Hey, everyone! While in Airlie Beach over the past week, I went sailing to the Whitsunday Islands. I have heard the Whitsundays being mentioned over and over, even since before coming to Australia, so I wanted to make it a priority to check it out. I’m quite glad I did – it was a good experience.
Airlie Beach
I took the Greyhound from Magnetic Island to Airlie Beach. I had two days to explore the area but unfortunately it ended up being very rainy both days. The first day was fine – that’s when I wrote up last week’s blog post, but I intended to go exploring on my second day. Unfortunately, as soon as I got to the Honeyeater Lookout Trail, it started pouring rain. The trail was already muddy from the night before so I decided to just head back to my hostel. I spent the day hanging out. At one point, I did put on my flip flops and rain jacket and went for a walk along the esplanade. Rain poured down on me but with my rain jacket, it didn’t much matter.
I would have loved to have checked out a few of the walking trails around Airlie Beach, but alas. The main event of my time in town was doing an overnight sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands.
Sailing on Siska
The Whitsunday Islands are comprised of 74 islands off the coast. They are within the path of the Great Barrier Reef so there is some good snorkeling. There are also manta ray feeding grounds as well as lemon shark nurseries and heaps of stingrays. No manta rays, unfortunately! Just like Coral Bay. Sigh. One day!
I had to be up early in the morning to get to the yacht. Sure enough… it was raining again. Last minute, I decided to grab my wool jumper and rain jacket, thinking it might be a little chilly and wet. I’m so glad I did. I was completely frozen that entire first day.
We left the marina at 8.30am. I don’t think I’ve ever spent a night on a yacht before but I had slept overnight on a boat quite recently on the Outer Reef. I was ready for it… but this was a much smaller boat and our “rooms” were basically little cubbies carved into the wall.
Our adventure for the first day was to head to Hook Island where we would go snorkeling in two different locations. Along the way, we would put up the sails.
Torrents of rain blew past us on and off throughout the day. I was shivering and shaking at times. I get cold so easily! I really enjoy being on the water, but I must admit I was a little miserable with the weather haha. On top of it, one of the deckhands was saying “whale!” every now and again, but I couldn’t see any. I am usually pretty good at spotting them myself, so I was thinking “this guy is probably making it up”.
After some time, we arrived at our first snorkeling spot, along Stonehaven Bay on Hook Island.
Hook Island
Hook Island is part of the 74 Whitsunday islands. I was really excited when we moored the boat and put on our wetsuits. In two groups, the skipper took us on a tender from the yacht to the snorkeling spot.
Immediately upon entering the water, I was even more cold. Damn it!
The snorkeling was lovely, though. While most my snorkel excitement often comes from the wildlife, this time it was the coral. There were heaps of lovely corals to be seen on this snorkel and the visibility was pretty decent, too.
I didn’t see any “big ticket” items on the snorkel but lots of pretty fish. The coral was certainly the highlight. I was shaking the whole time though and was glad to return to the boat.
Our second spot was at Cave Cove – not super far from the original snorkeling spot. The area was much different, though, with not as much coral around. On that snorkel, I spotted a pretty large shrimp hiding in a piece of coral. I wasn’t able to see its whole body. It might have been a lobster or prawn? I’m not sure since all I saw were the front of its legs and its antennae.
Oh! And there was also a little cave on shore that had a colony of microbats. I was able to spot a couple of them. I wish I’d gotten a good picture but my GoPro was foggy from being in the water and didn’t capture one. That second snorkel actually signaled the end of my snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. Sad!
After Cave Cove, we went for a bush walk at Nara Inlet, which is where we were mooring the boat for the evening. The walk was a brief incline and at the top, there was some Aboriginal artwork in a rocky shelter.
We eventually returned to the boat where he hung out the rest of the evening. There were only 17 guests, so everyone was chatting and bonding. I talked with most people, but sometimes I need time to myself so I would read a little bit or kind of step away from the activity and look at the stars.
