Airlie Beach 3

Apart from doing some exploring in the area between Airlie Beach and Proserpine, finding out some of the locals hidden secrets, we have been on two more ‘cruises’.

The first was a sunset cruise on board Illusions. Any illusions we might have had about a nice comfortable relaxing cruise watching the sun set slowly in the west dissipated from the moment we were picked up. The little bus was hot and stuffy in the back and had the oddest smell – like paint or turps, and you couldn’t open any window and the air-con didn’t work. Once on board, even though it was crowded we found a comfortable enough possie and drank the complimentary plastic of champagne and munched away on the crackers and things. No mention was made of the sunset, which plopped down of its own accord behind us as we steamed out toward the headland. For whatever reason, they just kept going, for more than an hour in the same direction, only turning back after dark to retrace or steps. Now I don’t mind a boat ride, but this just seemed excessive and pointless and were glad to get back.

The next day, at 7am we were ready for our Whitehaven Beach and Snorkelling Adventure. The boat was a single hull dive boat, which means it was crowded, something like 23 ‘guests’ and 4 crew. Dive boats are working boats and are inevitably shabby and border on being uncomfortable. We headed straight for Whitehaven, which is an hour and a half run in even the fasted boat. Eventually after the prescribed time, crashing through the swell and heavy chop we made it to Whitehaven. No we didn’t. We moored way to the west of the beach proper, past the headland upon which there is now a lookout. The skipper insisted that we had never been to the beach proper as no commercial boats were allowed to go there as it would spoil the view from the lookout! Extra-bloody-ordinary. Judy and I exchanged a knowing look as we both knew damn well that FantaSea had moored right at the beach, along with everyone else, back in the 1990s, and that Ragamuffin would have except for the howling gale blowing on that particular day.  It’s not just that he had a different opinion; it was the brusque and quite rude way in which he imparted this knowledge to us that really got up my nose. Oh, well, let’s go snorkelling.

Ah, no. Let’s go for a walk up the hill, which isn’t ‘an easy walk’ at all but a fair climb up a decent sort of hill. Mind you, the view from the lookout is spectacular, looking up the estuary part of Whitehaven, and is where all the publicity shots come from. Here we were informed that we were to proceed back down the hill and across to the beach proper (well, no, the currently uncovered sand flats) and that we would an hour and a half to ourselves! Yippee you say, except that we had been specifically told not to bother bringing towels or sunblock and stuff. Whitehaven Beach is a bit tricky. Being made of 98% pure silica, the sand stays cold because it reflects the sun straight back up, meaning you’re going to get burnt on your undersides real quick.

Going back down the ‘easy climb’ one poor lady fainted and fell over, which threw their well oiled tour into a bit of a spin. Fortunately, Judy was able to get her comfortable while the crew called for help on the two-way, and in time she recovered well enough to finish the walk back down. (and later to go snorkelling). Out on the beach we had a wander, stuck our toes in the ocean and then retired to the shade of a Casuarina to await our return.

On the little beach where we were moored there was some of that sedimentary conglomerate rock like we had seen up in Karumba. This large piece had obviously been on the ocean floor at some stage and was covered in bits of embedded coral and rocks. It even had impressions like you see with fossils, where embedded coral had come away. Pretty interesting. At least something to look at while we whiled away the time waiting to be ferried back to the boat.

Once back on board lunch was available and we tucked in while thr crew up-anchored and set a full on cracking pace across the ocean to who knew where.

The destination turned out to be Luncheon bay on Hook Island and the divers dove and us snorkelers snorked our silly heads off. The water was a fantastic dark blue, the visability great, the coral really good and the fish plentiful, colourful and pretty friendly, swimming right up with and around us; you could easily touch them. The snorkelling saved the whole day for us and later than normal, we headed back to port. The skipper however, had a feeling about the whales, and true enough, there they were, frolicking off our starboard bow. This was a bonus, but when they breached right near the boat it was just amazing and capped the day off. Unfortunately, it’s such and unpredictable event in such a big ocean, getting a snap of the actual whale rather than a splash, is almost impossible on a random basis.

Whitehaven Beach. Whitsunday Island, Qld