Aver Beach, SS Yongala, Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands

I got off my overnight bus at Ayr (on the East Coast of Australia not the one in Ayrshire@!)and was picked up from the guys at the dive centre and taken to the best hostel ever in Aver Beach. Had a day to kill before going diving so went for a walk around the town - which pretty much consisted of two streets of houses, small chip shop and big beach!!

Was warned it was not safe to swim due to the stingers (horrible jelly fish that give quite nasty if not deadly stings!!) so entertained myself watching the kite surfers!! Pretty impressive moves though.....

Some pretty patterns left on the sand by the waves or fish or something.....

There was a fantastic thunder and lightning storm that evening - these 2 photo's are the same spot seconds apart.....

I had been told that one of the best dives in Australia and certainly the best wreck dive was the SS Yongala on the East coast - so of course I had to try it out. Here we are just getting ready to go in the water. The SS Yongala disappeared during a cyclone in 1911 and no survivors were found - the wreck was only discovered in 1958 and is now a World Heritage site as well as a grave to those whose bodies are still on it.

Going into the water.....

Unfortunately there was really strong tides and due to the storm the night before so the visibility on the dive was not very good. It was a real battle to hold onto the line till we descended far enough to get out of the strong current. You could still see that there were lots of beautiful coral and loads of fish it was hard to stay in one place long enough to have a proper look - the people who went the day before us got much better conditions so I will just need to come back!!

I did manage to see a few turtles though - this one got up quite close and was swimming right underneath me.

These two little yellow fish were so cute they followed us along the line.

This was the hole into the engine room on the boat.

Though not too clear you could see that there were loads of coral and fish now living around the boat.

The dive masters and Misato.

The boat.

Towing the diving boat back onto the beach.

Misato and Bridget who were also diving at the SS Yongala.

The sunset at Aver Beach on the 2nd night (no more storms!!)

Misato and I both headed to Airlie beach after our dive to pick up different trips to Whitsunday Islands.

The New Horizon - the sail boat that I went on for 2 days to sail around the Whitsunday Islands.

Jack and Chom Poo Moo - think we could "Jack & Rose" a run for their money???? (The Titanic for you non Movie lovers!!)

It was the first time I have ever slept on a boat - it was ok apart from the snorers!! Shame I couldn't afford a private charter that would have been good!!

To get to the snorkelling points/beach we had to get dropped off from the small dinghy's.

Whitehaven Beach from the lookout point - this has to be the most stunning beach I have seen - the photo's don't go anywhere doing it justice.

Me snorkeling in the Whitsunday Islands - this was a great place to snorkel I saw loads of stuff.

The corals at this snorkelling spot were beautiful - colourful and a wide variety.

A blue clam - sure that's not it's technical name but you know what I mean.

Swimming lessons.....

I suddenly saw a school of fish change directions and swim towards me and then saw what I thought might have been a shark - wasn't sure though as it was gone so quickly but when I checked my photo's it was a Black Tip Reef shark - how exciting as I was the only one on the boat to see one :-)

I got very excited when I saw a little yellow box fish again - I loved these when I saw one in Malaysia so was chuffed to get a photo of one - they are definetely one of the cutes fish I have seen so far.

Lots of colourful fish - no idea what most of them are but it is so cool to swim/dive around all these fish.

The view from the porthole in the loo!!

Ryan got locked under deck (not sure of the correct sailing terminology here!!) and we told him that it was like Titanic when the 3rd class passengers were not being allowed up to deck to get onto the lifeboats :-)

Amanda insisted on getting her photo taken in the porthole as well so poor Chom Poo Moo got dragged in as well - mmmmm - maybe it was actually the other way around!!

There was lots of time on the boat just to chill out and chat.

This photo of this huge fish was actually taken from the boat - shows how big it is and how clear the water is!!

Thomas our mad captain explains the course we took on the chart (definetely not a map!!).

Chom Poo Moo got very excited when the wind picked up enough that we did actually get to put up the sails.


and still more............................