The Whitsundays

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3rd July 2009

Airlie Beach is known as the gateway to The Whitsundays and as such there isn't very much to do there and there is barely even a beach. Never the less as always we found a way to fill our day by walking around the coast on the bicentennial walkway. This was a very nice walk around the bay through parks and great views of the coastline. Conveniently it also took us to the local large supermarket to buy our dinner and some beers for the evening.

4th July 2009

One of the other perks of Airlie Beach is the man-made lagoon which is a good substitute for the lack of decent beach. Here we spent the day relaxing in the sun after we had a picnic. It was nice to have a day relaxing rather than rushing to see sights or traveling.

5th July 2009

Today our boat tour of the Whitsundays was awaiting. We boarded our boat, Pegasus, at 3pm after collecting some beer and rations for the 3 days. Our bonus on board the boat was that we had the luxury of our own room for the whole trip, small as it may have been. The first day was spent sailing through the little islands and getting to know our fellow ship mates. One of the "ice-breaker" games involved passing a snorkel between your legs and divulging funny rude stories about yourself. Of course we had none to tell. The atmosphere on board was fantastic and spent our time talking on deck, drinking some beers and making new friends.

6th July 2009

At 6am the smell of diesel wafted into our room and the engine began. What a pleasant wake-up call. Two hours later we had made it too our first get off point - Whitehaven Beach. The guy who sold us our tour tickets rather cornyily suggest that this was "our Whitehaven Beach" as no one else would see it like we do. We beg to differ as the 100 other people on the beach that day must have seen a very similar view. What a view it was though. We started off by taking a few classic photos from the top of the island and then made our way down to the beach itself to feel the sand between our toes. We spent our time splashing around in the beautifully clear water and chasing the little fish that were around our ankles, we named one of them Fred. Back on the boat we had some lunch and after which it was time to explore the Great Barrier Reef. All dressed up in our snorkeling gear we dived into the shallow waters. The reef instantly came to life and everywhere you looked fish surrounded you. There were so many great colours of both coral and fish all accompanied with a clicking noise which was caused by the large amount of fish eating the dead coral. Back in Airlie beach we had debated whether to buy an underwater camera and in turned our to be a very good buy. Returning to the boat we warmed ourselves up in the sun, when it was announced that the boat had blown a gasket. It was all men on deck (quite literally) as Alex and the rest of the lads on board had to help pull up the anchor and hoist the main sail. At least we got some sailing experience thrown in for free. Taken by the wind we sailed until nightfall and played drinking games with the crew, another ace night.

7th July 2009

This morning was another early start so we could go snorkeling again. This was a little less colourful than last time as the water was deeper and the coral a little further away. It was still great to see all the fish for one last time though. Having read about the poisonous jellyfish that frequent the waters of Queensland, Elaine was a little alarmed by the amount that were in the water. Alex remained oblivious and was confused by why Elaine was in such a hurry to get back to the boat. Being early morning the water was a little cool and so we were soon cold enough to swim back to the boat. We spent the rest of the morning sailing back to Airlie Beach, where we spent some time with Ian and Kirsty (friends from the boat) at the lagoon before traveling to Mackay.

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