2014/2015 Travel Blog: Airlie, Whitsunday and Whitehaven!

Sorry for the late post!! My internet hasn't been all that strong over the past week so haven't been able to publish anything!

A few days ago we were enduring the crazy heat in Airlie while exploring the incredible surroundings. Thankfully we have both avoided sunburn which is surprising as we have been out in the sun almost all day everyday! Even Courtney is developing some UV resistance!

In Airlie, we took a walk down to Airlie Lagoon, a manmade swimming pool on the seafront, surrounded by tropical plants and a sea view; it was a cool place to avoid spending $ and just chillout.

The walk there took about half an hour but was accompanied by a few creature features that kept us entertained...

The first one is a little tiny (and i mean tiny, so appreciate my photography skills there!) rock lizard and the second is a common skink that tried to escape my catching abilities but fortunately I outsmarted the skink, which I am very proud of as you can tell in my facial expression!

The walk took us through tropical greenlands and around the marina, which was teaming with fish in the crystal clear water. I even saw a metre long barracuda closer to the rocks!

We eventually got to the lagoon, got some lunch then stayed around the water for about 2 hours before heading back to our cabin; a walk I would not do again if you paid me- it was probably about 37 degrees and 90% humidity, absolutely disgusting heat.

We took a short trip to Coles to buy some provisions (crisps and apples) and had a good night sleep before waking up to go on our all day boating trip around Whitsunday Islands! (Which was yesterday)

Whitsunday Islands are a chain of Islands of the east coast of Australia; scattered across the islands are many natural wonders that can only be seen at certain times of year and also many marine parks that harbour rare marine life such as tiger sharks (which will eat you), dugongs, turtles and mantarays. My description cannot do it justice as, to be honest, it is pretty much paradise.

First we left the marina where I left my boat parked up in the dock (there's a photo of it above)...

Our Cpt. Dale! He took us out through the islands first...

...around the top of Whitsunday Island and stopped on the shore of Whitehaven Beach. A completely uninhabited and untouched (because it's protected by NASA) part of the world with the whitest sand I have ever seen. I had to put my sunglasses on just to be able to look at the sand it was that bright! The sea was crystal clear and there was huge schools of fish swimming right near the beach! We had a Mediterranean buffet on the beach and had a little swim!

Had a little mess around with my GoPro...

On the next two photos zoom in on Courtney's face!

Had a little climb on some rocks lol...

Courtney didn't quite get the perspective right... Good try though!

Had to pull out the big arms pose...

After our stop on Whitehaven we then sailed to a snorkelling location where we had a little swim around for a while around the rock reef... There were much more different types of fish here but the water was not as clear; however the coral was much much prettier here compared to the barrier reef.