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| Whitehaven beach |
I've been an absentee blogger for the past few weeks, but with good reason. We had company!
My sister Meghan came to visit, and we kept quite busy for the past (almost) 3 weeks. Add to that a paper due today that I started writing on Monday (once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator) so it's been a busy 3 weeks.
No matter! I am back, with pictures!
First thing to recap. Sailing the Whitsundays. Or should we call them the Whitmondays?
The Whitsundays are a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia. Captain Cook discovered the Whitsunday passage on what he thought was Whitsunday, but because he failed to take into account the time difference, they were actually discovered on a Monday. See wikipedia entry here.
We went on a two night sailing trip. It was truly a
wonderful experience. For anyone interested, here are the details. We
flew to Proserpine airport, and hopped on a shuttle to Airlie Beach. The
airport shuttle needs to be pre-booked, and can drop you off anywhere
in Airlie Beach. We arrived, got some lunch (as well as some
decongestants for Meghan who was quite deaf as a result of plugged ears
from the plane) and then checked in for our trip. (We went with a company
called iSail Whitsundays, on their boat "On Ice".) We wandered over to
the Marina, hit a bottle shop for some on-boat essentials (wine and
beer) and we were off!
The three of us shared a cabin, so it was pretty
cozy, but given that the only time spent in our cabin was at night, it
was not big deal. On Ice is a sailing catamaran will lots of room to
relax. There were 7 other people on the boat with us, but you never
really felt too short on space. We motored out of the marina, and set
sail (well, not really, no sails just a motor this day). Captain Phil
and Julia were fantastic. The food was all provided and it was
delicious. Phil was so knowledgeable and relaxed, he really added a lot
of value to the trip.
Our second day consisted of a visit to
Whitehaven beach, both from a lookout above the beach, and the beach
itself. We got to try our hand at stand-up paddle boarding or SUP boarding. It was a lot of fun!
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| Mike (ITA), Tracey & Cathal (IRE), Richard & Emma (GBR), Amanda, Alan & Meghan, April and James (GBR/NED) |
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| Stunning! |
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| Alan and Amanda on the beach |
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| Amanda and Meghan: SUP? |
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| I fell off the board after this pic. |
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| Alan even coordinated his outfit with the SUP board. |
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| We like long walks on the beach... |
Next stop, snorkeling.
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| My favorite fishies |
My first experience snorkeling in
Hawaii on our honeymoon was largely unsuccessful. An ill-fitting mask,
waves, and coral made for an unsuccessful snorkel debut for me. However,
as a birthday gift, my parents wanted us to get proper fitting masks
and snorkels in preparation for this trip. It made a massive difference!
We saw so
many different fish, as well as a stingray, and the coral itself was
beautiful. There were jellyfish in the water, but we were told that they
weren't the really bad ones (Irukandji or the box jellyfish). Even
though we wore wetsuits to snorkel in, we got stung a few times on our
hands and feet. Jellyfish stings hurt! Although the sting didn't last
for long, so that was good.
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| Meghan and Amanda give this snorkel spot two wonky Armstrong thumbs up! |
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| Action Amanda! |
That night we caught the most amazing sunset, and had another wonderful evening.
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| Amazeballs! |
The
next day we headed out for two more snorkeling stops, one on a sand
spit frequented by sea turtles. You guys, we got to swim with turtles.
So cool! (Although other people at the beach were grabbing the turtles
and trying to "ride" them. Not cool. At all.)
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| Turtle! |
We
then set sail (for real this time!) back to the marina. There was quite a
bit of wind, so the ride back was a little rough, and other people on
the boat felt a wee bit seasick, but luckily enough we sourced out some
"travel sickness" medication (otherwise known as dimenhydrinate, or
gravol, but it's not called gravol here...) and it must be powerful
stuff, because just having it in my bag was enough to keep us from going
green!
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| One of the many islands in the Whitsundays. |
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| Sails are up! |
We spent a night in Airlie beach at a wonderful B&B
right on the waterfront called the Airlie Waterfront B&B (bet you
never would have guessed that).
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| View from the B&B |
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| Bubbles and berries |
It was an amazing trip, and I'd love to go back again. If anyone is thinking about taking a trip to the Whitsundays, we would highly recommend using iSail Whitsundays (http://www.isailwhitsundays.com/).
More to come including Sydney, and random Brisbane fun with Meghan!
Jasper leaves next week!
