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Published: December 2nd 2009
***WARNING: THIS BLOG IS A LONG ONE, YOU MAY WANT TO READ IT IN WORK TIME ***
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED………..
If anyone is still reading our blogs then welcome back. I hope you are well.
Since last time I bored you we have been to the most amazing beach ever, Weston - Super Ma……..No, that’s the second best. What I was supposed to say was Whitehaven Beach on the Whitsunday Islands. We were recommended a boat tour by a lovely Irish and Ozzy couple we have met a few times on our way down the east coast. So we booked the trip which consisted of a 2 hour boat journey out to the Whitsunday Islands, time at an amazing view point, time on the beach and then an afternoon of snorkelling. Just perfect for us and what we wanted to see and do. After we had booked the trip we ran into an old school friend of Kate’s, Rig, and his girlfriend Hannah. We knew they were both in Australia and we knew they were in Airlie Beach so it wasn’t a massive shock, but it was great to catch up with Rig and all that
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Harry and Kate relaxingis going on with him and back home. That evening we went out for a few drinks with them which was good and then it was strange (and sad for Kate) saying goodbye again as they are heading North and we are going South so we know we will not see them again until we’re back in Blighty.
We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning in order for me to prepare myself and find a pair of sea legs in the van. Unfortunately there were no spare legs under the seats or in the cupboards so I just had to make do with my very own, which as you all know aren’t the best. We locked up the van, and did our usual check, which mainly goes like this:
Matt: Is your side locked?
Kate YEP:
Matt: Boot?
Kate: Yep.
Matt: Gas Off?
Kate: YES MATT
Matt: Camera?
Kate: In the bag.
Matt: Sun Lotion
Kate: Yep, I also have the factor 50 to cover your moles
Matt: Water?
Kate: In your bag.
Matt: OK, I have my sick bands on, I’ve taken sea sick tablets 30
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Rig and Hannah minutes prior to departure, our snorkels are packed so we don‘t have to use the one’s on the boat ……that’s all I think, lets rock and roll.
We then jumped on the transfer bus and made our way to the boat, however as we got to the harbour we realised that we forgot something really important when on a boat and going to one the brightest of white sandy beaches in the world………..yep you have guessed it, Harold had hidden the sunglasses from us. I mention this because when you see the photos we may look a little Chinese, but I can promise you it is us.
The boat journey took around 2 hours and to everyone’s relief (mainly mine) I was “ok” even after we met a lovely mum and daughter and the mum chatted to me for the entire journey. Judy was the mum and was one of the funniest people we had met on the trip so far, she took photos of everything that moved, or didn’t move as it goes. From signs, to planes to other boats to Kate and me. They were both lots of fun and great to spend the day. We
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1,2,3 smile also met Tom and Carol from Oxford whom we hope to see again on our way down the coast.
On the islands the sand is made of 98% silica, which makes it softer than an Andrex puppy, it was like walking on icing sugar, apart from you couldn’t eat it of course. The sea was just as spectacular, with a crystal clear appearance and a warm feel with fish swimming all around your legs and feet. We have now definitely found our favourite beach in the world……… so far. We checked out the view point and then made our way to the beach and jumped straight in the water, heaven (See Pics of beach).
After a few hours on the beach being blinded by the sun we headed back to the boat for lunch. After lunch we headed to a great snorkelling spot, put our stinger suits on and jumped in the Australian water, WOW. We saw some amazing fish and coral under the water, we did take some pics with an underwater camera but it’s a take it to the shop to get processed type so we don’t have them yet. The best part of the snorkelling
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On the boat. was when a very large, i.e. bigger then my body fish, swam up to the surface next to my head and I was able to touch it (Wrasse fish Kate tells me which was fabulous). It’s was surreal to be in such an environment. I won’t go on with to much detail as I’m sure you all get the idea. We got back on the boat and headed to the shore, however en route, Judy saw a little fishing boat had been stranded and shouted across to them to see if they wanted a tow. They said yes and the Skipper then felt obliged to get them on board and tow their boat…..well done Judy!
