Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands

     

    A visit to this part of the world is incomplete without a visit to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands.  This is truly one of the most beautiful places we have had the privilege of traveling.

    When walking around the small beach town the visible divide in the age groups strikes you.  Airlie Beach tends to be the place the greying generation and families stay before jumping off to the various Whitsunday Island excursions while the rest are much younger and there to enjoy the various bars and nightclubs that come to life after yours truly have retired for the evening.

    We did enjoy walking around the 800-meter town center street in the evenings before choosing a restaurant.  We also enjoyed the Bicentennial Walk along the seashore seeing the beautiful yachts and different well-night-lit paved walks and footbridges.  We especially enjoyed a sunset dinner at the west end of the walk overlooking the Marina.

    After a good night's sleep at the Airlie Guest House, we were up early to catch the bus to the harbour to board the Nancy Wake for a full-day cruise of the Whitsunday Islands.  We were encouraged by our guesthouse host Mick to book the more expensive but far more comfortable Sea Link’s Big Island Day Tour.  The MV Nancy Wake accommodates 280 passengers but the tour company limits their trips to 74.  Ours only had 48 souls on board.

    The tour is especially popular with the grey nomad market who like to go at a leisurely pace, and also the families who enjoy the space and comfort inside the air-conditioning.  The gourmet food and relaxed pace were our main calling cards for us.  The tour proved to be as good as advertised and created a memory that will stay with us forever.

Morning Coffee Break

Gourmet Lunch

Afternoon Tea 

    Our day started with a cruise between some of the various islands that make up the Whitsundays complete with a running commentary describing what we were seeing.  

    The island chain was named after the explorer, Captain Cook who first sailed the island waters.  The first day of exploration coincided with the Whitsunday Christian holiday back in Great Britain, hence the island's name.

    The first stop was a guided tour/hike to the South Whitehaven Beach Lookouts accessible from Hill Inlet. The commentary focussed on the history of the environment and was informative.  The views were fabulous.

We hiked to the Hill Inlet lookouts

    The next stop was Whitehaven beach.  Whitehaven Beach is a pristine, award-winning beach on Whitsunday Island, the largest of the 74 islands in the Whitsundays. Whitehaven Beach stretches over seven kilometers and boasts brilliant white silica sand that is among the purest in the world.  It was well over 30 degrees Celsius but incredibly the sand was cool enough to walk on comfortably.  The pure silica in the sand reflects the sun and doesn't absorb the sun's heat.

We hiked to this lookout over Whitehaven Beach

    We hiked to the lookout over the beach and then donned our "stinger suits" for a dip in the pristine waters.  Deborah's pictures will tell a better story about the suits.  Suffice it to say I had a greater fear of a shark mistaking me for a fat seal than I did the deadly jellyfish.

Stinger suits were mandatory apparel

    Our second day was much more relaxed.  We took a leisurely one our drive to the Cape Gloucester Resort, located in the Gloucester Passage overlooking the crystal blue waters of the Whitsundays, It has a beautiful beachfront dining restaurant where we relaxed with a drink and lunch while being serenaded by a live musician followed by a stroll of the beach.

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday on Gloucester Bay

    Our final full day was split between a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and the discovery of a local waterfall/swimming hole.

    We had almost convinced ourselves that the disappointment of not getting out to the Reef due to the weather in Cairns was okay and we were over it.  Turns out Deborah was not and easily convinced me to book a flight over the Reef.  We bussed to the nearby town of Proserpine's airport and boarded a ten-passenger single-engine plane to the Reef.  The pilot gave us a running commentary as we toured more Whitsunday Island resorts and gave us a 500-foot cruise over the very heart (center) of the 2000 km Great Barrier Reef.  Deborah's pictures will tell a better story.

7 mile-long Whitehaven Beach

Flying over the Great Barrier Reef - river running through the reef

Heart Reef

The rest of the afternoon we spent driving out to George's 50's dinner at Conway Beach only to find it closed early for the season.  We had to be content with a bag of chicken-flavoured chips and ice cream bars.

George at George's Diner at Conway Beach

    After our not so succulent lunch we made our way to Cedar Creek Falls State Park.  The falls were something to see and were clearly a favourite with the locals seeking the cooling waters for a swim on a hot day.

Cedar Creek Falls - no crocodiles!

    We finished our day with a fine meal overlooking the marina and enjoyed the sunset while toasting our experiences on this stop.

Sunset over Airlie Beach Marina

    We left the next morning for our 1200 kilometre drive to the Sunny Coast.