The Whitsundays

All the credit for planning the next couple of legs of our trip really go to Matt and Laura, and it was really by complete luck that we ended up on the same vacation.

It took G and I ages to figure out what trips we wanted to do while in Aussieland – limited funds and time and all that. Even after deciding that we definitely wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, there was the question of which port to leave from. We ultimately decided on the Whitsundays and booked our tickets. It turned out that Laura and Matt had just booked their flights for almost the same dates, along with Sabina and their friend Alvaro. They'd also already booked a sailing trip.

The Whitsundays are made of 74 islands and the big thing to do is sail to and around them. There are also lots of fringe reefs to scuba and snorkel around. For those without their own boat, there are many ships constantly going to and from the harbor on which you can book a spot. There are day trips to the reefs and ferries to and from the island beaches, and there are multi-day trips – but only a few boats leaving from here that go past the fringe reefs and all the way to THE Great Barrier Reef. I was planning on spending a good chunk of time researching our options. It just so happened that Laura, Matt, and Sabina's boat did go to the GBR and it happened to have exactly two spots left. We booked it and I no longer had to do any research.

They also did the all the work on the accommodation search – really, they probably should have charged a travel agent's fee. Once again, no work for us, and when we finally made it to Airlie Beach to meet up with the rest of the crew, our lack of effort paid off in the form of a lovely vacation unit at Airlie Apartments with a pool facing a gorgeous view of the water. Even better, it worked out that the price per person would rival most hostels. It was the perfect place to spend a couple of chill days in the little beach town.

Airlie Beach is the main port of call for getting to the Whitsundays – a tiny vacation town with a constant ebb and flow of tourists flowing in an out. Downtown consists of a strip of road about six blocks long made up of hotels and hostels, restaurants, and tourist centers ready to help you fulfill all of your beach vacation dreams. Over the next couple of days we do what one does in such cases – we have a cookout, hit a Mexican restaurant that serves sangria and margaritas for dinner, we go out for drinks, and lounge in the sun.

The afternoon before our sailing trip was supposed to start, we had to check in at their offices for a briefing. At this point we are presented with a sack that is smaller than paper grocery bag and we're told that we can only bring as much will fit in the bag – this is to prevent bringing on bedbugs and other pests that can attach themselves to people's luggage from getting on the boat. I'm not a good packer; this was a challenge for me.

Once we were onboard our boat, Kiana, I think we were all happy to have limited amounts of stuff with us. Kiana is a lovely little boat and it carries only 14 passengers at a time, however, the cabin space is tight. The six of us in our group shared a tiny little cabin with two sets of bunks, each with a double and a single bed. Only two people can stand in a the aisle between the beds at a time. Matt, Laura, and Alvaro are all pretty tall – they couldn't really stand up completely straight in the cabin. Considering the lack space, you become thankful that there's only a few small bags to fit in with you.

On board, the crew took to calling our group "Team America." Of course, the only possible response is "Fuck Yeah!"
Al is Spanish, but was automatically lumped in with the rest of us. Guilty by association.

In addition to the space constraints, everyone is alloted 2 minutes of shower time per day. You're not allowed to shave for fear of clogging up the drains. You're also not allowed to wash your hair and you can only use limited amounts of products because the chemicals can damage the already dieing reefs. At least the water in the shower is good and hot. There was also an emphatic briefing on toilet usage to avoid toilet clogs on the open seas. I'm pretty sure everyone did their best to make sure there were no problems on this front. This isn't exactly luxury cruising, and it might not be great for finicky travelers or for those looking to be pampered. However, it was a great time and like no travel experience I've had before. You eventually start to realize that you actually don't need all that much stuff while you're on the boat. The sun is really powerful in Queensland, seeing as how it's right under that hole in the ozone, so it's hot and you want to wear as little as possible. Moreover, since I have tendency to get a bit of motion sickness, all I wanted to do when the boat was moving was slather myself in sunscreen and lounge around in a swimsuit.

I may have wanted to lounge about, but on some parts of the boat all we could do was hang on!

The crew was all really friendly and the cook made really delicious food for all of the meals. For one dinner, he made wombat – perhaps the most adorable animal I'll ever eat, but it was quite tender and delicious.

The cook threatened that punishment for the breaking of any rules would be spoonfuls of Vegemite.

On our first day, we stopped off at Whitehaven Beach – hands down the most gorgeous beach I've ever been to. It's remote-- we had to hike across the little island to get to it-- but once we reached the beach it was dune after dune of powdery white sand broken up by glistening tide pools. Apparently, the sand gets it's super fine texture from its high content of silica, and it kind of squeaks as you walk across it. Because of the sand's texture and composition, its makes glass of superior quality. However, since it's a protected area, only the likes of NASA have been allowed to use it.

