Hello,
I know its a little over due but id like to write about my final adventure in Australia. Just before finals at school started I took a trip with 4 other friends up to the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland. Our flight landed just a 2 hour car ride south of the islands so we had to rent a car. We got our gear all loaded into the car and it was time to go . .. or so we thought. We neglected to ask for an automatic car and this one was well . . . manuel, which non of us knew how to drive. After some discussion we decided to just go for it and our friend with 15 mins of manuel experience took the wheel. The next two hours were full of beautiful sights and the smell of a burnt clutch.
We arrived in the town, stocked up on food, and made our way to the ferry. Our plan for the first 3 days was to camp on a beach on the back of one of the islands. We missed the early ferry as we couldn't find where to return the car so we waited for the 5:00 boat. The ride took about 40 mins and darkness quickly fell upon us. We unloaded the boat and had no idea where to go. The captain directed us to talk to one of the workers that lived on the front of the island. We told him where were we staying and he told us he's never been there and that its a good 2 hour hike. It was raining dark and we had no idea where we were going. He showed us where to pick up the trail and wished us luck. We began hiking on the narrow trail through the jungle breaking through unsuspecting spiderwebs with our faces. About an hour into it we decided to call it quits for the night and just setup our tents where we were.
In the morning we hiked the rest of the way and arrived at our camp site. On our way we encountered a spider web taking up the whole trail. To our dismay the spider was the biggest spider ive ever seen in person or on TV! It was literally bigger than my face. We spent the next 20 mins army crawling and sending our gear under it. Arriving at our beach we found it to be veryyy remote! We set up our tent and found another on of those huge spiders right next to where we were to be sleeping. We spent the next 3 days hanging out on the beach, playing frisbee, floating and exploring in our boats and swimming in the ocean. The wild life was quite active around us, we saw crabs, nesting albatrosses, bio-luminestent marine life, a shark (unconfirmed), and even chased by stingrays. These 3 days were very enjoyable and was a great time to slow down and enjoy such a lovely and remote place.
Our hike back to the ferry was much more enjoyable than the hike to the camp site. On our way we stopped at this small resort with cool little bungalows and begged for some water, (we forgot water and spent the previous 3 days without). We loaded up and took the boat back to the main land. Here we settled into a hostel on Airlie Beach and booked a trip for the next day.
Our trip for today took us out amongst the 73 tropical islands and the Great Barrier Reef. The boat picked us up first thing in the morning and we set out to a spot to snorkel. When we got to the spot the rain stopped and the clouds broke to give us some spectacular weather to explore the reef in. I was fortunate enough to see many fish, stingrays, crabs and even got to swim along side a sea turtle.
From here it was about a 30min. ride to where we would take a hike. This quick hike uphill gave us an amazing view of the most beautiful beach in the world, Heavenly Beach, and it was just that, heavenly! The tide was going out and created an almost serpentine like zig zag of sand and turquoise water that went from the ocean deep into the island. I felt like i had seen this spot before and I couldn't put my finger on it, I later realized thaafter taking many pictuers we hiked down t this exact view point is the cover picture for National Geographic's Most Beautiful Places. After taking many pictures we hiked down opposite the side we hiked up and got to feel the amazing sand for the first time. This sand is incredibly white and fine compared to other sands, its so fine in fact you can polish your jewelry with it. The boat picked us up and took us to the other end of the beach where we had lunch and some time to relax and enjoy the area. The lunch was amazing and I couldn't have imagined a more pretty setting to enjoy it in. After lunch we headed back to the mainland and the tour was over. We spent that night out on the town and enjoying our last night in paradise. In the morning I picked up a shuttle to the airport and flew back to Newcastle. I made it back to my house late that night and had a final exam at 8am that morning! and yes i did pass that one.
My time in the Whitsunday's was amazing and the fact that i got to experience it with some awesome friends makes it even better!
- Evan
