It has been exactly one year since I visited this place and what an incredible experience it was.
But first let me do a quick intro on the small beach town where you depart on this adventure.
Airlie beach
Airlie beach is a small town - calm during the day with all the backpackers partying at night. When I visited they were still recovering from a huge cyclone called "Debbie" which obliterated the coral there as well as the town itself.
As I walked down the street many places were still closed and they had marked 'water level' lines on buildings where the water line from the flooding rose up to. It was a couple of feet, doesnt sound much but this is about a 5-10 minute walk to the beach! I can't imagine what it must of been like for the people living there and was fortunate enough to not have my trip cancelled unlike many backpackers, some of which I knew.
The beach itself honestly, not much to write home about, but perhaps it's because they were still recovering from the cyclone.
But enough of the negatives, this didn't spoil my trip and the town was still alive and well and the vibe was good with packed beach bars and cafes.
The Whitsunday Islands
The Whitsundays, a phrase you will most certainly hear from any backpacker in Australia. There are all sorts of options to visit but all of them are by boat. So if you get seasick like I do, take some tablets along with you.
The boat I chose was called the Tongarra. It's a catamaran so thought it wouldn't rock that much. I also chose it because it was supposed to one of the best in terms of snorkeling. Unfortunately the Typhoon had devistated the coral where we were and I barely saw anything.
The Tongarra boat
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Another reason I chose this boat was because of its deck and the fact that at night, the entire boat turns into one giant tent!
This is basically where I slept for two nights.
It's also a very sociable boat and the amount of Goon that everyone bought added to the party atmosphere.
Me and my new freinds
**Whitehaven Beach**
This is the main attraction here and you can see why.
What an incredible beach!
The only place I can compare it to is Lake Mckenzie on Fraser Island further down south. I've already shown this in a previous post. Like the lake on Fraser, the sand on Whitehaven beach is pure. It's super soft and almost feels like a cross between rubber and foam if you shuffle your feet across it. The sand even squeeks when you do this.
You can see where it got it's name from
One thing unique about this place is you can only visit it for a certain peroid of time and you need a dingy or something smaller to get there. The rocks make it impossible for boats to pass on low tide, meaning that if you overstay your welcome then you are stranded there for the night.
Us on the speedboat on our way to Whitehaven
I like this because it restrics the amount of people that can visit at any time which believe me, with a place of this beauty the last thing you want is hundreds of tourists crowding the place.
To the right of the beach is a pathway leading up to a viewpoint. And what a view it is!
This photo was taken with my phone, no special equipment. Just natural beauty
Those white bits you see are mini sand dunes underwater constantly shifting. When I say constantly I mean if you stay there for 15 minutes you'll see something different.
For example here's a load of photos someone took of me within the 10 minutes we were there and you can see what I mean;
You see how that band gets darker? It's simply the continuos shift of sand.
When we headed back down the beach I thought it would be a good idea to do a human Tongarra sign #tongarra on the beach.
It kind of worked..
After playing a bit of volleyball and doing childish things like making human pyramids I left feeling almost reborn.
Other bits
Diving board
Our boat had a rsised platform on the back which you could dive off, flip off, anything really. This was great fun and added to the experience.
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The night sky
I've seen some incredible views of the stars on my travels but what I saw that night blew my mind. I saw the milky way stretch across the entire sky surrounded by literally thoasands of stars.
Imagine this but less purple and with the milky way stretching through the middle
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For the first time I could actually gauge the distance of each star and felt like I had 3D glasses on. What a view!
This was one of my favourite trips out of my whole time being away and I'll hold on to this memory for as long as I live. Especially the first night where I met up with other travellers from different countries. Add the fact we had summer music, a few beers and this backdrop.
At this point I was convinced that the best of my travel's was over. I'd done the top two on the east coast of Australia.
What could possibly beat it?..
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Thank you for reading.