Australia

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At 7am I was up ready for breakfast wanting to escape the intense heat in favour of the deck.

Breakfast was bacon and eggs on toast, along with lots of goodies from the buffet. We were already feeling as though we didn’t want to leave the boat as the food and staff were all so good, although the lack of aircon was starting to get annoying. I kept my fingers crossed that it would be fixed before the night came around.

After a leisurely morning on the deck chatting, and drinking coffee, we stopped at the bay for Whitehaven Beach. We were dropped off on the back of the island and walked up through the bush to Hill Inlet where the spectacular view was kept tantalisingly hidden right up until the very last second.

We emerged from the trees to see the panoramic picture perfect turquoise waters swirled with pure white sandbanks. It was nothing short of breathtaking and no matter how long I stared at it, I constantly kept feeling winded by it’s beauty. In the shallow waters we could clearly see lines of stingrays basking in the sun. The only thing that ruined it a little was the mass of tourists trying to fight for space at the railings to look out, and the fact that the other groups were from the party boats so we were surrounded by half naked eighteen year olds who all thought we were on the ‘old people’s boat‘ as Matt heard someone refer to it!

I was surprised that all of the cruise boats say they stop at Whitehaven Beach, but none of them actually seem to - instead they just go the viewpoint and then visit Betty‘s Beach which is actually on the island opposite. The actual Whitehaven sand was deserted. I made a mental note to look it up on the internet - maybe boats aren’t allowed to go there as it would spoil the photos to see people sitting on it!

When we felt we’d got enough photos (can you ever have too many of a scene that beautiful?!) we did the bush walk down to the other side of the island to the white sands of Betty’s Beach.

Ten minutes later Matt, Natalie and I made it down to the beach, more than ready to dive into the invitingly clear water. We found our group at the entrance to the beach gathered around Hannah looking concerned. Tom passed us in a rush asking if we’d seen the crew member Nat who had accompanied us but we hadn’t. When we asked what was wrong he told us that Hannah had been stung by a jelly fish. We joined the group and saw a very brave Hannah surrounded by the crowd who were all trying to determine if it had been a harmless or deadly stinger. A few minutes later Tom appeared with Nat and a first aid kit, and Nat calmly took over. She asked what time it had stung her and what it had looked like (apparently timing plays a crucial role in how much impact the sting can have). Unfortunately Hannah hadn’t seen itso they couldn’t identify whether it was a harmless or more dangerous stinger. Nat poured vinegar over the two sting marks and then led Hannah back to the boat so that they could keep an eye on her. It turned out not to be anything deadly but it gave us all a wakeup call as to how important it was to wear the suit even though nobody else in the water had one on.

I did the first watch of the camera bag while Matt had a swim around in the shallow water that was reminiscent of Bora Bora’s lagoon, and then he came and took over from me so that I could go in. Even though we were sure it would be safe leaving our bag on the beach we didn’t want to risk it.

The sand was pure white and did almost squeak when you walked on it barefoot as the guidebook had promised. It wasn’t quite as picture perfect as Bora’s beaches, but it wasn’t half bad. The only problem was the lack of shade, the number of people everywhere and the fact there was a guy strumming a guitar loudly, which under ordinaly circumstances wouldn’t bother me, but on a white sandy paradise beach, did.

Even swimming in the wet suits didn’t cool us off as much as we’d have liked because we were so wrapped up, but it was still a good feeling floating and looking out at the surrounding sandspits.

Just as we were getting ready to go, Matt decided to rush up for a final peak of Hill Inlet in the hope some of the tourists had clearer. As usual it meant he was the last one back when they were doing the head count but it was worth it as he did get some more photos as the tide was receeding, bringing more trails of white sand into view.

Back on board we devoured the buffet lunch laid on by Jacqui, the boat manger, who was also acting as chef for this trip. I started getting worried how it would feel going back to beans on toast back in our van and tried my best to push the thought out of my mind.

Unfortunately for us Nat came and found us to tell us the latest news about the aircon - it wasn’t going to get fixed. Instead they offered to pay $50 of our bar tab (about £20) which didn’t seem very much considering the trip had cost is $729 each (about £300). Nat said we could speak to Jacqui if we had any issues with it. I knew Matt wouldn’t do it so it was down to me to see what other compensation I could get.

After a leisurely sail, we arrived at Pitstop - our afternoons snorkelling venue. It wasn’t appealing climbing into our damp wet suits, especially as we all felt so chilled out and relaxed, but we did anyway.

Matt and I got into the first dinghy out and were dropped off in the ocean over some coral. There was so much coral and plenty of fish but again ,there wasn‘t the range we‘d seen on other islands. I enjoyed swimming through the middle of schools of fish and being so close that I could almost touch them. At this stop we saw the largest pair of parrot fish either of us had ever seen - we had no idea they grew so big. They happily stayed perfectly still to allow the cleaner fish to eat off their gills.

The tide was going out so we had to move further away from the island to get a safer view of the coral. This time I didn’t seen a turtle, although when I climbed back into the dinghy to enjoy the sun, someone shouted ‘turtle’ at the top of their voice. The other snorkellers were completely oblivious as they all had their heads under water so most people missed it.

After floating around and waiting for the dinghy to fill up, Nat took us back to the boat.

As I was trying to clamber out of my clingy wet suit I spotted Jacqui sitting on the edge of the boat so went to chat to her. I asked whether I needed to speak to the head office to ask for more compensation and she agreed that was the best idea. I was pleased that she understood that £20 wasn’t enough of a refund for three sleepless nights.

I realised I’d done very little actual sunbathing since getting on the boat so took the opportunity to kick back and relax on a sunlounger while waiting for Matt to come back in.

I tried to centre myself and think about how amazing the experience was so that I could capture the feeling and take it with me. The cruise really was a highlight of our trip so far and, apart from the broken air con, everything had surpassed our expectations. We certainly had chosen the right boat for the trip so the time spent researching was well worth it.

Matt finally got out of the water and came back in the final group, excited that he’d just seen a massive baramundi cod, but disappointed that he’d missed the turtle yet again.

Our evening was spent sitting up on the sun deck looking out at the changing colours as the sun set. Peeping out from behind the white streams of cloud, the sky looked like it had melted into a pool of molten iron. As the sun went down further, the orange became more potent and clouds turned a deep shade of grey. We had to tear ourselves away in order to have a quick shower before happy hour finished. Twenty minutes later we were being served cocktails on the deck and feeling sad that it was our final night on board.

The night air was warm, but there was a slight breeze which stopped it from being too hot. Dinner was served out on the back deck and we sat with Laura and Tom again. We spent the whole evening laughing (sometimes til tears streamed down my face) and drinking a lot of wine. As it was our last night we wanted to make the most of it so we stayed out chatting until long after everyone else on the deck had gone to bed. Eventually the crew turned the outside lights off apart from a small streak of fairy lights and we took the hint that it was time to go.

We’d seen some people (in the same situation as us with no air con) taking their pillows up onto the sundeck to sleep, but the flashes of lightening in the distance put us off the idea. We decided to give it try sleeping in our room. If it got too hot we could always move upstairs later on.

Surprisingly, as we’d had our porthole open all evening and there was a slight breeze outside the room wasn’t unbearable. That, coupled with the fact that we were exhausted and were full of wine, meant we actually got to sleep almost immediately!

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