Whitsundays!

Hello again! I know some of you have been eagerly awaiting my next update...and here it is!!

First of all, I'll thank those wonderful people who were kind enough to send me a little something for Easter :o) It made it feel more like a holiday, and it was great to get my first packages in the mail! So, THANKS!!

Easter Sunday was also my grandfather's 80th birthday - I couldn't call him due to my travels but was wishing him a happy birthday in my thoughts! As the Aussies say, good on ya Papa!

So, Sunday was the start the exciting sailing trip that I wrote about a few entries ago. I hit the road with my friends Jody, Regan, and Regan's boyfriend Mike, who arrived in Brisbane last week. The four of us met up with Jody's friend Dave, and his friend Val. That made six in our party! We all hopped a JetStar flight up to Proserpine airport, which is the main airport for Airlie Beach. It is the smallest airport I've ever flown into!!! They use a tractor to deliver the luggage, and all around the airport there are kangaroos and wallabies peeking out from the forest. We were booked in at one of the main hostels in Airlie, Beaches, before we departed for the Whitsundays in the morning. Our room was an 8 bed dorm that we shared with a few other travelers who had already been sailing and raved about it.

Jody, Mike, and Regan

The next morning we were up at 7:30 so that we could make it to the marina by 8:30, when our boat Apollo was due to head out. It was so exciting! We got checked in, paid for our stinger suits (more about that later), and made our way down to the boat. They took our shoes before we got on, so we remained barefoot for the entire trip. Apollo was great! The boat is really big - about 80 feet, and painted green and yellow (fitting for the Hollins girl!). Our crew was made up of four people all about 26 or 27 years old. Our dive instructor was Harry, the deckhand was Evy, our cook was named Ryan, and the skipper was Heidi. It was pretty cool to have a woman in charge of the whole situation! There were 26 passengers in total, with people from Canada, Ireland, the UK, and Switzerland.

When we first boarded the boat we were allowed to go downstairs and pick out our sleeping spots - there are several single beds located at the front of the ship, with a number of doubles towards the back. Jody and I were the first ones in the back of the boat, and for some reason we chose the double bed with the LEAST amount of space! The pic is of Jody demonstrating what little room there was underneath the ledge that took up about 1/2 of our sleeping space.


We headed out towards the islands and into some beautiful weather, and Heidi didn't waste any time raising the sails! It was really fun - they had us all sit on the high side of the boat, because it leans so much when it's under sail. It really gets going, and the waves crash against it - I got totally soaked in the first five minutes! We scooted along towards Hook Island, where we ran into some momentary rain showers, which would be the only wet weather we'd run into the whole trip. Our crew told us over and over that the weather in the Whitsundays has been absolutely horrible for the last two months, and the weather we had for our trip was the nicest it's been in a long time. We must have brought it with us :o)


We made our way between Hook Island and Whitsunday Island to anchor at Turtle Bay, which, as the name suggests, is a protected area for sea turtles. Evy took us to shore in the dingy and sure enough, we motored by a huge turtle coming up for air.

sailing out towards Hook Island

Turtle Bay is directly opposite Whitehaven Beach, the amazing white sand beach that I mentioned in my previous post. Evy told us that people say the sand here, which is 98% silica, is formed from two tectonic plates that are rubbing together under the water nearby. From the little beach at Turtle Bay we had to make our way across a tiny peninsula via a steep path surrounded by dense jungle. It was so wild! There is a lookout over Whitehaven Beach that we hiked to first, where you suddenly break out of the forest into this amazing clearing. The view was incredible!

Jody heading up the jungle path

me with Tongue Point in the background

Hill Inlet


Tongue Point, Whitehaven Beach, and Hill Inlet

We took it all in for awhile, and then headed down to Tongue Point, which is essentially an extension of Whitehaven Beach. It was wild! The sand is totally different than anything I've felt before. I've read that it is so pure that it's suitable for making the finest glass, such as optical lenses for binoculars. It makes this really interesting sound when you walk across it! I tried to capture it in the video below - you can hear it just before the end of the clip. It sounds kind of like fabric rubbing together.

Tongue Point looking towards Hill Inlet and the the rest of Whitsunday Island

We made our way down to the beach and took a few silly pictures before getting down to business...

Everyone in the Whitsundays is supposed to wear a stinger suit (wet suit) when they enter the water as protection from...stingers! There are loads of jellyfish here, but the ones to be really concerned about are the Box Jellyfish. Those guys will kill you :o) Lucky for us, they are most abundant in the summer months and weren't really a concern for us. We still wore our suits.

Regan, Mike, and Jody suiting up

We got in the water and played around for awhile. The sand at this beach stretches out for hundreds of feet, so it's shallow for a really far distance. This makes the surf very calm, which makes it easy to just float around in a couple feet of water and enjoy the view. The water is so warm, and the sand is the softest sand I've ever experienced! After rolling around in the waves some Jody and I explored these rocks and took a few more pictures...



We spent about 2 1/2 hours at the beach, and then headed back to Turtle Bay where Evy picked us up and brought us back to Apollo. We set sail, and headed back the way we came. After about 40 minutes of sailing we began to pass a really tiny island called Dumbell Island. What happened next was by far the highlight of my trip!

