Day 10: Whitehaven Beach / Whitsundays

July 1, 2018

My many prayers to the weather gods seem to have done nothing - it poured down last night...
Our campsite is flooded, but fortunately we have a slab in front of the door.
I booked a day trip to the Whitsundays months in advance. Initially, the number of providers and the many different excursions overwhelmed me, but we quickly knew what we wanted and didn't want.

Even though we're in Australia - at the Great Barrier Reef - it was clear that we didn't want to snorkel or visit the reef. The kids aren't snorkeling enthusiasts, and my husband and I have visited many amazing snorkeling spots around the world (Maldives, Red Sea, Thailand), so the snorkeling experience wasn't important to us. The coral bleaching made it even less interesting, and the season played a role as well...

It's currently winter - you can either be lucky and have sun with relatively warm temperatures, or, like us, be unlucky and have a rainy day! And who wants to snorkel in the rain!? And at 16-18 degrees? Uh - no thanks!

Since I'm not "seafaring" and get seasick even with the slightest movement of the ship, I wanted a trip to the beach with a larger ship as directly as possible. So we chose the "Ultimate Whitehaven Beach Hike, Hill Inlet & Lookout" Full Day Trip with the provider "CRUISE WHITSUNDAYS".
Since we're in Australia, we must go to the Whitsundays! At least that was our opinion when we planned our valuable time in Queensland and places like "Fraser Island" and "Magnetic Island" were cut from the list. But we all wanted to visit the Whitsundays - so the hubby swallowed the "early bird family special discount price" of $677 and then the credit card was charged ;-)

We booked the transfer directly - very convenient - so we wait at 6:15 on the road in front of the campground in the drizzle for our "taxi". We're still unsure if the tour will even take place... in the rain!? We also don't know what to wear because it's not really warm and the forecast for Airlie Beach predicts rain all day...

Oh no....
The decision was made to wear ¾ pants or zip-off pants for the men, along with hiking shoes (big mistake!!!), and jackets following the layer principle. We have swimwear with us, but I don't think anyone will go swimming today.
Promptly at 6:15, our taxi arrives and takes us to the "Cruise Whitsundays Terminal". Oh wow, this is really big here. We check in like at the airport and a short time later, we are allowed to enter our ship. Great, it's nice and big, so hopefully I won't feel sick right away. Our tour guide, nicknamed "Elmo", welcomes us and explains the itinerary for today. We are assigned to Group 1, which means we are the first group to climb Hill Inlet when we arrive at Whitehaven Beach.

The ride gets quite bumpy as it starts raining again. Just to be safe, I take a big gulp from the Vomex bottle and fall asleep on Hamilton Island. I wake up just in time for our arrival at Whitehaven Beach. The hubby says it's a good thing I slept because it really rocked.

It's no longer raining, but the sky is cloudy, and there's no sign of the sun anywhere. What a shame....

We leave the ship and take a "pontoon" to the beach.

Here comes the first obstacle. Since the pontoon doesn't come all the way to the beach, we have to "get off" in the water - knee-deep water. We take off our hiking shoes and socks and roll up our pants as best we can - but even so, a wave hits me while getting off and my ¾ pants are wet all the way to the back. Bummer!

Sonny is in the same situation, but he has another pair of shorts to change into. The beach is truly white, the water is turquoise blue - even without the sun! It crunches under our feet as we walk - 99% quartz sand - amazing.

We put our things on a rock on the beach, leave our shoes on the advice of the crew, and go to the small boat that takes us to the Hill Inlet Lookout. We zoom through the waves on the boat - it's quite windy.

We dock on the back side of the hill and then hike up to the lookout. We all walk barefoot, which quickly leads to painful feet on the rocky path. We're really annoyed that we didn't bring our hiking shoes and even more so that we didn't pack flip-flops... like all the other vacationers. Bummer! So we grit our teeth and keep going.

At the top, we are greeted by the view of the turquoise sea and sandbanks. We're lucky, it's low tide and some of the sandbanks emerge from the water. Even without the sun, the colors are incredibly impressive!

We have another half hour to explore the sandbank below the lookout before heading back to Whitehaven Beach by speedboat.

Tents are already being set up on the beach, under which the BBQ will be prepared. There's a huge pile of sand toys and beach games. Sonny decides to build a sandcastle and is now occupied. We take a walk along the beach. When we come back to our backpacks on the rock, we are visited by a large black lizard (?) that sits motionless on my towel on the rock. Impressive.

For lunch, we have burgers - I get a veggie burger - and they're really delicious! We sit comfortably on our towels on the beach and eat our burgers, when suddenly a seagull swoops down and steals the meat from my daughter's burger while she's holding it to eat!! Wow, it's just like on Sylt!? Full-on thieving seagulls!!!

While my daughter is preparing a new burger, we move to one of the 3 table-bench combos at the end of the beach. A second big lizard sneaks past us in the bushes.

After lunch, the sky clears up briefly, and the rays of the sun find their way to us. Everything looks even more beautiful now! Sonny immediately takes off his shirt and wants to go swimming...

On the ship, we were told to bring "stinger suits" if we wanted to go swimming. The chance of encountering a jellyfish is very low, but better safe than sorry. But since none of us really wanted to go in the water, the hubby only took one stinger suit as a precaution. Size "L".

Now it's really hilarious to see how the 1.40m tall Sonny puts on the way too big stinger suit in size "L" and looks like a Teletubby.

Even though the sun is shining briefly, it's not really hot.. I would estimate around 20-22 degrees. The water is supposedly also 22 degrees. Brr... but Sonny is tough and runs - much to the delight of everyone on the beach - into the water with his big Teletubby suit, cheering loudly and splashing around. I'm in tears from laughing ;-)

But the fun in the water is short-lived because it's really chilly. But at least Sonny can say he went swimming at Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays!
The day on the beach is really relaxing. The effects of the devastating storm in spring 2017 can still be seen - the many dead trees and cleanup work on the beach. According to our tour guide, Whitehaven Beach has lost several meters of width since then.

In the afternoon, it starts raining again, and the crew collects the toys on the beach and stows away the BBQ supplies and tents on the pontoon. Shortly after, we are taken back to the ship. Once again, I have the misfortune of being hit by a wave while climbing onto the pontoon, and my pants are wet all the way to the back. The kids have it better, with my daughter sitting on her dad's back and my son on mine. So they only get wet feet.

As we drive back to Airlie Beach, we all fall asleep. It's amazing how tiring a day at the beach can be ;-)
We reach the harbor in the darkness around 18:00 and our taxi is already waiting for us. The water on the streets is still several centimeters deep. According to the taxi driver, it has been pouring down in Airlie Beach all day.

Wow - we were really lucky!!! Except for some drizzle, we didn't have any rain at the beach and even saw the sun for a short time...
So the weather gods did have mercy on us... it could've been worse!

Back at the campground, we take a shower and after dinner, we fall into bed quite tired. That was quite an eventful day!

For those interested in the trip: wear shorts and flip-flops - everything else is actually hindering at the beach, even in not so warm temperatures... (or bring enough spare clothes!)

And again, we made the right decision for the excursion: the beach outlook tour was exactly right for the weather conditions today. Snorkeling would probably have been a disappointment.


For the statistics:
Campground: Seabreeze Tourist Park
Cost: 42 € / Powered Site with Slab
Distance traveled: 0 km
Animal sightings: cheeky seagulls, fish, and big lizards
Weather: cloudy, rainy with temperatures of 18-22 degrees
Conclusion: Whitehaven Beach in the sun is nothing special....