Today we took a day cruise in a Catamaran (photo) to one of the top-10 most beautiful beaches in the world and, guess what, it rained! Whitehaven beach (yes, named after the Cumbrian one) on Whitsunday Island, half-way up the Great Barrier Reef, is a long stretch of pure white silica sand, lapped by an azure blue sea; well we can confirm the sand bit - our sea was rough and as grey as the skies. However, (in optimistic mode) it didn't rain all day and we had an enjoyable couple of hours lounging on the forward deck, bouncing over the waves in the sunshine. Kate manged a bit of snorkelling - Paul put a anti-jellyfish stinger suit to swim off the beach later and we had an excellent barbeque lunch. Airlie Beach, on the mainland, is where we are staying to facilitate the cruise & looks like a first world version of SE Asia. A place where backpacker places and fast food eateries jostle against travel agent after travel agent all offering variations on a Whitsunday Island cruise. It was a long drive up from Hervey Bay; nearly 1,000km. We broke the journey at Gladstone, an unprepossessing place, with the aluminium smelter sending out very Widnesian whiffs. The trees outside our hotel were home to hundreds of roosting parrots - we've never heard such a din & it was very dangerous to walk under after dark, unless you wanted a parrot-poo shampoo!We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on the way and the scenery is certainly as lush and green as that implies (still loads of sugar cane!!).
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Tuesday 5th May 2009
Today we took a day cruise in a Catamaran (photo) to one of the top-10 most beautiful beaches in the world and, guess what, it rained! Whitehaven beach (yes, named after the Cumbrian one) on Whitsunday Island, half-way up the Great Barrier Reef, is a long stretch of pure white silica sand, lapped by an azure blue sea; well we can confirm the sand bit - our sea was rough and as grey as the skies. However, (in optimistic mode) it didn't rain all day and we had an enjoyable couple of hours lounging on the forward deck, bouncing over the waves in the sunshine. Kate manged a bit of snorkelling - Paul put a anti-jellyfish stinger suit to swim off the beach later and we had an excellent barbeque lunch. Airlie Beach, on the mainland, is where we are staying to facilitate the cruise & looks like a first world version of SE Asia. A place where backpacker places and fast food eateries jostle against travel agent after travel agent all offering variations on a Whitsunday Island cruise. It was a long drive up from Hervey Bay; nearly 1,000km. We broke the journey at Gladstone, an unprepossessing place, with the aluminium smelter sending out very Widnesian whiffs. The trees outside our hotel were home to hundreds of roosting parrots - we've never heard such a din & it was very dangerous to walk under after dark, unless you wanted a parrot-poo shampoo!We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on the way and the scenery is certainly as lush and green as that implies (still loads of sugar cane!!).
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