Paradise on the Whitsundays!

If I had come travelling with a thesaurus in my bag I still would not have enough words to describe our sailing trip on the Whitsundays...fantastic, stunning, unreal, beautiful, idyllic, picturesque, breathtaking, surreal and out of this world are just some of the words that my limited vocabulary brings to mind!!

It really was the perfect trip and will forever be a very happy memory and a definitely one of the big highlights of our overall adventure.

We travelled on a catamaran with a company called Wings who I must highly recommend – if anyone is thinking of going to the Whitsundays in the near future Wings is brilliant choice.  There were 24 passengers on board and it was all very personal, we got to know some nice people over the 2 days and 2 nights both passengers and crew – the chef was a lovely fella from Athlone who was great fun and a great chef.  We had heard in advance that the food on the boat was unreal and we were not disappointed.  After travelling campervan style for a while even having someone to cook for you was a treat, obviously we aren’t exactly starving ourselves (this would be impossible when travelling with James!) but we have been sensible and not having many luxuries – pasta and sauce and home made mince burgers are the stable diet.  We got some lovely things and the amount of food served was crazy - breakfast, morning tea, lunch, sunset snacks and then dinner!! The nachos, steak barbeque, potato bake and rocky roads were highlights for me!  Yum!!

James chilling on the deck!

Our Wings catamaran

On the first afternoon we headed to the first swimming spot.  James and I had opted to snorkel rather than scuba dive during the trip and the spots we visited were brilliant for this.  It was fantastic the fish swim so close to you and never bother with you – at first it’s a bit overwhelming as a huge fish swims past your mask as if you don’t exist but then you get used to it and we were assured they were all harmless.  The whole time all I could think of was Finding Nemo and the scuba divers invading them haha!  The number of different types of fish we saw was phenomenal and they have such a range of size and colour – James took a great interest in learning some of the names etc I was happy just marvelling at them.  We loved the first afternoon for the novelty of it but with a few hitches of a leaking mask and flippers which were too big, we were looking forward to the second day were we would no doubt be pros!!

The next morning we had a very early sunrise breakfast at 6am ready to head to Whitehaven bay during low tide.  Woah!!! This place was totally breathtaking – it is a protected beach where no one can stay and nothing can be taken on or off the island.  The sand is so thin and so white it is like no sand I have ever seen before – apparently Nasa are the only people who have ever been allowed (once) to take sand from the island to use in the making of glass for their telescopes its so thin!!  Firstly we went to the viewing point, which is where most of the postcards of the Whitsundays are taken from – it really was exactly like a postcard scene so I got snap happy trying to replicate my own version.  I could happily have stayed here all day looking out at this paradise below.  

We headed down onto the beach and wondered in and out of the sea and among the streams and rock pools.  As we were paddling through on the streams we saw a massive black stingray....I was not overly pleased with its presence so retreated to sand!! Not before a quick picture of course!

Posing!

Traditional jumping photo!

The stingray!

Stunning scenery!

James the Turtle!

We spent a few hours on the beach that morning – it was awesome being there so early (around 8am) as we had the chance to enjoy it fully before the sun made the sand too hot to stand/sit on.  We took some cool photos and basically just hung around enjoying the scenery and the serenity of it all!  Whitehaven beach is quite famous for its beauty but I had completely underestimated it!

The dingy came to collect us and take us back to the Catamaran for some mid morning tea and lamingtons.  It was so cool that we had got up so early as we still had a large part of the day to enjoy even though we had achieved so much already – that’s not to say I will be getting up at 6am from now on but it was great on this occasion as we squeezed so much into 1 day.

On the way to the afternoons dive site we saw turtles and dolphins swimming near the boat which was a great treat.  The snorkelling was again fantastic, this time we saw some pretty massive fish namely a Giant Maori Wrasse and a Trevelli fish the latter is part of the shark family and has a distinct look of a small shark with the big fin and teeth but thankfully it didn’t seem very interested in us!  We did get a wee stroke of the Wrasse which was cool!  It is so surreal yet wonderful to see these fish in their natural habitat just living their normal lives – usually we only see things like this behind sheets of glass in an aquarium!  At one stage James and I followed a school of fish who were feeding off different bits of coral and swimming from piece to piece as a group which was just so natural for them and so interesting for us to watch.

The time in between the beach and snorkelling, while the boat was moving from point to point was spent just chilling at the front of the boat admiring the scenery and taking in the rays!  The boat had big nets at the front were you could lie and relax and were you would get wet if a big wave came in, it was good fun!

The sunset from the boat was beautiful so we had plenty of Kodak moments, including James and I trying to recreate the Titanic moment – cheesy or what!!! It was good fun though and some stunning pictures of the landscape which will bring very happy memories when we look back in the future.  This really was a day where I felt like I was living the dream!!

Amazing sunset!

That evening we had the steak barbeque and some drinks with our new friends, it was good craic and included some twister, the cereal box game and a sing song with the guitar (don’t worry I sang very quietly!)  A nice chilled way to round off the perfect day!

The next morning we were due back to the port at 10am so we got up early to fit in a quick snorkel before we left.  Although the fish at this location were not as unique (probably because we had seen so many the previous 2 swims) the coral here was fascinating.  It was all different colours and shapes and sizes and because the tide was out a bit we were much closer to it – slightly too close in some cases as my flipper was able to tip it at some points!! But it was still really cool for our final swim and I guess the coral is what keep the reef alive.

We arrived back to Airlie Beach so happy and pleased to have had such a wonderful experience.  It was so nice that we got to share it together and we will no doubt reminisce lots in years to come of our 2 days in paradise!  This really would be the perfect honeymoon trip for people if it wasn’t so far away!

This may seem to be a bit OTT and soppy as a blog but the experience was simply unreal and it is quite hard to put that into words without sounding corny!! I hope the photos do it some justice to give you an idea of the beauty!

A very happy traveller J

xxooxx

Titanic moment haha!! Gay or what!