The Whitsundays

We flew from Brisbane to Airlie Beach on September 16th in order to kickoff our northern trip up Queensland’s famous tropical coastline. Airlie was to be our base for a highly recommended (almost compulsory) overnight cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. After booking the only rumored hostel without bed bugs and managing to get a last-minute deal on the next day’s sailboat, we were back to our traveling ways.

Airlie looks like a scene from Myrtle Beach complete with drunken men wearing tank tops and jorts and women walking around in skimpy, neon colored bathing suits. They have a manmade lagoon on the water for tourists since swimming in the ocean can often be a fatal risk thanks to a lengthy list of deadly marine life that inhabits the area. However, once you’ve boarded a sailboat and left the mainland behind, the scenery changes drastically. Small, uninhabited islands intermingle with large, exclusive ones to make up the 74 Whitsunday Islands. Winding its way in bays and around these atolls is the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded Wings II, a 19-passenger catamaran, for a 2-night cruise around the Whitsundays with Oz Adventure Sailing.

Thanks to the hilarious Bill Bryson for his accurate description of the Great Barrier Reef:

“Nobody can agree really on where the Barrier Reef begins and ends, though everyone agrees it’s awfully big. Even by the shortest measure [1,200 miles from top to bottom]; it is equivalent in length to the west coast of the United States. And it is of course an immensely vital habitat—the oceanic equivalent of the Amazon rainforest. The Great Barrier Reef contains at least 1,500 species of fish, 400 types of coral and 4,000 varieties of mollusks, but those are essentially just guesses. No one has ever attempted a comprehensive survey....Because it consists of some 3,000 separate reefs and over 600 islands some people insist that it is not a single entity and therefore cannot accurately be termed the largest living things on earth. That seems to me a little like saying Los Angeles is not a city because it consists of lots of separate buildings. It hardly matters. It is fabulous. And it is all thanks to trillions of little coral polyps working with a dedicated and microscopic diligence over 18 million years....”


We decided last minute to do our dives off of this boat since we heard many first hand accounts that confirmed Cairns was overdived, overpriced, and overcrowded. We initially wanted to spread things out, but the dive instructor ensured us the diving would be special since the weather (winds and currents) had allowed us to access infrequent dive sites. It didn’t take long for us to appreciate this decision; we kept up a lucky tradition of seeing something new and memorable each dive. Our first dive was in Blue Pearl Bay off of Hayman Island. Known as the maze, this dive site wound us through vibrant coral walls and a plethora of marine life. The fish were abundant; hundreds of them encircled us in their school as we made our way around oceanic wonders, identifying (for you dive nerds) the following Great Barrier Reef natives: elephant coral, Barramundi cod, Teira batfish, 6-banded angelfish, pink anemone fish, lizardfish, Harlequin turkfish, butterfly fish, triggerfish, parrotfish, damselfish, Harlequin sweet lips, clownfish, and nudibranchs (underwater slugs).
Each evening we had a delicious dinner and a classy glass of goon while watching a slideshow of pictures that recapped the day’s activities. We had a lesson on marine life with the captain Nathan (who we call Bruce since he looks like the shark from Finding Nemo) and enjoyed the good life onboard a sailboat.

The following morning we did a sunrise dive at 6:30 am. The location was in Mackeral Bay off of Hook Island just south of our first dive. Our dive instructor insisted this was the best time to explore since the night fish were going to sleep and the day fish were waking up. However, the highlight of this dive was getting the guts to swim through a 21 ft. long cave that appeared pitch black and narrow at its entrance. Since communication underwater is limited, we had an amusing misunderstanding. Laura looked at Katie as an excuse out of going in, but Katie interpreted her facial expression to mean, what are you waiting for...let’s go. So off we went and were glad afterwards that we did.

That morning we sailed south to Whitehaven beach, which is 99% silica and rate as one of the top 3 beaches in the world. The sand’s composition was great for exfoliation, but the European smokers on our trip were tricked into thinking it would whiten their teeth. Instead, they were left with a mouth full of grainy sand. Walking along the beach’s crystal blue waters and velvety white sand, we got close-ups of stingrays hanging out in the shallow waters.

We took a short bushwalk up to a viewpoint of Hill Inlet, which is where the saltwater and freshwater meet to create a mesmerizing swirl of creamy white sand and bright blue and emerald green water. The view is constantly changing due to currents and tides, but we will agree it’s one of the top two sights of our trip next to Kilimanjaro’s summit.

Before we knew it, we were suiting up again for dive number three. This site was Manta Ray Bay also off of Hook Island where we were to look for George, a very large Maori Wrasse. Halfway through the dive, our instructor points at a large nebulous object. We followed her—thinking it was George—as she charged towards it (since no one in their right mind would rush a shark). Turns out, the white-tipped dorsal fin that ominously swam by was not George. The 6-foot reef shark came as a shock and disappeared into the blue before we even had time to pee in out wetsuits. We also saw a 2 ft-long, camouflaged wobegong shark that lurked along the ocean floor—his presence was a little less foreboding and startling than the previous one. While the experience was exhilarating, it also gave us good reason to postpone any curiosity or inkling to do a night dive.

We were reluctant on the last day to plunge into the chilly early-morning water, but the snorkeling at Luncheon Bay proved to be worth it. The hard coral’s incredibly brilliant colors appeared to be spray painted and its abundance along the ocean’s floor prevented any glimpse of the sandy bottom hiding somewhere below. It was refreshing to know that each site was in pristine condition and that the marine life remained protected. For all the hype that the GBR receives, it was indeed an impressive and remarkable ecosystem.