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| Whitsunday Island |
The Whitsunday islands are a group of islands off the coast of Airlie Beach, on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. They are famous for their idyllic beauty and calm waters. To really experience them it is best to do a multi day cruise, with of course some diving on the reefs. But we've just came back from our liveaboard, and have neither budget nor time for a multi day sail cruise. So do we settle of a one day cruise, that most likely will not do it justice, or skip them all together? We asked my brother, who lived in Oz for a year, for advise, and decided to go for that 1-day cruise.
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| Setting sail |
We arrived in Airlie Beach around 15:00, and before finding a place to camp that night, we walked into one of the travel agencies to see if any cruises were available for tomorrow. It turned out that there weren't that many day trips, and of those, some were already fully booked. It looked like we had a choice of three: Manta Ray that took divers, a speed boat cruise that did multiple stops, and a sailing cruise that did fewer stops. Our first choice was Manta Ray, but too bad... fully booked. The speed boat had exactly two seats available, but we decided we preferred the sailboat. Luckily they had some spots left too! We spent some of our birthday money and happily went to search for a campsite for the night.
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| Prepping to snorkel |
The next morning our alarm rang at 6:30. We had a quick breakfast and drove to the marina where we parked for the day. We boarded our sailboat. Southern Cross was 20-year old, 68-ft former racing yacht, now modified for tourist comforts. We motored out of the marina, and once out, the sails went up! Calm waters with a good breeze; in the next 2 hours we sailed to Hook Island. Because it was a bit overcast I did put on a jacket, but it was a lovely trip, and we were really happy that we did actually set sail.
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| Hill Inlet |
In the last stretch to our snorkelling spot, the sails were lowered, and the boat lay flat in the water again, so we could put on a our very sexy stinger suits! Even though it is no longer stinger season, we were obliged to wear them. We didnt get fins, the risk of damaging the reefs with fins is pretty big. Therefor only a few companies are licensed to hand out fins, our tour operator wasn't. Very solid reasoning, but still awkward to snorkel without fins. The snorkelling itself was lovely, and quite similar tot the shallow diving we did in the reef up by Cairns. By the time we got out, lunch was waiting for us, and the sun came out!
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| Track to the look out |
After lunch we cruised to Whitsunday Island, and got a dinghy ride to the beach at Hill Inlet, where Whitehaven Beach begins. They say Whitehaven Beach is one of the finest in the world, and it sure is gorgeous. The finest silica sand I have ever seen or felt!
We walked up to the lookout and enjoyed the views over the mangroves and sea. Down on the beach again we walked a bit when we suddenly heared a sort of clicking noise... We looked around and saw hundreds of little crabs running! The disappeared in their little holes when you approached them, just as quickly as they had appeared, but it was an interesting encounter. And they had really lovely colours too, that kind of emphasised their movements.
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| Gorgeous little crabs |
Back on the boat, we headed back to the shore, and sailed for another good 1,5 hours. Sunburnt, wind swept and salt covered we came back. We had a really wonderful day and were very happy we decided to have a day trip. So thanks again for the advise Chris!
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| Whitsunday Beach, picture perfect |
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