Australia 3: Whitsunday Islands & Fraser Island

You could say that Australia was a land of highlights for us and impressed us the most. One of the highlights was the trip to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 74 islands, 10 of which are inhabited. To be precise, it is a mountain range submerged in the sea, of which only the peaks are visible. This offers crystal-clear blue beaches and white sand. We visited Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays. The beach sand has a quartz content of 98%, which leads to a bright white color and means that it is one of the whitest beaches in the world. The advantage is that the beach hardly heats up due to its white color.

We took a sailing boat trip to the Whitsundays with two overnight stays on the old Solway Lass. A ship from 1902 that was used as a trading ship in World War I and of which our own crew is very excited. Understandably, as it has managed to make it to 2019 and is now used for trips to the Whitsundays. We started from Airlie Beach, which is a beautiful little tourist town. It's a shame we couldn't spend more time here. The disadvantage here, however, is that you can't go into the sea yet. It is only safe to go into the sea from Brisbane downwards, it is expressly forbidden above Brisbane on the east coast. This is due to the venomous jellyfish, sea snakes, sharks and crocodiles. The so-called box jellyfish are particularly dangerous. They always occur from October to May. However, they do not occur in certain areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef, so you can also go into the water there without any worries. Beaches protect themselves from the animals with certain nets. We also always had to wear a full-body neoprene suit to protect ourselves if we wanted to go into the sea.

So we sailed through the Whitsundays, snorkelled, had an all-inclusive package with good food & drinks and sunbathed on the sun deck of our sailing boat. In the evenings we had breathtaking sunsets in front of us and the company of various fish species, including the Queensland grouper. It was like a vacation from vacation 😊

After the beautiful days on the sailing boat, we continued towards Rainbow Beach. From there we took part in a 4WD 2-day tour to Fraser Island. Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world with a length of over 123 km, is located off Queensland on the Australian east coast. Since you cannot drive on the island with a conventional car due to the sand, you either have to rent a 4x4 all-wheel drive or, like us, book one of these tours. This gives you the opportunity to drive the 4x4 yourself, which was really fun. Unfortunately, Mario was not allowed to – only allowed from the age of 21.

We spent one night on a campsite there. However, we chose the slightly finer option "Glamping" – a new word creation from "Glamour" and "Camping". We had a fixed tent with real beds. Before we moved in, Mario removed the spiders from it so that I could sleep reasonably well 😊

We also had a really funny tour guide with Muzz, who called himself "man from the bush" and lived that way. Here on Fraser Island we visited various highlights such as Lake McKenzie, Eli Creek, The Champagne Pool and the Maheno Shipwreck and also saw two dingoes.

At Lake McKenzie, Muzz recommended us to wash our hair with the sand and exfoliate our skin, as this sand, like the sand in the Whitsundays, consists of 98% quartz and can be used to clean ourselves. However, this only works there and not in the Whitsundays, as there is fresh water here and no salt water. You can also get your jewelry shining clean with it.