Queensland recap #5: Three days on the Whitsundays
Mood: 
|| Busy
Tune : n/a
Lookout on Whiteheaven Beach, a famous beach on the Whitsunday Islands
March 16: Arrived in Airlie Beach at around 9 in the morning and spent quite some time finding the office for Oz Adventure Sailing, with which I had my 3 day sailing trip booked. When I finally did find it I checked in, repacked my suitcase (as I was only allowed to bring a small backpack with stuff) and headed towards the marina.
Our boat was a little late but at around 1.30pm we got picked up and went to our home for the next three days "Mandrake", a former training vessel that was made into a holiday yacht. It's a fairly small boat but just big enough for 15 people and 2 man crew. Though the toilets were ridiculously small o.O
When we were all settled we headed for our first destination of the day which was Caves Cove on Hook Island. When we arrived we all had to put on our stinger suits (lycra suits that protect you from getting stung by dangerous jelly fish) and we got our introduction about snorkelling. I thought that it wouldn't be a whole lot of fun as I don't have prescription goggles so I wouldn't be able to see much without my glasses but I was SO wrong. The snorkel goggles magnify everything under water so I saw everything just fine and it was one of the best hours ever. It was a really amazing experience and I am so glad I was able to do it! Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef means I saw tons of amazingly shaped coral and big and small fishes in all colours of the rainbow. Bright blue, neon yellow, poisonous green. Striped, dotted. Wow. Oh how I wished my camera worked under water so I'd be able to snap pictures from the amazing things I saw, but alas. Also remarkable was the sound the fish made under water btw. Some of them were nibbling stuff off the coral and it sounded like they were crushing it.
I couldn't believe it when we got told our hour was over already and it was time for tea. It was awesome though: crackers, cheese and dips (cream cheese with sweet chilli sauce might be the best thing ever!) and the food would continue to be awesome the rest of our trip. We were really lucky with MJ (our host, cook, deckhand, etc she was very good at multitasking, lol!).
We went sailing for a bit again and raced some boats (we won, awesome!) to Nara Inlet where we would spent the night. We saw an amazing sunset there and after that had dinner and just chilled on the boat until we went to bed.
This is where we snorkelled
Pretty sunset
March 17: Got up at about 6am and the first thing we did after breakfast was go on land. We followed a track that brought us to some caves with aboriginal paintings inside of them, that was really cool.
After that we set sail for Tongue Bay. From there we had THE most amazing view on the famous Whiteheaven Beach you can possible imagine. Whiteheaven Beach has a perfect white beach (even more perfect than Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island as the beach on the Whitsundays is 99% pure calcium) and is surrounded by patches of water in different shades of green and blue. It was absolutely stunning. We must have spent at least half an hour just wandering around the look-out and ow-ing and aw-ing over the amazing view.
When we made our way down from the look-out we ended up at Betty's Beach, an almost equally impressive white beach with perfect clear water surrounding it. The best thing about it was that when you waded through the shallow water closest to the beach, little white fish with black stripes would swim around your feet.
Back on the boat, making our way to our next destination we suddenly saw a turtle pop up its head above the water. And OMG it was huge!! The turtle must've been at least 1 meter width; it was so surreal to see him in the wild, very impressive.
Next we went to Cataran Bay and finally to Butterfly Bay on Border Island, where once again we saw a stunning sunset over the island surrounding us and the water. After a fantastic meal (like the fifth one that day, seriously besides breakfast and lunch we'd had tea and snacks which were both so big they were practically a full meal) I had planned to go to bed early as I felt so tired around 8pm, but I got talking to MJ (about music mostly and Jules, she loves Wes Carr!) and it was suddenly midnight o.O So far for an early night.
Aboriginal cave drawings
Our boat: Mandrake
Beautiful look-out! That strip of white behind me is Whiteheaven Beach
Betty's Beach
The fish that came near the beach
The people I was with
Another pretty sunset
March 18: When we got up the weather had drastically changed from the two perfect Summer days we'd had before. Pouring rain, lots of wind. Everything was wet within seconds. After breakfast it seemed to clear up a little bit and we set foot on the other side of Hook Island than the first day to wade a little bit through the shells and dead pieces of coral on the beach there. I snapped tons of pictures from amazing shells we found (bright colours, huge and awesome shapes), because we were unfortunately not allowed to take anything from the Great Barrier Reef.
After that we just had to sail for several hours to get back to the mainland and the weather got progressively worse the closer we got to Airlie Beach. It was pouring like crazy and it was storming really hard. At one point I made my way to the cabins (as it was just too wet outside) and I had to hold on for dear life to whatever I could grab there as we were swaying so much. I even started to feel a little sea sick. Not fun at all.
We eventually made it back though, obviously, and said our goodbyes. First thing I did after that (like after Fraser Island) was taking a long hot shower, as we hadn't been able to on the boat. Seriously, you don't know how much you miss a shower until suddenly it's impossible to take one. After that it was my plan to explore Airlie Beach before I had to take the bus in the evening, but since he weather was so bad (the streets were floaded!) I spent most of my time just sitting inside and waiting at the bus stop (I did see a pretty sunset so it wasn't all wasted).