The water is equally spectacular – crystal clear and turquoise blue. The one downside to traveling to the Whitsundays at this time of year is that it's stinger season. Stingers are tiny, lethally poisonous jellyfish that are barely bigger than your thumb. To protect yourself from these scary little guys you have to wear a stinger suit – basically, a thin wetsuit that covers you from head to toe.

You have to wear it anytime you go in the water, even if it's for a short swim. Still the water is so inviting that it's worth it, and while bathing at Whitehaven, Laura spotted a sting ray swimming by. I caught a glimpse of his tail.

The rest of the trip was dedicated to snorkeling and scuba diving. Laura and Matt are nearly amphibian. Laura is a marine biologist and Matt is an Olympic level swimmer, so they're both incredibly comfortable in the water. They just look like they're meant to be there.

Sabina and Alvaro, are also fairly experienced divers and got in a few dives each.

This was mine and Greg's first time scuba diving, and Greg did just fine.

However, as with all sports and physical activities, I was no natural. I got queasy just from hearing our scuba instructor describe the effects of diving on your body. Damn. I had high hopes that diving might be easier for me than most other sports.

Sexy . . . Like a Turtle!

My graceful plunge into the water.

Starting to get the hang of things.

My first dive went ok. Us novices were taken just off shore from an island to learn to use the equipment in shallow waters. I had a little trouble getting used to things at first, but eventually I think I did fine, especially given that the water was filled with what looked like colonies of tiny jellyfish. Obviously, I thought these were the stingers our suits were supposed to protect us from, which made me a little anxious. I tucked my hands into the sleeves of my wetsuit to make sure every last inch of me was protected. It wasn't until later that Laura told me that were actually siphonophores, which are completely harmless. In addition, reef sharks are common to the area, and while they are quite harmless, I was still getting used to the idea that they weren't anything to be afraid of. In the end, the only shark I saw was from the boat as we were cruising along.

Our second dive was out on the actual Great Barrier Reef. It was pretty cool to get down there and see the coral and fish from close up. We did a swim-thru in between some rocks, which was really cool.

While we didn't see any sea turtles or sharks -- although, a lot of the others did see a sea turtle -- we did see tons of beautiful fish and swam with giant trevally and a huge maori wrasse. The crew has named the rass Albert because he finds the boat every time it goes out there – and he really did hang out by the back of the boat the entire time we were there.

Meet Albert.

Sadly, I didn't dive anymore after that because I had some problems equalizing the pressure during our second dive and I kind of hurt my ear. Not that it was any big loss, G and I just spent the rest of our time in the water snorkeling, which was equally beautiful and far more relaxing. While diving, every time I'd bump into one of the other divers, I kept worrying that I'd run into some coral and was responsible for killing decades of coral growth.

I would love to try diving again, but maybe in an area that's not quite as in a precarious position as the GBR. While snorkeling we could still take in all the beauty of the reefs while just floating along over them as the current carriers you along. I'd even argue that the colors in the coral are brighter from closer to the surface and the fish are all in shades of neon right out of the 1980's. I must say I, found it quite romantic to drift along with G, hand in hand.

The evenings were equally romantic as the sunsets were gorgeous and stars were spectacular so far away from land. More than one shooting star was spotted. Such pretty sights begged for champagne, so Sabina and I indulged ourselves with a bottle on our last evening on the boat.

After some early morning snorkels, the majority of the last day on the boat was spent on the six hour cruise back to the mainland, so there really was not much else to do other than just lounge in the sun. Cramped quarters and all, I was really sad when it was all over.

Back at Airlie, our crew spent one more night at out little vacation apartment and got in one more night of group Holiday. The place to go in town is Beaches Backpackers. This place seems to have the lockdown on the nightlife. First off, it's a huge hostel with a large bar, so all of their guests automatically go there. On top of that, they offer deals to all of the returning boat trips, and rope in a ton more people that way. The majority of the guests on our boat all showed up for one last round of drinks. That said, the scene at Beaches definitely skews towards teens on their gap year and singles of all ages looking to hook up. Not quite our scene, but still fun.

Alvaro spent the three days on the boat looking for his hat. When we got back, he found it laying in the middle of the road. He has since washed it and reports that it looks like it came from Abercrombie and Fitch.

Our friends all left on Monday, which gave G and I one more beach vacation day to ourselves.
We switched to smaller room at the Waterview down the road. We had a large balcony with a spectacular view of the ocean, so we had to take advantage and had a beautiful breakfast outside on our last morning.

