After leaving Rockhampton these two German girls and I went for a drive along the beach in Yeppoon, a small beach town about an hours drive from the city. Their plan was to drive all the way up to Airlie Beach but the drive was too long to make in a day by myself. So I stopped outside of Mackay to camp for the night.
Just north of Mackay is this national park called Cape Hillsborough National Park. It’s very famous for it’s sunrises because kangaroos gather on the beach to forage for food early in the morning. So I had no choice but to pack up camp at 4 o’clock and make it there for sunrise.
It was a really cool experience to be fair. But it was a bit of a turn off because there were so many people standing around and taking pictures of the animals. I stayed there for a bit and walked further down the cape to catch the sunrise. It was just me out there and it was a very meditative experience. I really enjoyed the peacefulness of the situation.
From there I made the drive to Airlie Beach. It’s a small little town and it serves as the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Probably the most popular tourist attraction in all of Australia.
My friends from Byron were also in Airlie and hadn’t taken the tour yet. So we decided to do it together the day after I got into town. It doesn’t bother me to go on a tour like this on my own but it’s always nicer to have some friends to go along with.
The tour itself was two days and two nights. The first day we left at around 11 o’clock in the morning and spent most of the day just sailing out towards the islands. By the late afternoon we reached our destination and snorkeled for a bit.
The coral at the first snorkeling spot was not very colorful if I’m going to be honest. I guess it is true what they say about the coral being bleached because of the rising ocean temperatures. The captain mentioned that a huge cyclone hit the islands a few years back and it killed a lot of the coral. So that might have been a contributing factor.
The evening turned into a little boat party. We had about 25 people on the boat (besides the 3 crew) and almost half of them were French. A big group taking a holiday weekend away from the farm so they were ready to have a good time. We had a good time just drinking and dancing out on the water. But we ended the night early because we had an early day the next day.
In the morning we went over to the most popular destination on the islands – Whitehaven Beach. We got there very early in the morning and we beat all the crowds. Credit to the crew on that one. We had the whole beach to ourselves for an hour or so.
Of course we took a swim. The water was just so clear. And there were these huge sting rays swimming in the water. It was an unbelievably beautiful place. I would have to say it is the nicest beach I’ve ever been to.
From there we did two more snorkeling sessions. The first of the two was the best one of the entire trip. There were so many fish to see. All in different colors and patterns. Some of these fish were gigantic. Probably as big as I am.
It was cool because I had seen one of the types of fish in a documentary. I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but it has a large pump just above the eyes. And this fish can change genders if the situation calls for it. It’s cool to see something on television or read something in a book and then experience it for yourself.
All in all it was a great trip. It’s funny because had I done only 3 months in Australia like I was planning to I probably would not have made this stop. So in a way this coronavirus situation was a bit of a blessing for me because it allowed me to slow down and discover this country the way it should be explored.