Australia Part 16 - Whitsundays 1

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Stingrays, Dugongs and stunning beaches

So next morning after surviving the night when I could have drowned us all, we woke to a bit of a cloudy morning, which wasn’t disappointing as Nath and I had come to accept that the sun didn’t follow us anywhere. But what made it brighter was the smell of cooked breakfast awaiting us. Brain cooked so much food every time that if we hadn’t had Dan the living garbage can, we’d have been throwing food over the edge of the boat (which we still did with leftovers anyway on captain Brains orders). There were loads of other boats now moored at Whitehaven and apparently more would be arriving so I was glad we were planning to move on today. Brain was waiting to hear form his friend who was out at the outer reef to see if it was good enough conditions to head out there later that day.

We didn’t sail far on our first stop but far enough away that every other boat disappeared and we had the beach to ourselves again. Brain was so good at knowing where the good spots were (that don’t get written about in the good old rough guide) it did feel like we were the only ones there most of the time. Now the only whinge I’m gonna have so far is that the Spaniards, of all people, were always showering. They had each had a shower when they arrived, again in the evening and now before breakfast. I mean how much do they think they stink? It meant that the rest of us had now forgone a shower for over 24 hours. They obviously hadn’t understood the one shower a day rule so it’s a good thing we were letting them take our share. I must admit they weren’t always showering half the time Pablo was sorting out his hair. I suppose being next to France they must worry the smell may wear off on them heheheheh.

So anyway whinge over, Brain took us to a place called Chalkies, now whether that was his term for the beach with his other sailing dude friends or the actual name of the place I don’t know but it was a lovely looking beach from the boat. The plan was to go snorkelling but I must admit with the grey sky looming over us none of us were particularly quick to get ourselves ready for this outing. Now Dan with his gift of the gab had become it would seem a favourite of Brains, his golden boy his cabin boy maybe (wink wink) but all this was about to turn pear shaped. Brain had luckily had a supply of masks and snorkels for us all to use. So once we had all found our condom like stinger suits to squeeze into we were then sorting our goggles in the usual pre snorkel/diving way. Now for those of you that haven’t done this before, what I mean is, you spit into the goggles smear it round with your finger and wash it through – this stops it steaming up apparently. Dan who spent a lot of his time sat at the edge of the boat leant a little too far and ended up dropping his goggles into the water and they slowly sunk below the boat. Oops he said hope Brian doesn’t mind – but on telling him it turned out that these goggles were actually really expensive and he was a little peeved that they were now floating at the bottom of the water. It’s a good thing we were all there as witnesses as had we not I think Dan would have been lying at the bottom with them!!

Luckily, along with being a sailor, a surfer and general Aussies bloke, Brain also did his fair share of free diving. So whilst he sat there heavy breathing in a way you or I would do after eating too much, he was actually preparing himself for the free dive to the bottom to collect his goggles. Looks like Dan would need to make sure he wasn’t last back at the boat after snorkelling –might turn into another one of those films about being left in the ocean to be eaten by sharks!! Anyway considering it was the Whitsunday’s the water around Chalikies was bloody freezing – so glad we had the stinger suits which gave a little bit of warmth. Of course as before Pablo had to dive in with nothing but his swimmers on – after another shower and hair styling session anyway. What a knob, it was cold and it would have been more impressive for him to admit that. It reminded me of seeing those idiots out on a Friday night in just a shirt, clearly freezing but refusing to wear a coat thinking that that was more impressive than displaying that they had a few brain cells instead!

Well once our hearts were back in our chests after acclimatising to the cold we could finally enjoy the snorkelling and the water was actually really clear and full of fish. It was amazing and even the water that kept getting into my second hand snorkel couldn’t ruin it. The hardest thing, having not snorkelled in open water since Fiji (god that was warmer), was trying to keep in the one place to look at the fish without the waves pushing you along into coral. The water wasn’t as clear as Fiji and the fish were very different but impressive none the less. Nath had brought our underwater throw away camera and was trying to get some shots but I think all we probably ended up with was empty water and rocks and probably a few flipper shots as Amy and I tried to float just long enough to be swept away before the shot. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to stay in the water at this temperature but was torn because I could have watched the fish forever. However at that temperature if I’d have stayed much longer I guess I probably would have watched the fish forever! Of course the other worry even though we were in colder waters was the coral and trying not to touch it. I remember too well how it felt when I grazed my knee on the coral in Fiji so with the waves bashing us about on the rocks I felt like I was constantly holding my breath every time I floated over some.

