harbour.

In the evening I meet up with three of the German guys, Kaleb, Anna and Elona, I met on the catamaran. We go for a drink in a bar/pub, order food and drink to the background of a live band. They all get embarrassingly drunk and are thrown out of the bar (only joking) they said they might read my blog. Actually, it was a pleasant evening and we say goodbye.

I have to catch a greyhound bus at 11:55 in the evening. This isn't ideal as I didn't want to be traveling at night but that's how it's turned out.