When we got back to dry land we jumped into Big H and after having a few choice words with him about the sunglasses incident we hit the road for a late night run. We thought we would get a few 100k’s under the belt before stopping for the night in a free camp spot. We drove around 3 hours and I was shattered, not only because it was a long day on the boat but because at night you have to be so
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Whitsunday, Whitehaven beach aware of the Kangaroos jumping out onto the road. Both Kate and I got really worried every time we saw a sign indicating that there were a lot of Kangaroos in that area. Anyway after the 3 or so hours we were nearly at our chosen camp spot. Kate tells me the directions and I dully follow: ‘Follow this road for 6km and you will get to a sandy road, drive on the sandy road‘…at this point Harold is getting nervous, he is thinking that he only wears flip flops and is really heavy. So we carry on down this sandy road and see a sign for camping, hurray we think, then our hurray turns into a hurry, hurry up and get the hell out of here Harold. The place was mega spooky, you know, dark, lots of trees swaying in the wind, no lights, just creepy. So with that we chugged back onto the highway to drive another 70km to our next free camp spot. 70ish km later, “there it is, over there”, what a relief, tired, hungry and desperate for the toilet we have arrived at our home for the night. Ah, this looks a lot better we
thought, until we saw 2 rather big dogs. Then in a flash it was a red alert, the dogs were actually really scary and decided to run up to Harold and start barking at him, Harold was so scared. We then realised we couldn’t possibly get out the van to pop to the toilet so we just squeezed through the middle seat and hit the hay for the night. We awoke as early as ever but the coast was clear so we managed to use the facilities. A definite hurray.
We drove into Rockhampton, and found a Sunday market where we saw Santa Clause, camels and a Alpaca. We left the market after a couple of hours as the heat by this time was getting seriously hot so we got back into Harry and decided to go to a beach where we could swim. Now we are passed Townsville the waters are much more safe with regard to Jellyfish. The three of us came across a little beach town by the name of Tannum Sands and when we saw the beach with people in the water, we quickly put on our swimmers and jumped in. Great fun.
That
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Three's a crowd!! evening we found our way to another freebie camp spot just near the beach to set up for the night. We spent the evening with an Israeli couple, Neil and well we forgot her name straight away, but they had just finished their mandatory stint in the Israeli army which is a standard 4 years for the men and 2 years for the women. They were so interesting and gave us a real insight into the ongoing conflicts in and around their county.
The next day we decided to go to a place called Bundaberg, now if any of you recognised the name you must either be a rum drinker or you have been there before. Bundaberg is famous for producing one of Australia’s most loved rums so we only felt it right to go on the Bundaberg rum tour. The tour was great, taking you through the history of the rum distillery and the rum making process, from the raw ingredients to the storage vat and all the way to the bottling, plus the free drinks at the end. A really worth while tour, we have given it a ***** five star tourism award and highly recommend it.
After the tour we drunk drove……no we drove to a town call 1770, which was discovered by captain cook in, yes in 1770. It was a small town with not a great deal there, apart from a pretty beach with lots of boats….was it really worth a 120km detour, no not really.
We have eventually found our way to Hervey bay, which is actually next to Torquay (yes there will be a obligatory picture of me next to the Torquay sign). We will be here for a few days whilst we organise our trip to Fraser Island. We are looking into what will be best for our trip as there are a number of options, but we really want to take our own 4x4 onto the island, hopefully with another couple we met. Harold is totally peeved that he won’t be able to come with us on this one, but we will hopefully find him some friends in a car park for company.
Harold wanted to let you all know some stats:
Harold’s Stats week 1:
2000 Km covered.
Breakdowns: 0
Problems: 0
Free Camp Spots: 3 Nights
Pay camp spots: 4 Nights
Improvements to
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Ready to go in the water.. Harold this week: 2 (but 1 is debatable)
New Curtains all round in the back.
Two flowery stickers, one on the boot and one for the side door (Kate’s side)
Bye for now.
Matt, Kate & Harold
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Wendy
non-member comment
Hi Guys, What an amazing week! So glad you and Harold are getting along ok. he looks adorable. Fantastic beaches - snorkelling is allowing you to see some amazing creatures that live below the surface of the ocean. It seems very strange to see Father Christmas in all his finery and you in your beach wear but what the heck when in Rome and all that! Keep up the blog and keep taking all your wonderful photos. Take Care, Love Wendy x