Coral from the beach
Airlie Beach
And another sunset
More pictures can be found HERE.
|| Busy
Tune : n/a
Lookout on Whiteheaven Beach, a famous beach on the Whitsunday Islands
March 16: Arrived in Airlie Beach at around 9 in the morning and spent quite some time finding the office for Oz Adventure Sailing, with which I had my 3 day sailing trip booked. When I finally did find it I checked in, repacked my suitcase (as I was only allowed to bring a small backpack with stuff) and headed towards the marina.
Our boat was a little late but at around 1.30pm we got picked up and went to our home for the next three days "Mandrake", a former training vessel that was made into a holiday yacht. It's a fairly small boat but just big enough for 15 people and 2 man crew. Though the toilets were ridiculously small o.O
When we were all settled we headed for our first destination of the day which was Caves Cove on Hook Island. When we arrived we all had to put on our stinger suits (lycra suits that protect you from getting stung by dangerous jelly fish) and we got our introduction about snorkelling. I thought that it wouldn't be a whole lot of fun as I don't have prescription goggles so I wouldn't be able to see much without my glasses but I was SO wrong. The snorkel goggles magnify everything under water so I saw everything just fine and it was one of the best hours ever. It was a really amazing experience and I am so glad I was able to do it! Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef means I saw tons of amazingly shaped coral and big and small fishes in all colours of the rainbow. Bright blue, neon yellow, poisonous green. Striped, dotted. Wow. Oh how I wished my camera worked under water so I'd be able to snap pictures from the amazing things I saw, but alas. Also remarkable was the sound the fish made under water btw. Some of them were nibbling stuff off the coral and it sounded like they were crushing it.
I couldn't believe it when we got told our hour was over already and it was time for tea. It was awesome though: crackers, cheese and dips (cream cheese with sweet chilli sauce might be the best thing ever!) and the food would continue to be awesome the rest of our trip. We were really lucky with MJ (our host, cook, deckhand, etc she was very good at multitasking, lol!).
We went sailing for a bit again and raced some boats (we won, awesome!) to Nara Inlet where we would spent the night. We saw an amazing sunset there and after that had dinner and just chilled on the boat until we went to bed.
This is where we snorkelled
Pretty sunset
March 17: Got up at about 6am and the first thing we did after breakfast was go on land. We followed a track that brought us to some caves with aboriginal paintings inside of them, that was really cool.
After that we set sail for Tongue Bay. From there we had THE most amazing view on the famous Whiteheaven Beach you can possible imagine. Whiteheaven Beach has a perfect white beach (even more perfect than Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island as the beach on the Whitsundays is 99% pure calcium) and is surrounded by patches of water in different shades of green and blue. It was absolutely stunning. We must have spent at least half an hour just wandering around the look-out and ow-ing and aw-ing over the amazing view.
When we made our way down from the look-out we ended up at Betty's Beach, an almost equally impressive white beach with perfect clear water surrounding it. The best thing about it was that when you waded through the shallow water closest to the beach, little white fish with black stripes would swim around your feet.
Back on the boat, making our way to our next destination we suddenly saw a turtle pop up its head above the water. And OMG it was huge!! The turtle must've been at least 1 meter width; it was so surreal to see him in the wild, very impressive.
Next we went to Cataran Bay and finally to Butterfly Bay on Border Island, where once again we saw a stunning sunset over the island surrounding us and the water. After a fantastic meal (like the fifth one that day, seriously besides breakfast and lunch we'd had tea and snacks which were both so big they were practically a full meal) I had planned to go to bed early as I felt so tired around 8pm, but I got talking to MJ (about music mostly and Jules, she loves Wes Carr!) and it was suddenly midnight o.O So far for an early night.
Aboriginal cave drawings
Our boat: Mandrake
Beautiful look-out! That strip of white behind me is Whiteheaven Beach
Betty's Beach
The fish that came near the beach
The people I was with
Another pretty sunset
March 18: When we got up the weather had drastically changed from the two perfect Summer days we'd had before. Pouring rain, lots of wind. Everything was wet within seconds. After breakfast it seemed to clear up a little bit and we set foot on the other side of Hook Island than the first day to wade a little bit through the shells and dead pieces of coral on the beach there. I snapped tons of pictures from amazing shells we found (bright colours, huge and awesome shapes), because we were unfortunately not allowed to take anything from the Great Barrier Reef.
After that we just had to sail for several hours to get back to the mainland and the weather got progressively worse the closer we got to Airlie Beach. It was pouring like crazy and it was storming really hard. At one point I made my way to the cabins (as it was just too wet outside) and I had to hold on for dear life to whatever I could grab there as we were swaying so much. I even started to feel a little sea sick. Not fun at all.
We eventually made it back though, obviously, and said our goodbyes. First thing I did after that (like after Fraser Island) was taking a long hot shower, as we hadn't been able to on the boat. Seriously, you don't know how much you miss a shower until suddenly it's impossible to take one. After that it was my plan to explore Airlie Beach before I had to take the bus in the evening, but since he weather was so bad (the streets were floaded!) I spent most of my time just sitting inside and waiting at the bus stop (I did see a pretty sunset so it wasn't all wasted).
Coral from the beach
Airlie Beach
And another sunset
More pictures can be found HERE.