 |
| Hamilton Island Beach area |
We were up bright and early, 6:15 to exact as we where being picked up by the bus for the Whitehaven Beach tour at 7:00. The day was hot, muggy and sunny. The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 90 beautiful islands of the coast of Australia, most of them uninhabited. They fall within the Great Barrier Reef area. Lots of white sand beaches, sail boats, yachts, some resorts. The bus took us to Snug Harbour where we boarded one of the Fantasea tour catamaran, where we had a breakfast of raisin toast (remember all we had since the sandwiches that Carol made us yesterday lunch was toast and potato chips for dinner the night before) that took us to Hamilton Island. This has a little one street town, big fancy resort, a huge yacht club and a bunch of townhouse and little cottages. We walked to the resort where we made use of their pool. Since we had three hours there we wandered a bit.....both of thinking this isn't worth the money that we have paid if we hadn't got a 2 for one deal! Hmmm. We boarded the boat again and then were served a delicious lunch mackerel, pork kabobs, steak several salads and a noodle stir fry.
And then we were on our way to Whitehaven beach on Whitsunday Island, the largest of the island group and uninhabited. We were dropped off at this beautiful untouched beach. No concession stands, no tourist stores, not even washrooms (toilets as the aussies call them) Hmmm again I thought, I am not a beach sitting person and we were here for 3 hours!!!
Here is where the smurf suits come in....at certain times of the year the eastern coast of Australia has a problem with jellyfish...the type that is very unpleasant, "lethal" the Lonely Planet calls them....these suits are called stinger suits and everyone who was in the water was wearing one. The water temperature was about 24 degrees, the white silica sand was not hot on the feet.
 |
| Pool on Hamilton Island |
 |
| Whitehaven Beach |
We walked about down the beach, swam, put up our little sun shelter, watched while others played beach cricket and volley ball, read, chatted with other tourists. The 3 hours went by in a flash and we where sad to leave this relaxing location. Back on the boat for coffee/tea and chocolate cake.
After the bus dropped us off at the hotel at 5:30 we went down into the town and picked up some dinner.
Wednesday Feb. 23
Up and early again for a 7:00 pickup....this time the day was gray and raining...but very warm. This time we were headed to the Great Barrier Reef, something I have been looking forward to. It started the same but the trip out to the Fantasea's Reefworld.....a 3 hour journey out, 39 nautical miles or 72 km. Rainy and choppy. Reefworld has an underwater observatory, a semi sub (with glass under water that takes you on a 20 min. tour showing you the reef and it's inhabitants) a waterslide, a sundeck (that we didn't make us off), a scuba dive platform and a snorkeling platform and all the the snorkeling equipment. Carol and I had lunch first...it was the same delicious menu as the day before, then we when in the semi ub.......then we donned our stinger suits again and the snorkeling equipment! Carol has done this before but this was the first time I have attempted to snorkel. The water was wonderfully warm but a bit rough. Carol went out ahead and I followed.....I was a bit panicky the first round and thought I'd get but I tried it again and then I didn't want to leave. The fish were sooo colourful yellow, blue, black white and would swim right by you, the coral reef was not as colourful as i thought it would be but still there were blues and greens and purples. It was amazing.
 |
| coral |
 |
| coral |
 |
| Big George |
The return trip was even rougher than the morning lasting for about 2 hours. Pam made it with no problem but Carol succumbed to seasickness despite having taken gravol before leaving the reef...but was not alone, the crew was kept hopping with bags and cold cloths. After Carol having a brief sleep, we were able to walk down to town to have pizza for dinner in the partying area of Airlie Beach (which consitutes most of Airlie Beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment