Turtles and Tall ships: Sailing in the Whitsundays

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We left Hervey Bay intent on taking our time making our way north to Airlie Beach for our next tour. Jonny and Dee had just come south from there, so they had plenty of ideas for what we should see. The first advice we followed was to spend a night in Mon Repos, near Bundaberg.

Although I know very little about turtles, the draw of seeing a 'threathened' species up close was too strong to deny, especially when you are witnessing the very thing that helps to keep them from going extinct. We arrived in Mon Repos and found a campsite right next to the National Sanctuary that we would visit that night. We had booked to do the Turtle tour, where we learned everything about these amazing creatures and then walked through the dark along to beach to witness a turtle laying and burying 144 eggs. The silly turtle had buried her eggs just below the high tide line, so once she was finished her business and had toddled off back into the sea (never to see those eggs again!), the park ranger dug up the eggs and we participated in relocating them to a new hole further up the beach. It was a weird and wonderful feeling to carry these squishy oozy eggs and know that we may have been carrying the one in 1000 of the eggs laid that might avoid all the hurdles that nature throws its way, and return to that beach to lay its own eggs in 30 years time. It was also fascinating to learn that all of the eggs from that beach would hatch into little females, because the temperature of the sand was warmer than most.

After Bundaberg we continued north, installing ourselves in a town called 1770. We found a lovely campsite that gave us a site backing right on to the beach. Arriving at midday, we had plenty of time to enjoy our last stinger-free beach and slosh around in the water while enjoying a few refreshing beers. After 1770 we continued on to the town of Rockhampton for a night and then made a longish drive north as far as Airlie Beach. This gave us an extra day to relax before beginning our tour of the Whitsundays.

And what a tour it was. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands, named by Captain Cook as he discovered them on what he believed was Whit Sunday. (It was actually the Monday after, because he hadn't accounted for crossing the international dateline, but it happens to the best of us!). After checking into the Whitsundays Adventure Sailing company the previous day to get our boarding card, we took a taxi into the marina for our 8am appointment. We were met and checked off by Kat, who would be our host for the trip. Once all of the 18 passengers were present and correct she led us down the marina to the Alexander Stewart. We had treated ourselves to some luxury on this tour, wanting to avoid the throngs of 'schoolies' that had recently been released into the wild.

The Alexander Stewart is a magnificent tall ship, built by three generations of a Melbourne family over 17 years. They made everything on the boat, right down to the pots and pans and the screws that held the boat together. It is more like a work of art than a piece of machinery. We were met on the ship by deck-hand Dave and skipper Josh. Josh had more than a passing resemblance to Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and watching a Johnny Depp look-alike go about his business for three days didn't strike me as a bad way to pass the time at all!

We removed our shoes and stowed our beer as we boarded the ship. For the next three days we would be mostly barefoot. It was quite a nice feeling, and better for balancing us on our sea legs. Shortly after we set sail Dave gave us a safety briefing and Kat showed us to our quarters. Small as I am, I had to duck to get through some of the 'doorways', but the room itself was quite spacious (well in comparison to the back of Mitsy anyway!). With the essential information of how to flush the toilet explained to us, we were left to settle ourselves in to our little cabin.

Once settled we returned upstairs and to claim a small patch of deck for ourselves. Then we just lay back and soaked up the ambience. Soon after, the groups began to mingle and we realised that there was a good portion of Irish people on board, as well as a nice older Dutch couple. Many of the couples were on an extended honeymoon, as the Tall Ship is pitched as a 'romantic getaway'. It meant there was a fairly civilised bunch on board.

Our first port of call was Blue Pearl Bay where we were lucky enough to be able to spend the morning snorkelling around looking at all the coral and reef. It was my first experience of snorkelling, and with the exception of having to wear an extremely sexy (not!) stinger suit, I absolutely loved it. The stinger suits served a practical purpose of preventing us from being stung by the Box Jelly Fish that lurk in the waters at this time of the year. I surprised myself by being fairly comfortable in the water, but it was so clear and quite shallow that it was a good way to get used to snorkelling.

Back onboard we had a scrumptious buffet lunch and then took the dingy out to Langford sand cay for an hour to enjoy a beach in the middle of the sea. Together with a few other Irish and Brits, we gave into the temptation to crack open a few beers, and we toasted to our wonderful surroundings. That night we put down anchor in False Nera and were given a evening presentation on the reef by the lovely Josh. After a fish dinner we chatted with our newfound friends until long after the stars came out. Several people chose to sleep on deck under the stars, but we were happy with our cabin, mostly because it was a room that wasn't a campervan!

The room turned out to be warmer than Mitsy and I didn't get much sleep before the 7am breakfast call. After breakfast we set sail for Dumbell Island to do another spot of snorkelling before lunch. As we sailed along most people chatted quietly in groups or were engrossed in a good book. Lunch was another fine effort. After which most of us were stuffed, but we were shooed out into the dingy to have a walk through the Whitsundays National Park, eventually setting ourselves up on Whitehaven beach. This was the whitest, most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand was so fine that you can apparently use it to shine jewellry. It was so fine because it was being continuously cleaned (eaten) by the resident sand crabs which we had great fun running around after. We had three hours to chill out, so most of us donned our stinger suits and made for the water. As we splashed about, chatting and playing adapted drinking games (you had to dunk your head if you got it wrong), we really didn't have a care in the world. All around us the marine life was getting on with its day job. We saw Sting Rays, random fish and a few turtles bobbed their heads above the water to say hello.

Back on the Alexander Stewart we had another evening discussion with Josh about what we had seen that day, and then ate yet another fabulous meal, made by Kat. We put down anchor in Saba Bay and enjoyed a romantic, albeit rapid, sunset and another evening of intoxicated chatter.

On our final day we rose again for a 7am wake up call, and I realised that it felt liked we had been on the boat for 4 or 5 days, instead of just two. Although we hardly needed to relax, the boat had such a chilled out atmosphere that you couldn't help but be affected by it. We got another morning of snorkelling in at North Mackerel at the very top tip of the islands before lunch and then enjoyed a leisurely sail back to Airlie Beach. We were sad to say goodbye to the boat and the bunch of people we had spent the previous three days with, but that is the hazard of travelling as we are. Short-term friendships and insta-facebook friends are pretty much par for the course!

After one final night in the Airlie Beach campsite we put Mitsy back on the Bruce Highway and headed north towards our final tour of the Australia leg in Cairns. We spent one night in Rockhampton, the beef capital of Queensland, the next night in Townsville and then found a lovely little campsite in Kurrimine Beach which was so nice that we spent two nights there, practising our swimming in their massive pool.

We always knew the day would come, but then, on the 3rd December, we had to give Mitsy back. We have spent nearly 10 weeks in a Hippie Camper, so it was with mixed emotion that we locked her doors and handed over the keys.

It's back to hostels for us!

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Comments

[Eileen]

That story of moving the eggs to a safer place is wonderful. Do they always bury them below the high tide line