Queensland recap #5: Three days on the Whitsundays

[canadian_turtle]

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.

Comments

[gossy16.livejournal.com]

Whoa! That all looks and sounds so awesome! The pictures are amazing! ♥

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It all looked so amazing! :D

Also: *tackle hugz* How are you doing???

[gossy16.livejournal.com]

*glomps*

I'm pretty good myself, thanks! Just got back from a long weekend home, which was very sweet. Booking my flights on Friday and getting more and more excited each minute! w00t! \o/

p.s. I miss you, but you know that! ;P

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

snorkeling sounds fantastic!

great food and pretty pictures... I want to go there!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It really is! I went snorkelling again yesterday, I think I am addicted, lol

[ebee223.livejournal.com]

WOW so gorgeous!!! sounds wonderful cutie!!!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

OMG how cute is your icon? ♥

[bartowski.livejournal.com]

again, great pictures, i love it.

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It's so pretty out here O_O

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

Wow! A sailing trip! Very nice. And the water looks so beautiful and clear there. I'm glad you are having an amazing trip :D

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It was amazing. The discomforts of the small boat aside it was one of the best trips ever :D

[iloveyoursoul.livejournal.com]

All these pictures anf the stories you've attached to them makes me want to cry. I'm so jealous of you.

But I'm glad you're having fun, you deserve it :)

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Oh no, dude! :( I don't want my recaps to make you sad :( Think of them as ideas of what you can do when you plan your trip ^_^

♥

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

(*archaeologist hat on* The guides did tell you that you had permission from the Ngaro elders to take photos right? Because if not: Very. Not. Cool.)

My gods, you are making me miss the Whitsundays!! That is where I had my first field experience in archaeology - *g* so very easy to become passionate about it in surroundings like those! :D It's a shame you didn't get a chance to go to South Molle, but ah well.

So now it's probably okay to tell you about the death adder my old supervisor literally stepped over one day whilst doing work in Nara Inlet? *g* He was walking along one of those trails you were - just happened to glance down at the right time and there's a little death adder, all curled up happily in the sun. So damn lucky he didn't actually step on it, because yikes!

I didn't ask, I don't think - have you been sailing before? Must be so cool to have all these new experiences! :D Whitehaven beach is one of those glorious natural places that makes me think there's gotta be some kind of outside influence in the development of the world! It's almost too beautiful for it!

:)
Jaydeyn

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Uhm... no they didn't :\ It was a very touristy little pace though because there were loads of signs/info stands around. So I am sssuming this place is alright to photograph?

You should go back :D

LOL You did tell me that story! Thank God I had forgotten about that being in the Whitsundays when I was there :P

I went sailing when I was in highschool but that was veyr different. It was a much smaller boat and we sailed it ourselves at the time.

[decadentdream.livejournal.com]

Did I not tell you Whitehaven Beach was the BEST BEACH IN THE WORLD EVA?!?!?!? LOL Now you see XD Though you have been to some equally pretty and fantastic places. Sounds like you did the best thing you could do for being up there, though I totally want to go back to the Whitsundays some day and spend more time on that beach *is love*

And can I totally LMAO cause everytime you mention Wes or Idol or something, I have more Wes news :$ Don't think tickets are on sale yet (Rotty Hill is $40 but I couldn't remember if we were going there or Blacktown *headdesk* but I went and bought his CD today :D Haven't listened to it yet but I have to leave for TAFE in like 5 mins so I will hopefully remember to take it with me :)

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

You may have mentioned something in that direction ;P

That is dirt cheap for tickets, awesome! I don't remember what place we talked about though. Whatever is closests I suppose? Let me know how his CD is when you've had a chance to listen to it I'll rip it from you next time I'll see you. I've been hearing his song on the radio on an at least daily basis, so he's getting good airplay right now :D

[messicat.livejournal.com]

I still haven't posted my Whitsundays photos from Jan, you're making me feel bad! Lol.

We didn't go to Whitehaven, due to the weather being absolutely messed up while we were up there, awful winds and rain which made sailing very difficult and we were stuck at Butterfly Bay for 3 days and ran out of water, fun.

This makes me want to go on holidays again!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Tsk tsk tsk, shame on you :P

We didn't go to Whiteheaven either, I just had the beautiful view on it from the look-out point across from it.

We ran out of water too, no showers, fun... :\

[mapetitemort.livejournal.com]

If Heaven were a place on Earth I'd say you've come pretty close. Wow, those beaches are phenomenal. Makes the Belgian coast look like a pitiful heap of sand... not to mention the colour of the ocean.

Not even Jersey can beat this. O_o

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Pretty sure that's why they all it Whiteheaven Beach ;) It was truly amazing O_O

Didn't know Jersey is supposed to be beautiful?

[herm-weasley.livejournal.com]

Seriously, this is just AMAZING! *__*

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I know, right? We just stood there and stared at the amazing view for a ridiculous long time

[ingalunda.livejournal.com]

the picture with the boat and the sun is just gorgeous!

[canadian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The Whitsundays definitely provided the prettiest sights this trip