The Jo Guest Posse – Airlie Beach & The Whitsunday Islands

We arrived back in Airlie beach and found we had quite a few new friends from the boat, some of the crew and some passengers.  For a while we had quite a group going on, there were always people in our room, we’d all get together for a chat or something to eat before we went out. Inevitably though, some of them moved on.  We tried out the hostel owned by the captain’s wife but it really didn't work out well for us.  We were used to being left to our own devices and just having a room in a hostel where as she liked to treat the guests as her family, more accurately, her children.  She would come into our dorm room early in the morning and open the curtains while we were all still sleeping and try to get us all out of bed and took offence at the Mascot travelling with us so we had to have words with her and we ended up leaving and going back to the place we stayed previously.  I can't recall if it was mutual or if we were encouraged to leave after the events following Snakebite night.

We weren't in the log cabins this time, we were in a 6 bed dorm with Shirley and Martine from the boat, Martine was English and Shirley was from Ireland.  Our room was in the back of the main building and had a balcony overlooking the path that ran around the back of the building so anyone walking by was easy prey for water bombs.

At this time Barb was not much of a drinker and I don’t think she had ever been drunk in her life, so, when we found a bar in Airlie Beach that sold Snakebite with Raspberry cordial by the jug we were not really expecting Barb to join us so we got back to the table with a jug and 3 glasses.  Barb asked if she could try it and we let her have a little out of one of the glasses and she liked it so went to get her own glass and we took it in turns to go and buy the jugs.  The thing with Raspberry cordial is it makes the drink taste like pop and you don’t realise just how strong the Snakebite is, Barb was really enjoying herself but was knocking the glasses back and was getting a bit leery so we tried to discourage her from drinking the delicious liquid and Kev actually took the drink off her a few times.  In the end she admitted defeat and decided to go to bed while we stayed out.

The next morning, all bleary eyed, I went to the toilet and found total devastation. The toilet seat was lying next to the toilet and the floor was totally flooded. I thought that someone had got home and gone nuts in the bathroom so I woke everyone up and demanded to know who was responsible, focusing my attention on Ian and Kev when this little voice came from behind me. “Blackie, I have a confession”, I turned to face Barb and she looked ashamed. She had come back to the room and not put the light on, tried to use the loo and not lifted the lid. When she realised she had tried to lift the lid only to have the seat come away in her hands.  I am sure she will not thank me for reminding her off this story or for sharing it. 

Remembering what a good night we’d had cane toad racing we decided to find that bar again a few night later and take some of the people we’d met on the boat.  Tonight wasn’t toad racing though, tonight was Karaoke.  I don’t think any of us have what it takes to be X Factor competitors but that didn’t matter, there was a microphone, a Stage and a hundred people with enough alcohol inside them to create an audience.

We took to the stage as a group, Kev, Ian and Myself and a few girls.  We decided to change it about a bit and did a duet but with the boys doing the girls part and vice versa.  Once we had been on stage once then there was no stopping us, we must have done about 5 songs.  On the last song someone shouted out that there was no need for us to go up again, we’d already won.  That wasn’t the point, we were having fun.  They were right though, we had won and our prize was a day trip around the Whitsunday Islands on an Americas cup yacht.

This trip was totally different, where as the previous boat was built for comfort, this was built for speed.  We still sent to the islands, snorkelling and did the same sort of thing but the actual ride of the boat was an experience, we also had the chance to help out with the sails and running of the boat if we wanted to.  On the way back to the mainland they really let the boat go and gave us a demonstration of what it could do.  I was sat on the deck with my legs hanging over the side of the boat and we were tilted right over so that my knees were almost underwater.

This was to be our last day in Airlie beach, the next day we were in Bundaberg trying to find work but this was not to be as all of the hostels were full. We had no choice but to book our coach to the next town and ended sleeping in the bus station until the 6am bus arrived.