We spent our last days lounging and swimming in Airlie's Lagoon. It's their way around stinger season --you can swim in the lagoon even when the beaches are off limits. It's basically a large saltwater pool with beach areas, next to the ocean, but it's lovely. No complaints here.

For our final lunch in Airlie, G and I happened into a little sushi joint that totally redeemed Australian sushi after our last unfortunate canned tuna sushi experience. The rolls were cut into large pieces stuffed with beautiful fresh fish. The proprietress of the place was a motherly broad who peppered her speech with “Honey” and Darlings.” We were in a bit of a time crunch, and she really hustled – although somehow without ever seeming like it – to make sure we got the entire sushi meal special we'd ordered. “This is Northern Queensland, Sweethearts, there is always a way,” she told us as she packed our dessert to go.

And with that our beach holiday came to a close. *sigh*

To see the rest of our boat adventure, check out these pics taken from the souvenir cd we bought -- which is where most of the pics used here came from, seeing as how I don't have an underwater camera:

Eungella National Park

We're driving down a two-lane “highway” in Queensland and it is pouring down sheets – no, curtains – of rain. It's the type of rain that renders windshield wipers pointless. This rain kept our plane circling the airport for almost an extra hour. These are the conditions as G is attempting to drive on the right side of the road for the first time. We're both very glad we opted for the extra insurance coverage for once.

The rain sticks with us for the majority of our two and half hour drive. It's a good thing that our route consists of only two roads. Road signs are tiny and usually hidden. If we had to rely on them, we'd be totally lost; as is, we miss our first turn. The rain only beats down harder as we begin to ascend the steep, narrow mountain road to our hotel. I clutch my armrest and plaster myself as far back into my seat as possible. (Yeah, Papi, I thought of you.) But soon enough, it's over and we've reached our hotel, the Broken River Mountain Retreat at Eungella National Park.

Here is a tip: When traveling to rainforests, expect rain. I know it seems obvious, but I always seem to be taken by surprise.

Eungella was the short first leg of our trip up to Queensland – our first exploration of Australia outside of Sydney. Perhaps it got off to a slightly rocky start, but luckily it only got better from there. The Broken River Retreat was a complete haven after the drive. Rooms aren't fancy, but they're clean and comfortable little cabins.

The rain died down enough for us to go on a quick, poncho-protected walk around the immediate area. We'd been hoping to catch a glimpse of a platypus, but it's already too dark. However, we get our wildlife fix with dinner. The restaurant in the main house puts out food for a family of possums every night, and they pranced down the branch just outside the window half way through the meal.

The dining room was lovely and the food was surprisingly good given the remote area. (My only gripe is that my poached egg with breakfast came hard-cooked.)

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to make sure we'd got to see a platypus. Many live in the area, but they're pretty hard to spot. They blend into the water and they dive out of sight the moment you make a noise. They're easiest to spot at dawn and dusk, so this was pretty much our last chance. Our efforts were rewarded and we saw couple. We catch one little guy giving himself a good, long tummy scratch.

Unfortunately, they're quick and blend into their surroundings, so I don't have a picture, so I've borrowed one. Original at http://www.veeriku.tartu.ee/~ppensa/platypus.jpg.

Despite some light rain, we were able to get in some bushwalking through the rainforest. The area is supposed to have a lot of wildlife – including somethings that aren't found anywhere else in the world – but I think everything was hiding from the rain. We didn't see much else except for a few wild turkeys and a herd of cattle that was randomly grazing in the rainforest. Oh, and a leech got a short ride on G's leg. The scenery was beautiful though, with some gorgeous vistas of Broken River.

Next, we piled back into the car and made our way to Finch Hatton Gorge with the intent to get in another hike. One of the trails leads to a waterfall with a natural swimming pool. Lucky for us, we didn't have to bother with hiking all the way there, seeing as how the entire sky became one big waterfall about twenty minutes into our bushwalk. We had to pray that the car would not hydroplane at several spots on the way in, this we thought it wise to head back lest we got completely flooded in.

It seemed like a good time to stop for lunch, so we turned off into Finch Hatton Gorge Cabins. Their restaurant is set right in the woods, overlooking a stream. Once again, the food was much better than you'd expect to find in a such an out of the way little place. The skies teased us a glimpse of blue . . . but just a hint.

And with that, we made our way up to Airlie Beach for the next leg of our trip. Despite the rain, the rainforest leg was actually a lot fun. Actually, the rain spiked our little road trip with a little sense of adventure.

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See G's Slideshow for more beautiful rainforest views:

And here is the link to my album.