Airlie Beach - Whitsundays

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Saturday 4th December

We wasted no time on leaving the X base hostel and hopped aboard the ferry back to Townsville in order to catch our connecting bus which leaves for Airlie Beach. Its only a 3 hour drive to Airlie Beach and we arrived mid afternoon with the sun bearing down on us again and its a short walk to the Airlie Waterfront Hostel where we promptly check ourselves in for a couple of nights.

Airlie Beach is a small thriving town in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland. pop 2,770. There is a main road with most of the bars and clubs on it with lots of residential houses sprawled across the overlooking hillside.

The Airlie Waterfront is and excellent Hostel which has recently been refurbished so we waste no time in unpacking and doing some laundry. There is a food mall on the ground floor and we are spoilt for choice for different types of food to eat so we settled for some noodles from the the noodle bar which were really fine and cheap. Time to get a decent sleep in as we have nothing planned for tomorrow apart from sorting out our Whitsunday trip.

Sunday 5th December

We spent most of the day relaxing and in the afternoon we walked along the lovely beachfront and checked in for our sailing trip at the local office. We leave for the Whitsundays tomorrow at around 9am so we get our bearings and made sure we knew where to head in the morning to meet the boat.

The evening passed quick and we have to pack our small bags for our 3 day trip and leave the rest of the stuff behind in secure lockers at our hostel. The weather forecast looks pretty good for the next three days so finges crossed as its been hellish offshore the last few days as there's storms coming in from the South Pacific.

Monday 6th December

We registered for our boat trip early in the morning and paid our deposits for our stinger suits. Its at the end of the end of Box Jellyfish season and its better to be safe than sorry and its boat rules that we wear them.

We met Aoife (pronounced Eefa) that we knew from our New Zealand bus trip which was good she's a fine lassie from Ireland, 'its a small world' we say to each other and catch up on stories since we last met. We have 24 people on this boat trip which sounds a lot but you'll be amazed that its not that many for our large boat.

First things first, we are introduced to our Boat Crew who are Rowan, Michelle, Wade and Ben. All younger people from Australia apart from Michelle who is from Hull of all places. We are shown how to operate our life jackets and also the do's and dont's of boat life and with that we made our walk around the jetty and arrived our our Maxi Apollo sail boat which is larger than I thought.

Apollo is one of Australia's most famous Maxi yachts, winner of the Sydney-Hobart, South China Sea Series, Kenwood Cup, Around Hawaii Island Race and every major race held on the East Coast of Australia. Sound good? you bet!


We cracked on and once we had removed our footwear and everyones booze was stored in the coolers we were ready for the off. The boats engines started up and we began the trip to the Whitsunday islands. We choose our double bunk bed next to the kitchen area and get changed into shorts and tee's as the weather's very hot up on deck as we depart from the marina.
We suss out the location of the toilets and make our way back on to the top deck and relax taking in the beautiful views of Airlie Beach and it's not long before we see the start of the 72 islands that make up the Whitsundays Islands.

The Boat has a 23 metre high sail but there's not enough wind yet for us to get the sail up so we just motor on to our first diving spot which is about a 4 hour trip away at Luncheon Bay.
We sail by the Hayman Island in the north of the whitsundays and pass over the top of Hook Island and stay on a South East bearing at a steady 10 knots until we arrive at Luncheon Bay.

We are served Lunch down in the galley and the food is great, Pasta Carbonara and salad and the system is you go down one flight of stairs at the bow end and come back up the stern end, it saves congestion.
We have arrived at the first Dive spot at Luncheon Bay and we are split into 5 of 5 teams to do the scuba dive. I'm the only one not doing a scuba because of my ears which is a pity but there's plenty marine life to see with just the snorkel and goggles.

The inflatable dingy take's us into the bay and we are dropped off on the beach which was really rough on the feet as there are lots of sharp edges and broken corals which made walking challenging. Im already into my stinger suit, fins and snorkel and ive made my way into the sea which is surprisingly not that cold. Almost immediately I see lots of fish and corals, all of which are really colourful.
The deeper I got the larger the fish became and its not uncommon to see large moon fish and giant trevali's swimming quite close. Rainbow fish, clown fish and parrot fish are in abundance under here and some of the corals are amazing as you can see lots of detail and patterns as you snorkel up close.

After about half hour ive had enough as my goggles are getting tight so I laze on the beach waiting for Jill to get het scuba gear on as she is in group 3 and ready to go on her first dive. I watch as she goes out to sea with her group and im a bit jealous that I cant dive so I pop all my gear on again and go out snorkelling again only this time I head to the left of the bay instead of the right.

