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Published: August 17th 2009
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Since we had done a 3 day sailing trip back when we first got to Australia with my brother and Maggie, we decided we didn't really want to be crammed back into little bunks in a hot sweaty room for 3 days, with an overflowing toilet next to us, drinking warm wine and beer, eating canned potatoes (which we didn't even know the had, but guess when you are serving dinner to 30 people, it's easier than peeling potatoes?), so we decided to splurge a little and to see the Whitsunday Islands and The Great Barrier Reef from another perspective - by air. Now don't get me wrong, we are really glad we did the sailing trip, it was an experience - some good and some bad, and had we of had better weather when we did it, I think the experience would have been even better. But enough about that (you can look at the blog back in November 2007 which shows that trip), and we could not have picked a better day to do a hour long scenic flight - it was a beautiful sunny, clear and calm day.
The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 74 islands
that lie off the coast of Airlie Beach, which is about an hour south of where we are in Bowen, and form part of the Great Barrier Reef. The name comes from Captain James Cook, when he sailed here on 4 June in 1770. He was struck by the area's beauty and named the island after the day he thought it was - "Whit Sunday", the seventh Sunday after Easter, in the Christian calendar. It later turned out his calendar was wrong, it was not Whit Sunday, but the name has stuck. (That history bit is for you Edder!).
We left the airport near Shute Harbour at 9:30 am for our trip and first headed over the Molle Islands and Daydream Island which all have a resort on them that you can go to. We then flew over Hayman Island which is a privately owned island, that is home to a 5 star resort, and unless you are staying there you can't dock there. The big pool looked pretty nice! But bit out of our budget with the cheapest rooms starting around 500 bucks a night. It was then over Hook Island and then we made our way out
towards the larger reef areas which took about 7 minutes. We did a few circles around the reef area and saw several groups of Humpback Whales, and even some breeching. We also saw some huge turtles, a manta ray and schools of fish. It looked like another world out here with all the coral formations, it was like you were looking at a different planet. It was so amazing. Our next trip we want to do is now a snorkelling trip out to these outer reefs. They were a couple of sailboats moored out here and a few people in the water snorkelling. It looked like paradise!
We then flew back toward the islands and to Whitsunday Island, which of the 74 islands is the largest and is home to Whitehaven Beach which one of the most recognized of all the Whitsundays landmarks. It stretches about 4.5km and consisting of fine, brilliant white sand, that is 98% pure silica, and you can polish your jewelry in the sand. It is supposed to be the whitest sand in the world. Different theories about the sand exist, one of the more interesting that Australia's tectonic plates rubbed together and the silica
oozed up from the Earth's, before being washed up here. Because of the sand's purity, it was almost mined by the American government in the 1960s for military uses and the substance used for satellite dishes. Luckily that didn't happen, and the beach is now protected and is a national park. I have heard that if you get caught taken sand from here now it is a $4000 fine. (Again all those little facts for you Edder). It really is unbelievable when you fly over, with the white colors of the sand to all the different blue colors of the water to the green colors of the bush. There are no residences on the island but you can camp on it for a few dollars a day. We did a water landing here in between the boats that were in the area which was pretty cool, and then it was off again and over Hamilton Island (where we stayed a few weeks ago), Dent Island and Long Island before returning back to Shute Harbour and Airlie Beach.
The trip was absolutely amazing. The pictures don't even do it justice. It left you in awe of what a magical place
the Great Barrier Reef is and these islands. It was great to be able to see it before from the water (and in the water) but to see it from the air was truly amazing - and it just left us wanting to do more trips to explore this area!
(There are 2 pages of photos, so scroll down and click on page 2 if you want to see them all. Or you can click on any image and they come up in a separate window).
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