Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays - Jennie at sea

Arriving in Airlie Beach, I immediately fell in love with the place. It reminded me of a huge beach promenade with small shops lined up next to each other. The houses and villas were built to the left into the hills and to the right a huge harbor jutted out of the water, in the middle of which I, little Jennie, arrived at my second stop in Australia.

On the first day, I didn't do much, checked into the hostel, got to know many new people, let the sun roast my belly, and enjoyed the weather. 2 days later, I started my pre-booked sailing tour from Cairns. So I got up very early, brought my huge backpack to the tour provider's office, grabbed my small bag packed with things for the 2 days on board.

Right at the harbor, Kati - part of the crew - picked us up and took us to the boat. There we met Ed, he was the captain of the boat. The boat used to be a fishing boat and was built in the 19th century.

We drove for 4 hours towards a big, wide nothingness - but then we reached the promised Whitsunday Islands. We climbed into a smaller speedboat that brought us closer to the land. After a few difficult meters on old and dried up corals, we reached a hill where we also had to climb up but were rewarded with a fabulous view of the so-called 'Whiteheaven Beach'. It was an incredible sight to see how sand and sea alternated through the landscape, to see how many different shades of blue the water could assume, and how powdery white a beach could be.

We enjoyed the moment and had the beach all to ourselves, everyone had the opportunity to take enough photos, climb onto dried-up trees, and swim in the sea (only with a suit, due to poisonous animals such as jellyfish).

That's the moment again where I couldn't really realize that I'm there, that I'm really standing in Australia. I still have those moments and always try to realize everything, but it just doesn't work. Back on board, we enjoyed our BBQ and continued towards sunset. I took some time for myself and sat with a drink in hand, dangling my legs over the railing, held my face towards the sun, and enjoyed the salty wind on my skin.

When the sun had set, we sat in the 40 degrees hot jacuzzi and watched the stars. The Milky Way was right above us and stretched like a long carpet of stars across the deep black night sky while the water splashed small waves against the boat.

With much luck in my heart, I went to my cabin and fell asleep like a baby. The next morning, Kati woke us up, we had breakfast during sunrise, and were instructed about the upcoming kayak trips and snorkeling equipment. Swimsuits on and off in the kayaks, we paddled along the coast for 2 hours, swam between 'water trees' (trees that simply stick out of the water), saw a fish here and there, or even a small manta ray. It was really indescribable but in the end, it was always associated with an adrenaline rush, who would swim with a small inflatable kayak on the open sea ?!

Back on board, we put on the snorkeling equipment and Ed took us to the snorkeling spot with the small motorboat, I had some respect swimming in the open sea without anything and therefore let me have a life jacket so that I could just concentrate on snorkeling. After all, I had never done that before. Everything worked surprisingly well and so I was even one of those who stayed in the water the longest, I saw different fish and colorful corals that stretched along the rocks underwater. And suddenly I wasn't afraid anymore, didn't think about anything, and just enjoyed the water around me. On the boat, we warmed ourselves up in the jacuzzi again and let the sun shine on our bellies. I was just about to fall asleep on the way back to the harbor when everyone screamed because they had seen a whale. I jumped up and there I saw it too, right in front of our boat, incredibly unreal and huge.

Ed turned off the engine so as not to scare the animals and so we saw even more. There, right in the middle of the sea, was a mother whale with her newborn baby (the crew said it might have been only 2-3 days old). It looked like the mother was teaching the baby how to swim. First, they rolled alternately on the surface of the water, then the mother whale showed us and the baby for over 3 minutes how to hit the water with the tail fin, the baby whale did the same, and in the end it looked like they were practicing waving, because they always turned on their side and wiggled a fin out of the water. It was an indescribable moment and with all the happiness in my stomach, we continued our journey. Everyone was distracted again until all of a sudden Captain Ed honked the horn of the boat and we were able to avoid a whale right in front of our boat at the last moment!

As if that wasn't enough, a few minutes later a few dolphins came near the boat and decided to join us on our way. They swam at the front of the boat in our waves and played, jumped around, did somersaults, and changed places like crazy. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me, seeing dolphins in the wild and deciding to accompany us for a bit.

Completely tipsy with happiness, we returned to the harbor and no one wanted to leave the boat because everyone knew that we would burst our little magical bubble with it. We said goodbye to everyone, but I could see some of them again - for example, the crew - because there was a small after-party in one of the bars there. We enjoyed more time together, drank beer, and danced until our feet hurt before I fell into bed completely exhausted.

The next day, I even met up with Kati - the crew member from the boat - at the lagoon, we chatted endlessly, visited an open day of a larger sailing ship, went shopping, and made a salad for lunch.

Later, she drove me to my hostel and it was time to say 'Goodbye' .. Goodbye sailing adventure, goodbye Ed and Kati, goodbye Airlie Beach .. and even though I've been on the road for 3 weeks now, that's the part I will never get used to. But there is more waiting for me, so I have to move on .. to Rainbow Beach, where my second tour awaits me. Fraser Island, here I come!