When my fingers stopped working I decided it was time to stop snorkelling even though everyone else was still going, well except Pablo and Irmina who had headed back soon after entering the water (probably to have their next shower). As I swam back I suddenly realised how deep the water was towards the boat, which we hadn’t seen on the way out in the tender. So I think this freaked me out a little bit and I started to loose my breath and before I knew it I had got cramp. Luckily, Dan, who had already got bored of snorkelling and was now paddling about in the kayaks that Brian had, came over to collect me. Once I as back on the boat and warming up I worried that Nath would freak out too at the depth of the water as I watched him start to swim back – but he did really well – probably because he was enjoying himself so much and hadn’t noticed.

Once we’d rinsed off and dried ourselves (using the outside shower of course as SOMEBODY was already in the main one! We headed back to beach to play rounders, while Brian cooked lunch. We decided it was too rude of us to play England versus Spain so instead opted for a far fairer team split of boys versus girls!! So of course we let the boys win, it had nothing to do with the fact most of us girls were tired after running just one lap in the deep sand! We were using bits of rock for markers which of course led to a debate with the boys each time insising they had reached the right rock. I think Emma had the best idea of running off with one of the markers when Dan was running and we had no chance of catching him out. When it came to our time to bowl I was made to field, which I hate doing as I can’t catch anything except a cold! I can’t bowl either but at least I wouldn’t have had to run. Anyway as one ball came flying towards me, I was convinced I’d be able to get it but just missed it by a centre meter (meter!) and fell hard on the sand and grazed my leg. After a good 10 minutes at least of play we were all knackered and headed back to the boat for our lunch of Mexican wraps.


Our next stop meant another little bit of rough sea but by this time I was gathering my sea legs and only felt like I was gonna vomit a little bit!! We were heading for Hill Inlet, a beautiful sweeping beach of white sand that is shown on a lot of the advertising material for the Whitsunday’s. Only problem was given that the sun had still not really graced us with its presence since the beginning of our trip, we didn’t hold out much hope for it being nice when we got there. Luckily the white sand was still amazing to look at and we all sat for a moment as we moored up and imagined what it might have looked like in the sun –sigh-god we are such ungrateful travellers, its not enough that we are here, it must also look like it does in the brochure. But in fairness we’re in Australia, the land of desert and beach, how bloody hard is it to expect some sunshine – sorry small internal battle with myself there…..

So, Brain took us over to the beach edge where there was an obvious path you could follow to the top. As always he went off to prepare the next meal, so we made our way up the steep winding steps, so in the end we were pretty glad that the sun was absent. The climb was made slightly easier for some as a group of young Europeans walked ahead of us in tiny ill fitting shorts. From a girls point of view they were ill fitting because there was more arse hanging out than being held in, but I guess from the lads point of view they were just about perfect! Nath and I were still due to do another recording for Matt’s class so were looking for a great spot to record from and we found it easily. When we got to the top of hill inlet there was the lookout that all the famous photos are from and it was indeed stunning. Even without the sun you could see the white sand sweeping round and mixing with the blue-green waters. It looked just like a tropical island, we could even see shadows of sting rays in the water. After taking loads of shots of us as a group and as couples and of Carlos we were suddenly inundated with loads of other tourists. I felt annoyed that they were even there, what with going on Brian’s boat it did very much feel like we were on our own personal cruise and that there shouldn’t be anyone else around! Seeing the mass of people marching in a huge group did make us realise how lucky we were being in such a small group and not being fixed to a timetable though.

The Spaniards had headed off with their mule and were no where to be seen. For visitors to the beautiful Whitsunday’s they didn’t seem very interested to be there. We managed to find our way down to the sweeping sand which didn’t look quite as nice up close covered in worm sand poo or crab poo balls (you know what I mean). We all headed into the water to look for the sting rays we had seen from above, but they were really hard to spot until they got close to you, which for Emma was just too much. And while Dan was trying to touch one, Emma was close behind telling him off and worrying that he was going to get barbed. I guess there was a real danger of it considering you could see the spike on the ends of their tale when they got up close and we’d been told by Brian not to crowd them. This wasn’t easy though as they moved and sometimes we’d find we had surrounded one without meaning to. We were doing the stingray shuffle we had been told to do by many people, which means that you disturb the sand in front of you encouraging the ray to move on, rather than taking steps and possibly stand on it and get stung.