Later in the night, I had a really lovely conversation with one of the deckies. She is from France but has been traveling since she was 16 and in Australia for 10 months. She is an artist, too. We connected quite well and spoke for a long while until it was bedtime. We had to be up at 6.30am so I crashed out a little after 10pm.
Whitsunday Island
Our adventure for the next morning was to head to Hill Inlet on Whitsunday Island (the “big” island), where we would see the iconic swirling sands.
It was a gloomy morning and we passed through some rain on the way but we were certainly rewarded for it once the rain stopped. A vibrant rainbow appeared to rise from the ocean… and in the middle of it, we spotted whales exhaling water through their blowholes. WHALES! I haven’t seen whales since my whale watching trip in Perth all those months ago. And… I still didn’t really see the whales, because peculiarly enough, we couldn’t see their bodies at all. Normally when viewing whales, you see their backs occasionally as they swim through the ocean. It may have been that the waves were too choppy. Maybe they weren’t humpbacks at all and they didn’t need to raise their bodies out of the water as much? I suppose I’ll never know. Regardless, to see whales exhaling in the middle of a rainbow… Unbelievable.
The skipper dropped us off Whitsunday Island where we began our walk to the Hill Inlet outlook. Along the way I was… you guessed it… on the lookout for snakes. I feared that being so far south now, snakes would likely be in their brumation period with the cooler weather. I was not giving up hope, though!
When we got to the outlook, I immediately understood why these swirling sands were so famous. It was a really unique feature and the sands change constantly depending on the tide/winds. Beautiful!
From the outlook, we went down to the beach. A lot of people say Whitehaven Beach is the most beautiful beach. We could see it from off in the distance but as the skipper said, “it’s just a beach.” I agree that Hill Inlet was more impressive.
The deckhands had told us the bay was a lemon shark nursery and had heaps of stingrays, too. I had my hopes up… and Whitsunday Island delivered!
There were so many stingrays hanging out near the beach. I was actually shocked by how many there were.
More so than at Hamelin Bay in Western Australia – although these ones weren’t looking for pets. The water was so clear which was great for observing the rays.
One of the other guests called out, “shark!” and there it was… a baby lemon shark, swimming peacefully along. The shark (or maybe there were multiple) passed by us a few times through our hours at the beach. At one point, it got spooked because it had entered too shallow of water and it ended up ZIPPING between me and one other guy. I started laughing because it was the cutest thing ever. It was such a small shark – there was no way it was going to bite me, but some people seemed kind of anxious about the shark.
We only had a little over two hours at the beach before we needed to start sailing back to Airlie Beach. About fifty minutes before we were supposed to start heading back, I decided to slowly make my way. That way, I wouldn’t have to rush and I could try and look for some sneaky snakes.
Perhaps a minute or two before arriving at the spot where we were getting picked up at, I spotted it. ANOTHER collared whipsnake, if you could believe it. It was coiled in the most beautiful way and laying there, basking in the sun. I am always surprised when I see snakes, but it was very gloomy and quite windy out on this day. While I was hoping to spot a snake, the conditions did not call for one. And yet, it had found a spot of sunshine to nestle in – perhaps for warmth.
I was able to share the sighting with the others because moments after spotting it, the rest of the guests slowly started shuffling down the trail. Everyone seemed excited and they were curious to know what it was. I can’t believe it laid still as all these people walked past it. Someone said “is it dead?” but it wasn’t – I saw its head move side to side at one point, examining a bug.
In a few days I will have been in Australia for eleven months. I know it’s a novelty and I shouldn’t boast, but 11 snakes in 11 months? Geez! If I can just get 12, I will be able to make a calendar haha.
After the high of the snake sighting, we sailed back to Airlie Beach. I think most people were a little exhausted from the windy weather and getting sprayed with ocean water as we sailed through the ocean. People weren’t talking much on the multi-hour ride back to Airlie.
