So after Fraser Island it was time for our next excursion! We had about 2/3 days in between Fraser Island and Whitsundays to recover (not to mention an overnight bus to get to Airlie Beach).
Airlie Beach is beautiful, it’s a lovely town with a lagoon full of boats that love to sail around Whitsundays!
We checked in and did an alchohol shop ready to sail around Whitsundays Island for 3 days!
Whitsundays is a group of islands called Whitsundays Islands, there are 74 islands that make up Whitsundays in total, including Hamilton Island. However only 8 islands are inhabited on. It is home to some of the most beautiful beaches made of pure white sand including the famous Whitehaven Beach (I’ll tell you more about that later).
Five of the islands have resorts but they’re small and rather exclusive, of course many people choose to sail around the islands and it’s a popular destination and excursion for tourists!
Whitsundays Islands are a sail away from Airlie Beach where we boarded our boat New Horizon, our home for the next three days!
If you’ve heard of this boat you may know it’s the sister boat to the famous party boat “Atlantic Clipper” however the Clipper was out the water at the time we booked so we went on the second party boat- New Horizon.
- The First Night 1️⃣
After boarding we had a safety briefing and dosed up on anti sea- sickness tablets (if you read my blog about Ko Phi Phi you’ll totally understand why).
Then we parked up at Hook Island and the crew dropped the anchor for the night. We only boarded in the afternoon so didn’t have much time to get there before the dark.
They also pulled out the plank and gave the stinger suits out (there are deadly jellyfish in the water so these suits save your life if you touch one- literally). So people could jump off the plank on the boat into the sea, doing backflips and all sorts! I was way too cold and cosy to be getting soaking so me and a few others decided to sit up top deck and watch the sunset until food. It was absolutely beautiful as you can see!
As the night went on things got giddy with it being the first night and everyone drank copious amounts of alchohol and played lots of games to socialise and get to know everyone …..
However
Day 2.Things went wrong when got woken up at 6:30am (bearing in mind we’re all sharing dorm cabins so the alarm has to reach everyone) with the alarm clock song being the “Under The Sea – Little Mermaid” theme tune. I instantly felt the waves and had to rocket to the deck to throw my guts up over the side of the boat, with the wind blowing everywhere.
If you’ve ever had sea sickness (and a stinking hangover from lots of goon then night before) you’ll understand how ill I was. No exaggeration when I say I couldn’t move. I was sat there, in my pjs, throwing my guts up, with the crew hosing away my sick. While everyone is eating breakfast….. Great start to the day!
As the morning went on we arrived at our first snorkel spot! The water was deep turquoise blue and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little scary no matter how beautiful it was! Going in water cures sea sickness they say. So I knew I had to get in! (Not a problem because I love snorkelling) I got my stinger suit on and jumped in!
The coral was badly damaged by a previous cyclone that happened a couple of months before and therefore a lot of it was bleached and broken, which was actually very very interesting to see and made me feel even more passionate about protecting the worlds marine life and coral from bleaching due to global warming. After seeing a few fishes I was back on the boat. (And no I wasn’t cured the sickness/hangover came straight back)
It Was Time To Set Sail Again!I led down and after about 4 ginger tablets I miracaculously started to feel better! Finally the seasickness was going and I could enjoy lunch and the rest of the day. (I still had a hangover though silly me)
- Whitehaven Beach
