Despite a late night, I got up at 6am as again I had not been able to sleep. I think it was because I have found the experience so great that I just can’t switch off. Anyway, as there was no one else up and it was raining outside, I decided to sit and read my book in the saloon with several cups of tea. Eventually people surfaced and had breakfast, whilst I continued to chill and read. Every now and then it would rain, but then clear over again, making the air a bit fresher than it had been. Once it seemed pretty clear, I went and sat at the helm and did some pontificating, whilst watching the white things in the air once more – although they were so far away to not be able to see them clearly, they were very easy to hear. I chatted to Damo and Chris and at some point told them about my ridiculous, yet extreme phobia of grass, which they both found highly amusing. We talked about the bush walk we would be doing and I asked them if there would be anything potentially terrifying or life threatening, such as leeches, snakes or spiders and they assured me it was totally safe. The guests were then given the option of going on the bush walk to a viewpoint, or to stay on board and chill. It was a 50/50 split, so some stayed on the boat, whilst the rest of us hopped in the tender.
Once on the shore, we climbed over the very slippery rocks and onto the not-very-sandy beach. We followed a set of rock steps that led straight up from the beach. At the top of those, we met a trail, following it along and up to a decked area. This was where there was a big cave with aboriginal paintings in – they looked a bit like boats. This area of Hook Island was inhabited by a tribe of aborigines and so there was some information about them around the decking.
Having looked at that, Chris climbed down off the decking and began the bush walk (I hadn’t realised that we hadn’t already actually done the bush walk!), within about ten steps he stopped and said ‘Woooah!’, this worried me slightly and being at the back of the chain of people following him, the chain had doubled back on itself, so I was actually standing next to him, only I was still stood on the decking. My eyes adjusted and Iooked in the direction he was looking, refocused and saw something that certainly made me say something more that ‘Woooah!’ – a very large and very scary looking golden orb spider! OMG! It was actually horrific. It was sat on its web, right across the pathway in front of Chris – lucky he had been watching where he was going and hadn’t just walked straight into it! Whilst the spider itself was black, red, yellow and orange, the web itself was bright yellow, incredibly odd and again actually horrific! Chris kind of brushed the web aside, which meant it just hung from the tree next to the path rather than hanging across it. Several people at this point into the walk (ie the very very beginning!) backed out and elected to wait on the decking. I spent a few moments considering my options and decided to be brave.
Walking towards the spider, I realised it had moved to the other side of the path, then took a second look and noticed that it looked a bit different – there were two of them; one on each side of the path (this picture is of the second, smaller one!)! I took several deep breaths and dashed past, feeling triumphant that I made it past without being jumped on or eaten alive – I was invincible! Or so I thought. A little way along the walk and the terrain became more difficult – climbing over rocks and boulders and then the worst bit – walking through lots of very long, long, long grass. I actually panicked more about this than having to walk past two terrifying spiders. Every now and then I had to stop in a clear bit, or on a rock and regain my composure! I was second from the back and the girl behind me, Naobi from Netherlands, was very sweet and kept trying to calm me down! By the time we made it through all the grass and over all the rocks, up to where everyone else was, at the viewpoint, I was positively hyperventilating and my heart racing in panic! I went straight over to Chris and asked him if he remembered what I had told him and Damo moments before getting in the boat, he instantly started laughing and thought it was actually quite funny, I guess it was, but I didn’t see that until I had calmed down! Once I had overcome the trauma, I actually looked out across the viewpoint, it was pretty stunning. I could see down onto the boat, with people doing jumps off the rope into the sea.
It was then time to walk back down to the decked area, once again the grass caused much trauma, but I made it back alive! I even managed to pluck up the courage to look at the spiders as I went past them! Back at the bottom of the trail, we rejoined the tender and headed back over to the ship. On arrival back, I got changed and made myself several cups of tea! We were then ready to start our journey back to Airlie Beach and finally, with a bit of wind in the air, we were able to actually see what the ship was built to do – sail!
I sat at the helm with Captain Tony and watched excitedly as the crew climbed up the riggings and set the sails and suddenly the main engine was cut and the ship was transformed into a true pirate ship sailing the high seas! It was really cool! As everyone else sat down on the mid-deck, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the helm, talking to the crew, making cups of tea, telling silly jokes and truly enjoying the views of the islands as we went past them. I wanted to make the most of my last couple of hours on board and this was really an experience to write home about! As we neared the shore, Captain Tony let me have a go at steering. It was fun but I was a bit nervous as the boat is significantly bigger than my Smart car and despite there being nothing else within any proximity of us, I was still scared I would crash, so I gave him back the wheel pretty pronto! I got Jana and she had a go too, but she was far more confident than I and steered for a good ten minutes!
It took a while to get into the marina and moor up, but once we had, we all got together on the mid-deck and had a final briefing with the crew. We’d all had a truly amazing experience! There was mention of a gathering at one of the pubs that evening, so we would get the chance to have one last drink together. We said our goodbyes and thank yous and disembarked, heading back to the YHA.
Nikki, Jana and I went to our room and talked about how much fun we had had, then they had a quick kip, whilst I got myself together by having a slightly longer shower (although the Solway Lass experience has made me better at taking quicker showers!) – despite a lack of sleep over the previous nights, I still wasn’t actually feeling tired! I had a text from Richard (from my room Hervey Bay YHA) and we arranged to go for a quick drink and compare notes about our adventures since Hervey Bay and our Whitsundays experiences, before he got on the Greyhound to head to Cairns. It was nice to see him and we had both had enjoyable experiences in the Whitsundays and were both sad to be leaving!
After this I headed back to the ranch to collect Jana and Nikki, neither of whom was ready! Eventually they were done and we headed down to Beaches to meet the others. It was quite a loud and lary place, it looked like it was THE place to go after a boat trip – each table was reserved for a party from a different boat. We found our table and said hello to everyone who had come along, which was most of the guests and also Chris had come along too. We enjoyed the rest of the evening with them, having a drink and discussing how great our trip had been – certainly one we would never forget!
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