Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands with their famous white beaches, sailing and snorkelling.  Some of the islands in the group are privately owned and have resorts on them, of which Hamilton Island is the most well known with its 3000 bed hotel and airstrip - some of the major airlines fly in once or twice a week!  Most of the islands however belong to the Whitsundays National Park and have only a few hiking trails and basic campsites on them.  The main islands lie about 40km offshore and there is a limited ferry service out there (once a day at midday), so camping on the islands with our tight schedule was unfortunately not possible.  So we settled for a day trip instead on a big semi-inflatable.  We had a moral debate about this as big fast power boats with screaming passengers in a beautiful and tranquil place aren't really our cup of tea, but we didn't have any other options.  In the end, it wasn't too bad and we were able to see a fair bit on the 120km round trip.  Our skipper and guide were very knowledgable and kept up an interesting commentary of the islands and the resorts that we passed.  We stopped at a little island in the channel and snorkelled over the coral there.  It was our first coral snorkelling experience and it was fantastic!  The visibility was great in the lee of the island despite the breeze being quite strong.

Out to the islands on a semi-inflatable for the day

Looking good in snorkelling kit.....

The next stop was the Hill Inlet where we were dropped off on a brilliant white sand spit bordered by an picture postcard turquoise sea.  We headed up a bush track to a lookout where we could see the ribbon of the channel going up Hill Inlet with the white sandbanks all around.  It looked like tourist brochure! The forest through which we walked was lovely and the grass trees had flower stalks over 4m tall.  From the look-out we could also see the long white curve of Whitehaven Beach which is the most famous beach in the area and was where were headed next for a lunch stop.  

Our boat just drove up to the sand and flipped a ladder over the front for easy access on and off the boat (the colours of the water and sand were amazing!)

The beautiful Hill Inlet

We had opted for the "bring your own lunch" option and so headed up to explore the campsites and to have lunch in the shade looking out on the fantastic beach.  We laughed at one of the guides from another boat going down the beach calling "All you sun bathers, time to RO-TATE."  After lunch we went to explore the rocky headland at the edge of the beach and glimpsed perfect beaches tucked into every little cove.  We also found some really impressive old Hoop Pines.  During the last Ice Age, these islands were part of the main land and so they share the same vegetation, however the islands have largely been excluded from fire for so long that the Eucalypt component is much lower and the tropical forest trees much more dominant.  Eucalypts thrive in fire prone areas, woodland trees don't.

Lucy with one of the lovely old Hoop Pines.

The islands are beautiful!

On the way back to Airlie Beach we saw humpbacked whales and White Breasted Sea Eagles - the 2nd largest eagle in Australia.

Airlie Beach is not the cute little seaside town that many of the other coastal towns are - its more like a backpacking strip mall and luckily the Lonely Planet had warned us of this.  It does however have a fantastic lagoon (artificial pool with palm trees and grassed landscaping) overlooking the bay with its muddy mangroves.   We enjoyed cooling down and relaxing there and often we were some of the only people doing so!  There is also a lovely 2,5km long boardwalk from the lagoon along the seafront to just in front of the caravan park that we were staying it.  What a lovely alternative to walking along the road!

The Airlie Beach lagoon

Airlie Beach is a popular springboard for sailing and motorboat charters to explore the islands.

Sunset on a deserted beach - everyone else was in the pubs....

The tide goes out, exposing sticky mudflats - hence the artificial lagoon.

Whenever we saw these shops or their ferries, we had a certain Queen song stuck in our head for the next couple of hours:  "Is this the real life? Is this just...."

We had a really beautiful sunrise the morning that we left.

We thought this nursery had pretty good advertising!  (the nursery's name was Plants Plus)

We now had just over 500km to go to Cairns and a little more than 24hrs to get there.  Many people at the campsites had spoken very highly of the Atherton Tablelands and it sounded just up our street so we made a beeline for this detour.