Airlie Beach
More fish and chips!
Tuesday, the weather was on and off rain so we decided to head to the store and buy some groceries for dinner and brekkie on Wednesday. It was about a half hour walk which didn’t seem so bad since most of it was right along the ocean. After that we had to go check in to our boat for our trip to the Whitsundays.
Our Norweigan friends were also in Airlie Beach so we met up with them for dinner. After dinner we hung out for awhile and then headed out to a nearby bar and then to one of the clubs called Mama Africa. It was a ton of fun.
After a long night out it was very difficult getting up early to head to the boat. Our sailboat was called New Horizon and was a massive 69 foot Tasmanian hardwood schooner. There were 32 of us and then 4 crew member aboard the boat. The boat left Airlie Beach and would take us through the Whitsunday Island which is part of the Great Barrier Reef.
New Horizon
It was raining when we set sail but we weren’t about to let a little rain ruin our trip! The first day we spent travelling to where we would anchor for the night. We just relaxed and met everyone the first night and headed to bed early. Our beds were tiny and very crowded as you can imagine with 32 people.
We were woken up early the next day and ate some brekkie before preparing ourselves for a very rocky ride to Whitehaven Beach. The “liquid sunshine” as our crew called it had returned and the ocean was really rough. At one point most of us were on the covered deck outside to try minimize the effects of the rocking. There were people on the edges getting sick all around me as it began to get rockier.
Soon enough it was calm and we had arrived at what has been known as one of the most photographed beaches in the world: Whitehaven Beach! We anchored and took our small boat over to the island which is where a lookout is as well as where there are stairs to go to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven beach is 99.89 percent silica sand which is even more pure than that of Lake McKenzie at Fraser Island. We were told your could whiten your teeth and expholiate your skin with it. Unfortunately the views were not what they normally would be the beach still was amazing and the lookout still offered a great view despite the weather!
Whitehaven Beach
By the afternoon, we were on our way to our scuba and snorkel spot! The rain cleared and the sun started to shine! We docked and then got in our Scuba and Snorkel gear. Because jellyfish are a huge problem in Northern Queensland, we wore protective stinger suits as a precaution. There are several species of the Box jelly fish. The box jelly fish is known as being one of the world’s most deadly animals. Their sting can cause you to go into cardiac arrest in a matter of minutes.
I decided to scuba dive for the first time. They offered an intro dive in which you went down with the help of a dive instructor. We had to perform a few different skills before we were ready to go under. The skills included: getting the water out of your mask under water, taking the regulator out of your mouth and putting it back in, and then lastly dropping your regulator and then being able to quickly locate it and put it back in your mouth. After that we were able to go under. It was really weird at first breathing through the regulator and making sure to clear your ears every couple feet because of the pressure of the water. Once I got it under control it was really easy. We swam around and saw some awesome fish. It is hard to describe the feeling of being able to stay under water for such a long period of time and be able to breathe it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done! I used my underwater camera case for the first time underwater so some of my pictures didn't turn out as good.
That night we enjoyed a clear night with the most stars I’ve ever seen in my life! We drank some wine and got to know each other better. One of the crew members started a game in which he got out a map and asked us questions relating to our trip and the islands. He asked questions and then we had to guess whether it was true or bullshit. If whoever guessed was right, the crew member had to eat a full spoonful of Vegemite, and if you were wrong, you had to do it. I decided to open up my mouth on a question about an island having the most snakes and was wrong, so I had to eat a full spoonful of Vegemite which is honestly one of the nastiest tastes EVER! Vegemite is a food paste made from yeast extract. Many people can tolerate it if its on toast with butter and a thin layer of it but it is too salty for me.
It was awesome because our boat had people from all over the world: Canada, Germany, France, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and England. Jackie and I became pretty good friends with some of the Canadians as well as the guy from Scotland. It was really cool to learn about other people’s travels and stories.
On Friday, we did some more snorkelling and enjoyed the clear sunny skies. We headed back to Airlie Beach around 1 in the afternoon.
Despite having some rain the trip was one I will never forget!