There are giant clams, crabs and lots of sea anemone all around the rocks here. Pretty cool stuff indeed.
Once back on the beach i sit in the shade as i've been burned by the sun as we sailed earlier and its irritating with the suit on. Once we are all ready to go we are taken back to the Apollo by Dingy for our afternoon tea and biscuits.

We set sail for our overnight stop which is another 3 hours around the Hook Island and towards the Whitsunday Island. We pass by the Border Island and the Dumbell island which is totally cool as it feels like we are indeed sailing inbetween large rock islandsto our left with the main Whitsunday Island to our right.
We then pass by the Esk Island and we can see about three other Tall sail boats on our horizon which looks fantastic as the light is starting to fade just a little as we enter into the nighttime. We dont think there will be a sunset tonight as there are rain clouds approaching, maybe tomorrow we'll get lucky.

We are going to anchor just of the coast at the beautiful Whitehaven Beach is known for its white sands.
The sand consists of 98% pure silica which gives it a bright white color. Local rocks do not contain silica so it has been suggested that the sands were brought to the beach via prevailing sea currents over millions of years.
In July 2010, Whitehaven Beach was named the top Eco Friendly Beach in the world by CNN.com.

Once we have anchored we are served a delicious dinner of Pork Strognaoff and rice with Veggie burgers for the vegans. There are lots of fish swimming around us especially large Moon fish about 18 inches long. Theres one giant trevali fish about 4 ft long and he looks about 60-80lbs. Its a shame that the waters around the Whitsundays are a green zone which means no fishing of any kind otherwise i would've had my line and hook out. 😊 There were a few flying fish aswell which was awesome as we spotted them flying through the air as their silver skin reflected off the baot lights.

The night winds got blustery and wet with rain so we helped put the canopy up which covered most of the deck which was a bonus as was time to have a few beers and mingle.
Its a fantastic mix of people on board from Ned, Ger, Ita, US, Aus, Ire, Eng, Austrian, Swiss plus us. It turns out im the oldest on the boat including the crew so its no surprise im first one off to bed as sunstroke has taken its toll...honest. 😊

Tuesday 7th December

Through the night it become too hot in our bed so i hauled myself up on deck around 3am, laid my towel out and lay under the stars in the cooling breeze with very little noise apart from the odd creak a boat makes whilst floating.
Rowan walked by and didn't even notice me until I sat upright and gave him a fright. It was a funny moment for me, not for him. The skies were very clear and the stars pristine, i spotted around 3 or 4 shooting stars before sleep took hold. At around 6am, when it actually got too hot with sunshine, I jumped below and climbed back into bed as everyone else was wakening up and I was far too tired to stay up for breakfast.

The morning shower consisted of a hand held shower head in the toilet which was cold but at the same time refreshing and woke me up somewhat! I grabbed some biscuits and tea and headed up on deck where it was scorching hot to the point the ground was hot to walk on. The beach is about 1/4 mile away and we can see the beautiful white sands of Whitehaven Beach which look very inviting indeed.

We all take it in turns to head for the beach via the dingy and as the first lot went off i ducked down below for our santa hats as we have a plan for our xmas cards. Once everyone is on the beach the crew stay aboard for a clean up and promise to return to pick us up in three hours time which should get us back in time for lunch.

The sand is lovely and soft and its white appearance is done to the fact that its 98% silica. We wandered off down the beach together a wee bit and found a good spot to begin our mission. We wrote Merry Xmas on the sand and filled the letters with pebbles that were washed up on shore from the previous high tide. By the time we had got a few letters done we had a couple of curious members of our boat helping us and the realisation of what we were doing got everyone excited to the point we had a large crowd gathered for the main photo shoot. Our santa were hats were proving very popular to the point they were fighting over who was going next as the tide was coming in thick and fast and was washing a couple of letters away. We finally got round to doing a group photo and we were all having a blast until there were no letters left and that was that. It passed a good hour of fun and borke the ice with some of the quieter members of the party especially Mad Max the Dutchman who is a very funny guy who then proceeded to build Dams of sand and make little windmills out of sticks for decoration! 'this is how we do it in da Nederlands' haha.

We took the half hour jungle walk up to the Whitehaven viewpoint and its so hot that your constantly drinking water and wiping sweat from your brow. The viewpoint was all right once we got there and as we walked back we saw lots of Iguana's and Spiders aswell a large Monitor lizard which scared the hell out of a few folk as it moved quickly passed us and hissed loudly as he hid under a decaying log. There's ants, lots of them, everywhere and if you don't keep moving they will climb aboard your shoelace and crawl up your legs before you it!

