Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands

On 28th March we all caught an afternoon flight north to Proserpine on the Whitsunday Coastline and back in the tropics. We didn’t get to Airlie Beach till after dark so we couldn’t see anything! We arrived at our caravan park and we booked a lovely log cabin which felt very much within the rain forest. I think the most important task of the evening was finding the closest pub so my Dad wouldn’t have a heart attack! 10 minutes down the road was the Jubilee Tavern where we had dinner and a drink, thank goodness for that!!!!

It was an early start on Saturday as we got picked up for our crocodile safari tour about 8.30am. We headed back into Proserpine which was about 15 miles inland from the coast and started our tour with guides Steve and Mark. There were 17 of us on the trip and in the morning we all got on a little boat and headed up the Proserpine River to spot the salty crocodiles! We saw 5 or 6 crocs basking in the sunshine on the muddy river banks and one of them was a biggy! We got some good photos and then headed back to camp for a BBQ lunch which was delicious!

In the afternoon, Steve took us out on his tractor trailers for a tour of the local wetlands area with all the flora and fauna. We saw wallibies, tree snakes, cane toads and plenty of birds. Steve also educated us about how the aboriginal people used to use the land in this area and also interesting information about the local area. I think Mum and Dad enjoyed thoroughly and we were treated to some Bush Billy Tea and Damper on return from the tractor ride, which was great! It wasn’t too long a tour and in the afternoon Darren and I had time to have a dip in the big pool back at the caravan park! It even had a slide, happy days!!!!!

Sunday 29th March was the highlight. Another early start, we got picked up by our boat company Whitehaven Xpress for our day trip out to the Whitsunday Islands. Airlie Beach is the gateway to the paradise islands and is surrounded by the Conway Mountain range which the islands used to be part of before the last ice age! The area is so pretty and even the ocean at Airlie Beach is an amazing shade of blue. We set off from Abel Point Marina and it took us about an hour to reach our first destination of the day, Mantaray Bay. The weather looked promising, it was lovely and warm with a few clouds in the sky. Darren and I snorkelled and mum and dad took a ride on the glass bottom boat. The visibility wasn’t great but we saw loads of fish and some really big bat fish. The water was so warm we didn’t want to get out!!!

We then headed towards Whitehaven Beach, the most famous place belonging to the group of islands. The waves got pretty big when we hit the open water and we were rocked about loads! One poor girl suffered the entire day, so I don’t think she had the best time! Apparently mum is renowned for being sea sick but she did well, we all enjoyed watching the big waves!!

We reached Whitehaven beach which is 7km of uninterrupted silica white powder sand, it is absolutely stunning and the turquoise waters made it even more like paradise on a desert island. The sun was pretty much out the whole time, it was so pretty. We had a few hours to relax on the beach and they also cooked us a BBQ right on the beach. None of us could complain!

The Whitsunday’s are a group of 74 islands which Captain Cook sailed pass in 1770. He named the largest island Whitsunday as he sailed through the passage on this day, but apparently contrary to this, he actually sailed by on the Monday and got it wrong. He originally named the group of islands the Cumberland Islands but over time and with tourism, that name was dropped and the Whitsunday Islands name took over! The islands are all national parks and only 3 or 4 have public resorts on them. I think another 3 are completely private islands! It’s definitely a beautiful area of the east coast and lies just on the line of the Great Barrier Reef so there is an abundant of sea life all around.

After Whitehaven Beach we cruised along the beach towards Hill Inlet. We anchored down in Tongue Bay where apparently there are loads of turtles, but we didn’t get to see any. We took a 15 minute bush walk up to the lookout and we blown away by the views below. Its most probably one of the most ‘out of this world’ views we have ever seen, the colours of the ocean and the sand created an amazing swirling effect and the backdrop of rainforest mountains looked beautiful. We took so many photos to try and capture the moment, but the camera just doesn’t seem to do it justice. The colours were so vibrant and alive, we could have stayed up there all day. Shannon one of the tour guides told us some information about the area and we spotted lots of stingrays in the water below. He also told us Hill Inlet View over towards Whitehaven Beach is the 4th most photographed sight in Australia.

No.1 Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House
No.2 Uluru
No.3 Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road
No.5 The Three Sisters, The Blue Mountains

Darren and I felt quite happy, we’d just ticked off the last photograph and now have all of Australia’s top 5 views on our camera!!! Happy days!!

After seeing the views of Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach, I think we both agree that this view was definitely the most outstanding and spectacular. We headed back to the boat and after some tea, cheese and biscuits we cruised back towards Abel Point via Hook and Whitsunday Passage.

We all had a wonderful day and were pretty tired in the evening so we all stayed in and cooked tea in the cabin.

On Monday the original plan of action was for us to hire a car and take 3 days to drive back to Brisbane, stopping in various places on the way down. But in the end Mum and Dad wanted to have a few days to chill out and relax so luckily we were able to book cheap flight back to Brisbane on Wednesday. So on Monday we kind of had a day away from the folks, just to make sure we didn’t all get on top of eachother(!) so Darren and I headed to the big lagoon in Airlie. The weather kept getting better and better so we just had a really lazy day sunbathing by the lagoon! We also went to the lorikeet feeding at the caravan park and had the beautiful birds sit on our heads, shoulders and arms! It was hilarious and we managed to get some good photos too!!!!!

On Tuesday Darren and I had another day to ourselves! We booked the taxi boat and headed back out to Long Island and Daydream Island, some of the closest ones to the coast. We chilled by the resort pools, read our books in the lazy hammocks, took some bush walks to some viewpoints and just and a lush day out on the islands! We saw big wallibies by Lover’s Cove on Daydream and big turtles bobbing on the surface of the waters on the pier at Long Island. It was a ultra hot day and we both came bag rosy faced!
On Wednesday 1st April, it was Dad’s birthday! It was an extra special birthday as dad turned 69 and 366 days old! That’s what he kept telling us anyway!!!!!!! We had an early drink at the local tavern and then went into Airlie Beach for lunch which was lovely. We flew back to Brisbane in the evening for one last night together in the apartments we stayed in last week.

We had an absolute amazing time up in the Whitsundays, now we know why so many people take holidays there; it really is a special place! I think we gave Mum and Dad a great experience on the east coast thus far. We all really enjoyed, we can’t believe how fast time went!!!

Mum and Dad flew to Sydney on Thursday 2nd for 4 nights and have a few nights in Hong Kong homeward bound.

Darren and I headed to Byron Bay, NSW the same day to experience some new sights and big stretches of deserted beaches!!!! It’s still very much a hard life over here for us guys!!!!!