After we arrived we spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the lagoon with the Norweigans and some people from our boat. We met up with some of the people from our boat for a quick dinner before heading to the bus station for our next overnight bus to Cairns.
The bus took about 10 hours and wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I actually spent a lot of it sleeping so it went by pretty fast. We arrived in Cairns at around 6am on Saturday. We had just over an hour to drop our stuff off at the hostel and have a shower before boarding a tour bus to the Daintree Rainforest/Cape Tribulation day trip.
We started off with morning tea which was Daintree tea and is only available in a couple places around the area. We then had a boat cruise down the Daintree River where we spotted a couple baby crocodiles.
We then drove to Cape Tribulation Beach which was an amazing drive through the sugar cane fields and the Great Dividing Mountain Range. We also had great views of the Coral Sea. We spent about thirty minutes at the beach then met up for lunch.
Daintree River
Sugar Cane Fields
Our next stop was for a walk through the Daintree Rainforest which was pretty cool. Then it was off to Alexandra lookout which had great views of the ocean. We then took a ferry over to the other side and arrived at Mossman’s Gorge which is one the most popular sights to visit and rightfully so. We walked down the boardwalk through the rainforest which eventually came out to the gorge. There was a group of people who were swimming but I never got the memo to bring my swimmers.
Daintree Rainforest
Fan palm trees
Mossman's Gorge
Alexandria Lookout
We continued up to Port Douglas where we stopped for awhile and grabbed ice cream before heading down for a look at that beach. It was filled with palm trees and tropical plants which was nice. We didn’t have much time and before we knew it we were back on the bus on our way back to Cairns. Overall it was a nice trip. We were exhausted from the overnight bus but still made the best of the day and had a lot of fun.
Lagoon in Cairns
Famous fish in Cairns
Sunday morning we got up early and headed to the marina. We boarded our boat which was called Ocean Free. It was a small sailboat but was really comfortable. We were served morning tea, coffee, and blueberry muffins as we headed out to sea. We sailed along for awhile before arriving right by Green Island where we had time to scuba dive and snorkel. I decided to do another dive to compare with the last one I did in the Whitsundays. Since I had just done an intro dive the dive master was really cool and let me bypass some of the repetitive stuff. I was able to go diving with Jackie even though she was certified. The reefs are pretty shallow so I didn't have to go below 10 meters to see all the cool fish. I saw heaps of Clown fish which were awesome! It was crazy to see so much color under the water like that it was unlike anything I have ever seen!
After we went diving we had lunch which was a buffet of pasta salad, chicken, potato salad, salad, and rolls. It was surprising really good. Then we got dropped off at Green Island to spend about an hour or two relaxing. Green Island is home to one five start resort which was amazing. The sand was white and the water was a turquoise color!
After hanging out for awhile we got picked up again and decided to snorkel. Since the reefs are so shallow you could see a ton from just snorkeling. One of the crew members mentioned how he had seen a couple reef sharks swimming by the boat earlier and I was determined to see it for myself. I had told myself from the get go that I really wanted to see a shark from under the water! I grabbed my snorkel and camera and tip-toed in the water because with a bunch of noise they will usually swim away. I creeped toward the back of the boat and then all of a sudden I could see it swimming toward me! It was one of the scariest sights like that you'd see in a movie. I froze for a few seconds before I had the nerve to turn on my camera and get a quick picture before he swam by. I had forgotten to turn my camera to the underwater setting so the picture didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped but I still got it! We also came across a huge sea turtle which was awesome. I was able to swim down and touch his shell which was pretty awesome!
Picture taken looking down at the water from the boat
Largest and ugliest fish I saw by far!
Black Tip Reef Shark!
Huge Turtle
We then sailed back to Cairns enjoying some complementary wine, cheese, and mini desserts. The weather was still fantastic so it was overall probably the best part of my whole trip! We got back around 5 and headed back to our hostel. We showered and then headed to town for a couple hours. We had an early flight the next day so we had to get up at 3 to catch a 3:30 shuttle to the airport. Our plane left at 5:30 so I spent most of it sleeping. I was shocked to receive free brekkie on just a two hour flight!
It was right back to work when I arrived home having 3 papers due a week after (hence the delay in this post).
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