We still had a hour left on the beach so we watched as several tourist boats came ashore and it suddenly got quite busy. Now i know why we came here very early on this morning. We were waving frantically at the Apollo for someone to come and get us as we were getting bored and the bellies were rumbling and we were soon being shuttled back and fore to the Apollo for lunch. Salad and cold meats with pasta salad all went down a storm and we're so glad Michelle is a fantastic cook as she's doing well on her own. It turned out i'm not the only chef on board as another guy from England has been a chef for 15 years and works in Melbourne. We had a right good hours conversation about cooking as we had lunch and we probably bored the hell out of everyone around us but we weren't caring. Chefs get paid £18 a hour in Australia, if only i was ten years younger as i could get a working visa no problem but now i'm too old..ha!

We set sail once more and headed for a new dive spot at the main Whitsunday Reef number 2. There are 24 Whitsunday reefs around the main island and as we all got our stinger suits on we were given the choice of being dropped off in the smaller boat or if we wanted we could swim from the Apollo 1/4 mile out. We were glad we chose not to swim out to the reef as it was a wee bit of a let down as there was not a lot to see. Sometimes you get lucky but we soon found out once we climbed back on board that a large number of dolphins and Giant Trevalis were spotted coming into the bay therefore scaring a lot of the fish away. We sail around the Hook Island and stop at Hayman Island on the north point.

Its getting dark again and we've dropped anchor and the drink is flowing as the start of a wonderful sunset gets going. We are all chatting away when the cry goes out 'Dolphins!'
Our Captain, Rowan points to the north and as we turn two dolphins leap high out of the water about 100 metres away. Wow! We all have camera's out and we try and follow the school of dolphins fishing path as they are obviously hunting as they disappear for ages then reappear where you least expect.
There are about 7 or 8 dolphins in this pod and the backdrop of the sun setting with the dolphins appearing now and then is to die for. We are treated to some great displays of marine life around our boat too as there's around 5 or 6 Giant Trevali's zipping around the boat with the odd Moonfish and Barracuda swimming by for a look.

The sun's now dipping away and the yellows, bronze and gold colours are amazing to watch and you so wish for a decent slr camera for times like this but I think my camera did ok capturing the scene. In the distance and sailboat cuts through the waters directly under the sun and its all getting a bit ambient with the music being stirred up and the beers being poured all round. Everyone is buzzing, this is what the Whitsundays are all about. Even the boat crew are having a good time as they soon join in the party which doest get out of hand as dinner is being served in a half hours time.

Rump steaks, potatoes and veg, you couldn't have asked for more really. Excellent. The vegetarians are well looked after too.
Michelle asked me to take the scraps of beef and place them in a container as we will feed the fish soon and see some real action.
With a full belly and happy smile im sat at the end of the boat with my beef scraps and trimmings of fat all cut into little bits. I throw one bit in and out of nowhere 3 Trevali's all compete to be the fastest and theres an all mighty splash as they break the water attacking the tit bit.
More bits of meat and its not long before the whole boat is surrounded by these 60 to 70 pounders all fighting to get the meat. Theres some very large moonifsh chancing their luck with stray bits by they are no match for the over fast Trevali. There's one large Trevali that's just arrived on the scene and Rowan says his name is Elvis and is well known in these waters as he is much darker than the rest therefore easy to distinguish. Elvis must be at least 100lb and bosses his way around the others. Im soon running out of bait and then out of nowhere a dolphin leaps out fo the water just 50 yards from the boat and crashes down with an almighty splash!
Its pretty dark and some people have torches and shining them on the fish being fed and its quite a spectacle and we are nearly done when a dolphin cruises past one side of the boat around the bow and down the other side before leaping out and in and out again and catches a flying fish right before our very eyes. The whole time this episode takes place there are around two or three torches being shone on the dolphin so we see the whole thing with great clarity.
The feed runs out and within 5 minutes everything is calm. We all wait in silence for an encore which never came but we all agreed that what we witnessed was totally awesome!

Well, we are heading home tomorrow afternoon so there's no point on any booze being left on the boat so its a party as we're all hyped up as we've had such a great day. There was a couple of drinking games and the music was bouncing until around 11pm at which point the numbers had dwindled until there was only about 8 of the hardcore drinkers left. Jill, Mad Max and myself being three of them! No shock there then!

My memory of the rest of the night is sparse but I do remember not being able to get into bed as Jill was doing her starfish impersonation. So I ended up sleeping up on the deck again for a few hours where the only stars i saw tonight were the ones in my head!

Wednesday 8th December

Oh ! What a beautiful morning! No hangover and we still have a full passenger list. Magic! Breakfast of eggs, sausages and bread were just the tonic and we all sat around on deck as Wade lifted anchor and we were off and sailing again.

We are heading for our last dive at the Hayman Reef which is very popular as there's at least another 4 boats anchored here.

