Whitsunday Islands

For my last weekend abroad I went to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday’s are a group of about seventy islands near The Great Barrier Reef in central Queensland.

We flew to the Whitsunday coast on Thursday afternoon after some hurried packing. For the three days leading up to our trip we were ninety-five percent sure it was going to be cancelled because Cyclone Wati (the one that followed right after Larry) was forcing all the boats to stay in port due to gale force winds and high seas. Fortunately Wati headed south just in time to give us some nice weather for our weekend. We spent the first night at Backpackers by the Bay Hostel on the coast. This is the view from the hostel’s patio; not too shabby.

The town we stayed in was Airlie Beach. It solely exists to be a base for all the boats that sail the Whitsunday’s and a place to shop for tourists before or after their trip. Despite its name the town has a very rocky coast and the only beach is at this artificial lagoon.

This is the boat we were on for our two day and two night voyage. It is the Apollo, an eighty foot racing yacht that won many famous races including the Sydney to Hobart race and one around the Hawaiian islands and back. It held twenty-six passengers and four crew; I went with twelve other Americans.

These were our sleeping quarters in the bow of the boat. I was the bottom left bunk. Luckily we anchored at night so none of us had to be strapped into our beds or anything. It was pretty fun to see the stars of the southern hemisphere from the deck of the boat.

On the second day of our trip we stopped on Whitsunday Island, the largest of the group. This is a view down to Whitehaven beach. The beach is enormously famous and popular considering that the only way to get to it is by a chartered boat. It has some of the finest sand in the world. In fact, the Australian government sold some of the sand to NASA to use for making the Hubble telescope mirrors. In addition to sailing and going to the beach we also spent some more time snorkeling in the coral. Some of my friends had disposable underwater cameras so I may post some of those pictures when I get the scuba diving ones form Cairns.

Here I am (with my crazy wind blown hair) at the helm of our boat. We were encouraged to help sail the boat if we wanted to give it a try. We weren’t really allowed to steer, but there was plenty of opportunity to hoist sails or be a grinder when things needed to be adjusted.

And finally, this is the view of the sunset from the deck of the Apollo. Not a bad way to end my trip in Australia. I'm back in Wyoming with my family and new puppy, Tiger, now. I'll be visiting Atlanta from the 10th to the 22nd. I only have one more post to make before I'm done documenting my trip. I'll finish up when I finally get all my underwater pictures of the Great Barrier Reef. I look forward to talking to everyone about my travels and showing the rest of my pictures and all my souvenirs.