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Published: October 15th 2008
October 13, 2008 Monday in Australia
Today was the best day yet, and that’s saying a lot. We boarded the Mantaray, a small tour boat at Shute Harbour near Airlie Cove. While waiting for fellow passengers to arrive we were treated to coffee, tea and cookies and spent a pleasant 45 minutes sitting in the harbour meeting people and looking at all the boats. We visited with a young couple from France and the wife, Huda, became our snorkeling buddy since her husband was scuba diving. She had grown up in Morocco and was doing nutrition research at a college in Brisbane. Her husband was working in a bottle shop, which is what they call liquor stores here.
We then sailed to Whitsunday Island, which is part of Whitsunday NP, took a hike through the rainforest to an overlook of the swirling sands of Whitehaven Beach, then went back down to enjoy the stunningly beautiful beach where the sting rays courteously got out of Joe’s way. I didn’t swim here, still a little cool for me. The color of the water changed every second with the movement of the clouds, but was always some shade of brilliant blue. This
place reminded us of the Virgin Islands, but on a much grander scale. The Australian beaches are enormous. Back on the Mantaray we had a substantial buffet lunch then headed off to another island in the park, Hook Island where we had two hours to snorkel. It may have been the best snorkeling we’ve ever experienced as we saw over 75 species of tropical fish and at least 35 types of coral…all fascinating. I was appreciative of the wetsuit that Joe rented for me. Technically, these islands are inside the Great Barrier Reef and we snorkeled what are called “fringe reefs” that surround the islands.
It was then afternoon teatime back on board and with the biggest chocolate cake I’d ever seen. We made friends with a couple from Perth and later ate dinner with them in downtown Airlie Cove, which would be a great place to hang out for a year if one was under 35 years old. In other words, it was a happening place with lots of live music in the bars and restaurants, not bad for a town with 5000 people. We were happy campers today.
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