Day 5: 13/6/13
We had to be up for breakfast this morning at 7. It wasn't too early as I hadn't been in bed that late. Some had been complaining that others were really loud all night but I didn't hear them!
We had breakfast and then you could go snorkelling if you wish in Manta Ray bay. We had moved there at some stage in the morning and I hadn't even noticed. Shows you how calm the waters are. We all had to get into the wet suits again, which is a pain in the ass!! It seemed like the water would be cold but when I jumped in it wasn't too bad at all. Swimming around in it for a few minutes though made it colder and colder! I was probably a half hour in there and I was freezing by the time I came out! We just jumped off the back of the boat and than swam in towards the shore. At first it was deep so you couldn't see anything. But then you could see coral and fish- loads of them! It was fairly shallow so you were really close to the coral- it was purple, brown, orange, green and blue in some places. There were all different shapes and sizes- some wriggly, some more solid looking. I saw a clam today- it was like a big oyster shell and it was open and there were all these cool blue colours inside. I also saw a little red starfish on a rock. There were loads of fish again. Some smaller guys were swimming really close to the top so they were right beside me. It felt like they were going to swim into me, but the closer I got to them the quicker they swam away!! There were really cool parrot fish again (the purple and green ones). Their either called parrot or pirate but I'm guessing by the colours that its a pirate fish. There were nice blue and yellow ones again and some really tiny little fish too. I think I saw a whole shoal of baby blue and yellow ones or else they were a smaller species! There were lots of angel fish I think they were called. She showed us a picture of a six- banded angel fish yesterday and I saw that. It has six bands on it and a blue hue all around, like a halo. Hence the angel. There were other fish shaped like that too, kind of skinny but long fish. There were black and white ones, yellow ones and ones that were yellow with black and white heads. I think i saw a jellyfish too. There was a white, tranalucent kind of thing floating around in the water, but there wasnt really any shape to it, so I'm not sure if it was one or not! It was pretty cool. I would have stayed longer looking at all the different fish if it wasn't so cold!! I swam back to the boat and then couldn't get up on it as the step was quite high!! Myself and another girl had to get in using the ladder on the dinghy!! They should have steps anyway I think!!
There was a good hour then where there wasn't much to do. Everyone just lay around sunbathing and sleeping. Some were reading. I hadnt packed my book as I didn't think it would be the kind of place you would be reading too much so I caught up on the blogs a little and then my phone died!!
In the afternoon we got to Whitsunday island. They brought us in on the dinghy to a small rocky beach. We took some photos there with a Whitsunday island sign. If the guys rolled up their shorts so the sign was covering it, they looked naked so lots of them took photos like that! We walked through the bush then to a lookout over Whitehaven beach. You can see from the photo above that it was absolutely gorgeous! Usually the postcards or pictures you see of a place are nicer than the actual view, but this was amazing. All of us were gobsmacked!! We took loads of photos at two different lookouts. Then we went down onto the beach itself.
On the beach the sand is pure white sand- no rocks and very few seashells or anything! It's really long aswell and it was relatively empty when we got there so it was gorgeous! You can't swim properly in the water without a wetsuit as there are stingrays and jellyfish in the water. I went for a walk along the beach and took loads of photos and just sat then and admired the views when I got back. We were about two hours there, but all of us wanted to go back. It was definitely the nicest beach I've ever been on- pure white sand and clear turquoise water with islands and boats in the background! Amazing!!
When we got back to the boat they had afternoon tea with biscuits and cake waiting for us! We didn't really do anything for the rest of the evening. We all sat at the front of the boat while the captain sailed to a different spot for sunset. The sunset was gorgeous again with bright yellow colours as it was going down and bright reds and pinks later. Everyone was snap happy! The stars started to come out then which was lovely too. Gradually we could see more and more of them but then they turned on the lights so we could see where we were going and that was the end of the stars!!
We were spoiled again for dinner. We for nachos for starter, then there was beef stir fry, rice, coleslaw, veg and garlic bread for dinner. The girl that's cooking has a pretty tough job! Then they had rocky road for us while we watched a slideshow of photos from the beach. On the beach the guide had taken lots of cool photos- a jumping shot of all of us that didn't work, one where I was holding a bowl and everyone else was in it, one of a pyramid that collapsed and a few other cool ones of other people in the group. They showed us all of those and they were going to be put on a DVD to buy, but I'd only want one or two from it so I'm not going to bother getting it.
Afterwards the group kind of split up. Some were playing drinking games and others were chatting. I sat chatting with Lucy, Liz, Jess, James and Katie- all English. All are very chatty and easy going. The first four have really posh English accents which is quite funny- they're real 'I say old boy' kind of accents!! We were chatting mostly about random things but we also spent a while watching the fish jump around at the back of the boat! They were really leaping! We went to bed around 11. Some of the others were still up playing games but I fell asleep and didn't hear a thing all night! Snorkelling and sea air definitely tires you out!