Beautiful Beaches (Whitsundays Day 2)

Got up bright and early, then headed up on deck where we could appreciate the astonishing view before us – Whitehaven Beach. The sight looked like the sort of picture you would get in a holiday brochure or one of those ‘coffee table books’. Apparently this beach is meant to be the second best beach in the world (I didn’t ask which beach beats this one, as I struggle to believe that anything possibly could). The sand looks so fine, so white and utterly idyllic. Breakfast was served on the mid-deck and we were also given our ‘stinger suits’ (thin wetsuits, not particularly flattering, but required for insurance purposes as it is the height of stinger season in these waters), before a briefing about the day.

The crew introduced us to the rope swing which was an entertaining way of entering the water from the boat – they were clearly very well practiced in the art of rope swinging and could go in backwards, upside down, from great heights, somersaulting and a host of other impressive moves which could probably win them Olympic medals in a rope swing contest, if there were such a thing! I fervently watched on as they and some of the guests threw themselves off the side of the boat in an attempt to make an exciting, or at least semi graceful entry to the water. Eventually, after a lot of persuasion from Captain Tony, I donned my stinger suit and climbed up onto the rail. At this point I got ‘the fear’ as I just didn’t know how I was going to pull this off without just falling in, then I spied a huge shoal of fish below me and it reminded me that there were ‘things’ in the water! Captain Tony said I wasn’t allowed back on the deck unless I’d gone into the water, so I had no choice but to swing on the rope. That whole moment was a complete blur – I am assuming (probably acutely accurately, though) that it looked disastrous! After a few moments in the water and having someone point out that the water (of which I had ingested quite a lot on my entry!) tasted “really salty” (errr – it is the sea, you know!?!) I decided that I was done, so climbed back out and just enjoyed watching everyone else!

Before long, we were being loaded into the little tender and Chris ferried us across to the beach. On arrival at the beach in the second tender-load, I realised that I had left the battery for my camera in the cabin, so when the next tender-load came across, I asked if he’d be doing another run, to be told that was the final load, but he’d take me over to the boat to get my battery and then bring me back! Captain Tony was baffled when I climbed back on the boat, so I told him I had gotten there, hated it and come back – took him a couple of moments to realise I was joking!

Once back at the beach, I put my stinger suit on and sat in the sea to cool off. The heat outside the water was intense! We enjoyed bobbing around in the water, seeing the odd fish here and there, but thankfully no stingers! We then spent the rest of the morning alternating from going in the water to lying in the sun with our books or looking out to sea. Jana and I took a walk along the beach for a while, we couldn’t get over the beauty of the beach and the crystal clear, turquoise sea and as we looked into the surf, we saw lots of fish and even some large rays lying on the sea bed, almost invisible against the colour of the sand. From the beach, we could appreciate the magnificence of the Solway Lass – it really did look like a pirate ship and against the backdrop of the sun shining down, the beach and perfectly coloured sea, it was hard to believe it was not a scene from a film! No sooner had we got back from our walk, we were given a morning snack of biscuits and freshly cut fruit – ideal to refresh us in the heat. After a bit more sunbathing, we were sorry to see the tender returning to take us back to the boat.

Once onboard, we got changed and sat on deck enjoying the views and the sun, as we made our way to our next point of call – Tongue Bay. We were served a delicious lunch of various kinds of salads and BBQ snags (veggie ones in my case because Kylie had remembered me mentioning in conversation the night before that I didn’t eat snags – so kind of her!). The tender then took us across to the bay, from where we walked up through the bush to a lookout point, which presented views that feature in postcards – white sandy beaches and stunning blue sea, stretching for miles into the distance, it couldn’t have looked more beautiful. After taking more photos than you could shake a stick at, we returned to the tender and made our way back to the boat.

The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the company of the other guests, sunbathing and chatting to the crew from the helm – watching them drive the boat and in my case, asking them lots of questions! As it drew near sunset, Captain Tony positioned us perfectly so that we could all enjoy the awesome spectacle, as the vivid colours burned brightly against the skyline, silhouetting the islands in front. Even the crew said that there hadn’t been such a sunset for a few months. Once it was done, we carried on our way to our evening mooring point at Blue Pearl Bay.

The moment the anchor was down, there was a mass rush for the showers, but I figured I could hang on for a bit, so waited. A dinner of chicken with rice and a multitude of salads was served, then after that I embarked on having my first ever super-mega-fast shower! Jana had been bemused at how Nikki and I would fare at this mission, as both of us are notorious for taking ages in the shower – Jana doesn’t understand how we can take so long and we can’t understand how she can jump in and out so quickly! Anyway, I had been worrying about this so over the course of the day, through my incessant question-asking, I had gotten some top tips! Sure enough, it worked and I managed to achieve this undertaking with less trouble than I had expected!

Once back on deck, all fresh and clean, although instantly baking hot again despite the supposed dip in temperature at night, I decided that it was time for a beer and had a VB! Not bad, but not a touch on my faves. Nikki and I then decided to try a drink recommended to us by Chris – a twist on my favourite non-beer-related-drink – lemon, lime & bitters, but with vodka. These went down a treat, so became my new drink of choice. We spent the evening chatting to everyone and then Chris and Damo showed us some of the star constellations in the night sky – totally unpolluted by light, thus providing us with an insanely clear blanket of twinkling stars. Through the darkness there was a lot of ‘sploshing’ about in the water and on investigation, it was possible to see lots and lots of fish swimming about and every now and again jumping out of the water. Chris pointed out some of the different types to me, including the ‘GT’, the giant trevelli, a large silver fish that seemed to thrash about a bit and munch everything in its path –unnerving me slightly before the morning’s snorkelling! He assured me that it was highly unlikely that I would meet one of those in person, but I couldn’t be entirely convinced – there are a lot of predators about in these seas!

I went to bed tired, but exhilarated from the day’s events. To make things easier for the others, we had arranged that I would take the top bunk as my height made the climb up a lot less Everest-like!