We put our stinger suits on and this time i decided to swim to shore from the boat as i was in dire need of exercise. To my amazement i had only swam about 50 meters and i was being confronted with fish, lots of them! The water is teaming with fish of all sizes and colour. The corals are pinks, purples, yellows, round, spikey, large small....i could go on, theres that much variety of life down below.
Snorkelling along I caught up with Jill and we swam over the corals together and we spotted a couple of clown fish and also a giant clam the size of a suitcase! Then we got a fear as all of a sudden we were surrounded by at least two or three hundred fish and when we looked up we could see Wade in the dingy just a few meters away. He was throwing bits of bread at us so the bread was landing in jills hair and around our heads! No wonder the fish were all over us....It was an experience i'll never foget as you could literally put your hands out and touch the fish which were of silver, yellow and blue. It was almost like a scene out of Piranha as they swarmed us and you couldn't get away as even flapping about in fear doest scare hungry fish.

Thats got to be the best hours snorkelling ive ever had and i swam back to the Apollo and practised my diving off the side of the water as i waited for the dingy to ferry people back.

We have one last stop before we head for Airlie and we are headed around the Hayman Island to the Black Island and Langford island reefs which form a large sandbank nearly half mile long. Hopefully we get there before the tide is too high.

We arrive at Langford Island and the tide is slowly creeping over the large sandbank and we are warned of a
shark lurking about and to be on guard. Lovely!
Mad Max and I decided to swim ashore against the advice of the crew and we soon found out why as the tide and currents are so strong we barely made it back to the Apollo steps. I was swimming like mad and not even moving and Max and I kind of had to swim sideways away from the boat and around the other side. We were totally knackered after that and lesson's were learned.

We were dropped ashore on Langford Island and its very nice indeed as the suns shining and the views are excellent as we can see the black island and Hayman island from the beach.
We all lazed around for a couple of hours until Wade came back and picked us up to take us to the Apollo for our final voyage home.

Finally we get the large Sail up and we take it in turns to turns pulleys and hoists sails until we are flowing along at around 12-14 knots which is not bad considering we haven't got that much wind to play with.
We are sat at the sides of the boat with our legs over the side and we are pitching to the left at about 25 to 35 degrees which is quite thrilling as you feel like your hanging on for fear of slipping off the other side.
''We are sailllllling' we areee saillliiinnnngg, acrosss the seaaaa'' sings Max as he nearly falls over the side trying to take a photo of himself. That Dutch lot are not right in the head. 😊

We gather up our belongings as we near Airlie beach. We are told to keep sitting down as we enter the marina as our captain has to try and park the boat perfectly as the boss is waiting to greet us off the boat.
Its a perfect landing and we are soon off the boat and saying our farewells to the crew and we couldn't thank them enough for a wonderful Whitsundays experience. We all agree to meet at the beaches bar later that evening for drinks and we have a table reserved by the Apollo crew who also made sure there's free beer when we arrive. Oh dear this could go pearshaped so Jill and I agree to be home by 10pm. Famous last words.

What and unexpected bonus we got when we got back to the Airlie Waterfront hostel. The lady working on the desk noticed we had the same second name of Grant and upgraded us to a private room with en suite free of charge. Thats a result for us as we have another three nights to spend here before moving on. Ohhh we have a plasma tv, brand new shower room, two aircon units and a bed that can accommodate a starfish and a boyfriend. Time to wash the ocean out of us and get freshened up for going out.

We met at the bar and theres around 6 or 7 picthers of beer been put on a tab for the Apollo crew which is nice of them and its not long before the beer has gone and we are heading off to a nightclub which was a good laugh as we all are getting on well and the photos are being popped off every few minutes.
We managed to get home at around ten thirty and its not long before we are sleeping soundly with the cool air blowing around the room.

Thrusday 9th December

Good sleeps all round to the point all we did today was watch tv in bed. We did a half hour visit to the nearest take away for Pizza and walked along the waterfront for fresh air before retiring to our cave for the night.

Friday 10th December

We have free interenet in our room so we've booked our hostel and Fraser Island tour for next week along with the Greyhound bus tickets. More TV and indian take away for dinner....lazy? us? never!

Saturday 11th December

We checked out the hostel and sat down in the lobby where the food mall is and shared a pitcher of beer while watching football on one tv and news on the opposite tv which helped pass the time. Our bus tonight is and overnight bus all the way to Rainbow beach and should take us 14 hours. Sleeping tablet time we think. We board the bus at 7pm and at around 11 pm we took our sleeping tablets and the next thing we knew it was 9am. Great!

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Comments

[fred]

Stamina to spare
Well I must stay we are impresed by your fitness and stamina you seem up for everything. good on you. Sam continues to make some slow progress but every now and again he takes a sharp reminder that he is not out of the wood yet. the new diet is difficult to stick to and is dull and boring, wthout much opportunity for treats, and with Christmas so nearly on us life has lost some of it'd allure . Are you missing home still?