And lastly… the crew at Siska were so incredible and attentive. The deckhands were friendly and helpful. The skipper was a jokester but a really nice guy. Everyone constantly checked with the guests to make sure they were having a good time. It was also a pretty interactive trip at times. The crew let some of us help raise the sails, etc. I thought that was cool!
That said, there were two things I disliked about the trip. One – the food was kind of sparse. I had to pay $15 extra for vegetarian meals… which seems kind of counterintuitive. I don’t want meat and I have to pay more? I think the idea was that they had to cook two separate spaghetti sauces but an easier way would have been to just cook the mince separately. The meals were tasty enough but I found I was kind of hungry a lot of the time. More snacks would’ve been nice. And two… there were multiple times I overheard the skipper reprimanding the crew in a really negative way. I would hear him cursing to himself when they were doing something wrong and then to hear him berating the crew was distressing to me. I understand that the crew was pretty green but I think it’s important to chat with them away from the guests. He could have been gentler about it as well. It definitely made me uncomfortable to witness.
I’m quite glad I did the trip. While the first day was cold and miserable, the second day made it all worth it. Whales, sharks, stingrays, and snakes? All within like three hours. I am so, so spoiled.
Miscellaneous
After the sailing trip, I had plans to meet up with Jamie – one of my friends from Perth who had also been in town sailing with some friends. It was seriously SO good to see her again. She was one of my favorite coworkers when I was working on the boats and to be able to meet up again before leaving Australia was such a treat. We went for ramen and caught up. We also met the following morning to get breakfast before I had to head to the bus. Love you, Jamie!
Once I’d finished dinner with Jamie, I went to a restaurant to meet up with the other guests from the sailing group. The crew had reserved us a table and we were able to get 20% off our meals which was cool. I had just eaten ramen, so I got fries to snack on. It was nice to hang out with people and kind of “wrap up” our sailing trip in that way. Some of us played pool. I was quite tired so I decided to call it quits early and went to bed.
While it was fun to meet a bunch of other travelers on the sailing trip, at times talking with fellow travelers can feel like a bit of a circle jerk. “Where have you been? Here, here, here? Oh, yeah, me, too! Where are you going next? Australia is so cool, travel is so cool, blah, blah blah.” I can be that way as well. It is part of the travel – it’s an easy way to bond. Mostly, people love wildlife, hiking, snorkeling, etc. so there are common interests. Sometimes it just becomes cyclical, though. Okay, we get it, we all like traveling haha. Let’s talk about something else! And another thing is the attitude of “achieving” places. When people recall places they’ve visited, they might say, “Oh, I’ve done here, here, here, and here.” What do you mean you’ve done it? Like you’ve ticked off a box, completed the mission, etc. No one sees everything there is to see or does everything there is to do. Anyway. Small vent – and this doesn’t really bother me that much, but it is a pet peeve of mine that I haven’t yet expressed.
Art of the Week
I actually don’t care for this piece that much. I think with this new style I’ve been doing lately, more close-up portraits serve the style better than full body pieces. I’ll have to try out some new things to get it to work because I do enjoy full body portraits a lot, too.
Reflections
Eleven snakes in eleven months… cannot BELIEVE! I am seriously so lucky sometimes haha.
I am now in Hervey Bay after a 13 hour bus ride yesterday. I will be here a few days. The main thing is going whale watching, which will be tomorrow. The tour company allows you to snorkel with the whales if the conditions are right so FINGERS CROSSED because to be able to be in the water with a whale would absolutely blow my MIND. Funny that the last time I went whale watching here was a month or so after arriving in Australia and now it will be a month or so before leaving Australia. All this bookending… sigh. It will be so bittersweet to leave this beautiful country.
I also did an update on my “budget” for the trip and my god, I think I am going to be leaving Australia with like EXACTLY $0 Australian dollars haha. But that was the plan – work for it and spend it! (This does not mean I’ll be broke, I have other savings so DO NOT WORRY!)
And that’s all for now!
Sending you all my love. xx
