Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS
We spent the next couple of days driving up the East Coast in our van which we had belatedly christened Ailsa but with whom we continued our love/hate relationship. We stopped off at Yeppoon near Rockhampton and Blacks Beach near Mackay en route to Airlie Beach for the start of the next leg of our big adventure - a three day sailing cruise around the Whitsunday Islands, one of the most beautiful spots in Australia. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so we joined all the other backpackers in town sheltering in one of the many bars and hoped for things to improve. First thing next morning, we joined our new ship mates (a friendly international bunch of three Swedes, three French, four Swiss and two Scots) and three crew at the marina and set sail on the Kiana, but not before we had stocked up on seasickness tablets.
After an initial rain storm, we were really lucky as the weather soon cleared up as Kiana sailed towards Whitehaven Beach, one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, apparently. It was hot and sunny by the time we got there and our first impressions were very good as we gazed out over a perfect clear sea and pure white sand. The downside, however, was that we had to wear full length stinger suits to protect us from the deadly and invisible jellyfish in the sea but which didn't protect us from the swarms of enormous biting horse flies which followed us everywhere. Nice beach, shame about the wildlife!
Over the next few days we sailed around to different islands although the weather forecast was for strong winds so the skipper decided it was too risky to go to the Outer Great Barrier Reef as planned. Instead, we moored up at lots of different bays which enabled us to go diving four times to practice our new skills for the first time. This was great fun as we could just spend the time looking at all the fish and the coral without having to worry about all the PADI exercises. We're still learning but we're improving with very dive. And we didn't even have to be in the water to enjoy the wildlife as, on our first night, a family of dolphins swam around the boat, darting in and out of the shadows, along with schools of other fish on the prowl for food. The rest of the time was spent sunbathing, snorkelling and reading, and after three-days we were sufficiently chilled out to face Ailsa and our driving challenge again. Having mastered how to dive, all we had to now was learn to drive…
- comments