The Whitsundays
Habibi
Alcohol and cameras at the ready we headed down to the boat for a trip through the Whitsunday Islands and to the famed Whitehaven Beach with it’s pure white silica sand and clear blue waters. It looked grim overhead but we were nothing if not optimistic, it worked for us on Fraser so why not here too.
Just before we set off I squeezed my bike and bags into one of the A-Teams many vans to avoid the $5 storage charge at the hostel – thats 10 whole McDonald’s soft serves! I’m tempted into getting one every time I pass the golden arches on the road. Anyway, once loaded on the boat with our other passengers we had our safety instruction including what the specific signal for being eaten by a shark was. Good to know that.
All briefed we glided out of the safe harbour into open water. The crew had already informed us that it was too windy to raise sails so we would be pottering along under engine power to a bay on the other side of the Whitsunday passage. The wind went from about 10 to 35 knots as soon as we hit the waters of the Whitsunday passage. It was pretty bumpy and we were getting a bit wet up front but I was enjoying it with no signs of the impending doom some others felt.
“A million bucks!”
A few poor souls were not taking it heroically though, even the tan did nothing to hide the ill pallor from their faces. Martin was taking it worst of all and even when we were anchored in a sheltered bay for the night he didn’t feel well. Next day was a different story, after a night sleeping in it, everyone was used to the motion. We changed our route the night before though for more snorkeling and less sightseeing. We decided to ditch the planned trip to Whitehaven. It would have been a 4 hour trek into a 45knot wind with nice big waves and although I was all for it, it would have been cruel on those who were feeling ill.
After breakfast we headed for some snorkelling at Manta Ray Bay. We had to put on very fetching black gimp suits in case of jellyfish. Being the strong swimmer I am, I climbed into the water and headed straight for shallower water near the shore. I had a small floatation aid but as long as I kept moving I didn’t need it at all. Saltwater is easier to swim in than freshwater thats for sure. It was incredible out there, loads of multi-coloured fish and coral, even a few Moari Wrasse. I was following one in front of me about a meter long then I looked beside me and there was a monster around about 2 meters long just a few meters away. He was huge! I was just floating for a while with my fingers outstreched in front of me. Load of little fishes came up to have a nibble. I have to go do it again soon!
The last day on the trip back, the winds had dropped a bit so we the hoisted sails. We were heading back in front of a storm, hoping to outrun it. Looking out you could see all the islands and boats ominously disappearing into the wall of grey that was bearing down on us. Eventually it caught us, the winds picked up suddenly, the sails were flapping around violently and there was a bit of angry shouting as the crew were trying to drop sails! A little later just as we neared shore we got caught in a whiteout, visibility was reduced to almost nothing and we had to navigate by radar. All very exciting making sure we didn’t run into other boats or rocks but as you can no doubt guess we made it back alive. Not quite what any of us had expected really and seeing one of the finest beaches in the world on a good day would have been cool but still I had a great time.