This little island is really rocky and steep, and covered in really tall pine trees. It was very quiet and peaceful as we sailed by, until Evy went to the back of the boat and started whistling really long, loud whistles. We all immediately heard something call back to him, like there was a man standing at the top of the island mimicking his sounds! He kept at it, and when we were almost past the island two huge birds suddenly appeared and slowly circled downwards toward the boat. They were a pair of white-bellied sea eagles, and it was absolutely jaw dropping to watch them fly down to us. Adult sea eagles can grow to be 1 meter in height and have a wingspan of over 2 meters. These were the biggest flying things I've ever seen. Evy looked at us and said "they are the souls of old sailors."

He kept calling to them and they circled closer and closer, obviously checking out the boat. Harry ran down below and grabbed two hot dogs, which they took turns throwing high up into the air. Each bird had its chance to swoop down and try to catch the dog mid-air, which brought them extremely close to the boat. Neither one could make the catch, and they eventually picked them out of the water and flew back to the top of their island. It was spectacular! I'm sure my mouth was hanging completely open by the end.

By this time we had met up with another boat called Siska, which is staffed by friends of our crew. We sailed side-by-side back over towards Hook Island where we watched the sun set and anchored for the night in one of the coves.


The next morning we set sail and headed around Hook Island and up to Hayman Island, where we anchored at Blue Pearl Bay. This area is surrounded by lots of reef, so we took all of our snorkel gear and spent a few hours exploring the water. The fish here were so friendly! There were tons of them, and they immediately got in your face when you swam into the water. There were several really beautiful teal colored fish, along with lots of varieties of parrot fish and sergeant majors. After a couple of hours of snorkeling it was my turn to go on my introductory scuba dive with Jody and our dive instructor Harry. It was so cool! We had been swimming for about five minutes when Harry stopped and suddenly out of nowhere this HUGE humphead wrasse appeared! She swam by us and allowed us to stroke her sides - so cool! I brought a disposable camera on the trip with me and hopefully I'll have the underwater pictures to post soon.

Blue Pearl Bay

getting ready for my first scuba!

We eventually got back on Apollo and motored over to Langford Island, where there was more coral and fish to see. I had to put on my floppy hat and shirt because I burned my chest a little at Whitehaven and was trying to be extra careful with it. Luckily that's the only burn I got, and it wasn't bad at all. I applied 30+ sunscreen at least 3 times a day on this trip!

me with Blue Pearl Bay in the background

When we got over to Langford we spent a couple more hours snorkeling around - this time the fish were almost nonexistent but the coral was really beautiful!

mainland Australia from Langford Island

The tide started to go out extremely fast so we had to scurry back onto the boat before the reef blocked Evy's way in the dingy. I snapped this picture right before I ventured out into the water to head back to the boat - you can see the very tip of Black Island on the far right, which is where we headed the next morning.

After getting a little cleaned up we were treated to a fancy dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, veggies, roasted pumpkin, and the ever popular garlic bread! It was fantastic after a long day of snorkeling in the water.

me, Val, Jody, Mike and Regan

The next morning we woke up and motored over to Black Island, which is a stone's throw from Langford. This would be our last snorkeling spot, so everyone hurried over to the beach and got right in the water. Black Island was probably the best snorkeling - the coral was plentiful and there was a huge array of fish. I spotted a sea turtle surfacing for air that morning, and a few snorkelers saw him later on in the day. Mike also got to see a sting ray swimming around. I saw lots of the regular fish, plus some really unusual looking parrot fish, and a really funny family of clown fish living in a huge anemone.

the tiny beach at Black Island - the coral starts almost immediately (where the dark water is)

Around noon we climbed back onto the boat and set out for our last sail back to Airlie. This is when I made a huge mistake. At the beginning of our trip Harry showed us his book, otherwise known as the Vegemite book, which held the sign-in sheets for all snorkelers and divers. All boats use these sheets to make sure everyone is accounted for and no one is left alone ala the film "Open Water". I had been really good about it...but this time it completely slipped my mind to sign in!! I came out of the bathroom to Harry, standing before me with a huge spoonful of Vegemite and the rest of the kids laughing at me! Embarassing!!! I couldn't believe I was the only person who forgot to sign in the entire time we were out sailing. Needless to say, I was forced to eat it. I definitely teared up and gagged, but it really wasn't THAT bad! It tastes a lot like a beef bullion paste - very savory and salty. However, I do not understand why people would choose to eat it. Eck.




It was really lovely weather and we had a nice casual trip back. I was so excited to get back to the hostel and shower!! We stayed at Beaches, the same hostel, for the next two nights. On the night that we returned the bar there had tables reserved for our boat so that we could have a little farewell party. It was really fun!


We all spent Thursday recovering from the trip and getting a little shopping done in Airlie Beach. Yesterday we flew back to Brisbane and were greeted by really dark cloudy skies - I miss the Whitsundays already!! I get to spend this weekend catching up on work for school and preparing for my next assignments that are due in a week. I did get my first grades back, however! I found out yesterday that I got a 33.5 out of 41 on my first epidemiology assignment, which put me in the top 25%! Yippie! So far, so good.