April 4th - 9th - Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia
We spent a day in Noosa recovering from Fraser Island. Noosa is a seaside town with a lovely beachfront and a posh area full of holiday homes. Because it was a bank holiday everywhere was packed. We drove into town to have some breakfast and then headed on to the beach. We parked the car and went on a walk through the forest, looking for more koala bears. Then we sat down on the beach and watched people surfing. It was a beautiful day and very relaxing.
The next day we headed off up the coast. We had a really long drive to Airlie Beach which was our next destination and it took 2 days, so we stopped overnight in a place called Rockhampton.
Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands - a beautiful archipelago which are famed for their white sands and crystal clear waters. Again, we stayed in a great campsite that had lovely facilities and a swimming pool, and was a short walk into town. A lot of people go on 2-3 day cruises around the islands but this was incredibly expensive so we decided to just go on a day trip.
We spent 3 nights in Airlie Beach in total. Our first day we walked into the town and enjoyed another of Australia's man-made lagoons. We sunbathed on the grass and swam in the chlorinated pool, all right next to the sea so there were lovely views.
The next day we went on our trip to the Whitsunday Islands. The boat trip was around 1 hour and generally quite smooth and we went to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. We were allowed a few hours on the island to explore and relax. We started off by doing a walk through the jungle up to the peak of the island which gave some great views, then returned to the beach for some lunch. There were several pretty huge monitor lizards roaming around looking for food scraps and despite assurances from some Australians that they wouldn't hurt us, it was still quite nerve-wracking!
The beach itself was stunning. The sand was so white it was blinding. This sand was apparently even more pure than the stuff on Fraser Island. We didn't go swimming too much as there were some stingers around but we paddled and just soaked up the beautiful scenery.
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| Airlie Beach town |
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| Airlie Beach Harbour |
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| The view from the top of Whitsunday Island |
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| The incredibly white sand |
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| The blue blue sea |
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| The forest |
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| A sea-plane delivered some wealthy visitors to the beach! |
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| Beach-bums |
http://www.placestoseeinyourlifetime.com/exciting-air-tours-around-whitsunday-island-australia-11614/
However, I think to get the full effect you really need to see it from the air. Perhaps we shall return one day to do this!
The beach itself was stunning and we had a really relaxing day. I'm not sure what more you would get out of doing a cruise apart from luxury boating (hot tubs, booze, etc) in a lovely place; you can go snorkelling and paddle boarding but we were going to the Great Barrier Reef anyway to see fish, etc which surely has superior marine life! I think to see it properly it is more of a luxury item on the 'to do' list and although it was a beautiful beach, it wasn't unlike places we had seen before (or were going to see...)
However, I think to get the full effect you really need to see it from the air. Perhaps we shall return one day to do this!
The beach itself was stunning and we had a really relaxing day. I'm not sure what more you would get out of doing a cruise apart from luxury boating (hot tubs, booze, etc) in a lovely place; you can go snorkelling and paddle boarding but we were going to the Great Barrier Reef anyway to see fish, etc which surely has superior marine life! I think to see it properly it is more of a luxury item on the 'to do' list and although it was a beautiful beach, it wasn't unlike places we had seen before (or were going to see...)
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| So instead we went back to the mainland to sleep in Colin the Campervan.... |
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| But we had a pretty sunset that night! |
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