Pablo and Irmina had obviously got bored of the wonderful wildlife and could just be see in the distance walking off, not holding hands though it looked like they should have been, and poor Carlos trudging behind his friends with his huge camera fanning them with a giant leaf fan 

With the beach now getting busy after the tourists had followed our lead; see I don’t refer to us as tourists now as we have been travelling for so long, wandering around places is our life now not just a holiday so only people that are visiting for brief moments are now tourists –we’re travellers! Hard core! Anyway waiting back on the shore for Brian to come get us I had to do the dance of the sand flies as with it now getting to dusk they were out for their Friday night take away, namely me. But the little bastards are fast and with all the running around I did they still got me which put me in a mood as I awaited the swelling and itchiness again!! Why oh why do I taste so nice!

Back on the boat Brian had prepared his sundowners for us i.e. cheese and wine and pickles etc which given we had Dan with us, was never really enough for us all to eat. But being British we were all very polite so in the end the Spaniards ate the rest of them being unaware of our false accommodation of the last few. We decided to stay where we were for the evening as the other boats had left and we had the bay to ourselves. Brian had heard from his friend out on the edges of the Whitsunday’s where the barrier reef started that the weather was really bad out there so there would be no way we could head out to do some snorkelling. However Brian promised us he had another surprise in the morning so not to get too downhearted.

Because dinner wasn’t going to be ready for a while, Dan and Nath asked if they could take the tender out to go fishing as Dan had brought his own rod with him and really wanted to use it, and of course Nath didn’t need too much convincing to go with him. So whilst the boys went off and the Spaniards disappeared, probably to have another shower, us girls sat on the roof of the boat and just enjoyed the tranquillity. We sat watching and waiting for the sound of snorting, no not coming from other fellow travellers, but from the animals that lived in this bay-Dugongs and large sea turtles!! I can hear you saying “what are Dugongs” well they are weird looking animals, that at first sounded imaginary, but they look like sea cows, dolphin like with flat muzzle faces. Both only surface for a moment to get some air so we had to wait in silence for the snort of them coming up and then had seconds to figure out where the noise had come from. On occasion we were lucky and they swam around for a bit and we were able to follow their movements. We were using Brian’s binoculars and were able to see their little faces, which were quite cute; the Dugongs even had whiskers and eyebrows. It was brilliant it was like they knew we were watching them. Unfortunately the tranquil evening was ruined by the appearance of Irmina and Pablo talking Spanish very loudly- yet again I was reminded of my main issue with foreign people-their inability to talk at a reasonable level!!

When the boys got back we told them all about the Dugongs, but they didn’t believe us! But they had the last laugh in the end when we found out what they had caught! They’d brought their amazing catch back with them to show us and it was indeed impressive. It was the largest piece of sea coral I think I’d ever seen. I was quite worried it was actually some kind of plug for the surrounding waters and tomorrow we would wake up on the drained sea bed. I think behind the laughter they were both a little disappointed at their crappy man skills.

With dinner ready we all sat down to spicy spag bol, which Irmina wouldn’t eat because of the spice-it was about as spicy as a korma! So she sat and ate some bread whilst we enjoyed what was a lovely dinner and then chilled with beers and wine (some people are dull as!). the stars were really clear that night, so I hoped that meant a day of sunshine (for a change) was coming; so after some star gazing using Brian’s binoculars and this cool app on his I-phone that told you the names of the stars when you pointed it up to a cluster of stars, we all went to bed amazed with modern technology (god I sound old).

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Photos

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Another fab breakfast in the sunshine

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The bread I tried to throw over board into "the bin"

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So then had to kick it in- rubbish!

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For once not feeling sea sick just enjoying the view

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Arriving at Chalkies

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Dan duck diving

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aaawwww holding hands

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ok OK!

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Amy

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Mmmmm lunch....