Sat 8th - Mon 10th Sept Sailing the Whitsundays

We boarded the Atlantic Clipper just before 4pm on Saturday afternoon, setting off around the Whitsunday islands, returning on Monday afternoon. On Sunday morning we awoke to the sight of islands on either side of us. We had spent the night just off Tongue Bay, and headed over to Whitehaven beach for a couple of hours after an early breakfast. Only 7 of the 70 odd Whitsunday islands have any development on them, so it was fantastic to visit one of the unspoilt ones. There's a few walking tracks and some signs warning about dangers of jelly fish, but other than that, its pristine. There's about 40 of us on board the Clipper , a mix of German, Irish, English, Scottish, Swedish and Brazilian. Apparently Whitehaven beach is the 3rd nicest beach in the world, although exactly who travels round to all the beaches to figure this out, I've no idea. The beach is made up of perfectly white sand, and the water is the mix of blue colours you'd expect on a tropical island. Tranquility in a nutshell, made even more beautiful by the fact that the only way you can get here is by boat, unless you're a really good swimmer.

We headed back to the Clipper at 10 and then set off in the direction of our snorkelling spot on one of the islands. It was my first time snorkelling and it was really amazing. We were all dropped at the beach, which was made up of rocks and was pretty uncomfortable to walk on barefoot, however the experience in the water made up for this. From about a metre from the shore you could see fish in the water. Unfortunately I managed to graze my toe against some of the coral, hopefully not doing any damage to the coral in the process.

After going back on board we headed further north to a spot from which to watch the sunset. What a day! We ended the night consuming whatever was left of the alcohol we'd each brought on board with us. I went to bed relatively early knowing htat I'd be doing more driving as soon as we got back to the mainland.

We got back to Airlie beach at around 1pm and I hit the road for Mackay, further south. It would have been nice to stick around for one more night in Airlie, there's a gang from the trip going out for drinks but I need to get moving. Found a spot in Mackay to get some under water photos I took while snorkelling developed. Hopefully there'll be a few half decent ones.