Another day in paradise - Whitsundays Day 3 / 11.11.2018

Finally, the sun was shining beautifully this morning, which was a welcome contrast to the cloudy weather of the last 2 days. After a delicious breakfast, which even included scrambled eggs and bacon, we went for another snorkeling trip - our last one for this sailing trip. Afterwards, we returned our equipment, including wetsuit, diving mask, and snorkel.

Our skipper Lucky then took us to the other side of the island, to 'Shitty Beach', which actually had a different name (I think it was Tongue Point or something), because it was quite rocky and small - and unlike the neighboring Whitehaven Beach, it was indeed shitty. From there, we hiked up a small trail to the View Point overlooking the Swirling Sands of Whitehaven Beach and the beach itself on the other side of the mountain.

Once on land, we got back our shoes that we had to leave before boarding, and then walked in single file up the short trail with stone steps.

When we reached the wooden viewing platform, we were greeted by a dream landscape - white sandbanks surrounded by turquoise water and a bright blue sky. The weather and timing were perfect because the tide was just coming in, and the sand patterns were not completely exposed like during low tide, so we could observe them under the best conditions.

We were told that the sand moves with the waves, so the patterns never look the same and always move with the water, depending on the progress of the tide. The thought that this natural phenomenon would only look like this for the entire lifetime of the universe made it even more beautiful.

After taking some pictures here and a group photo with the whole crew (which I still need to somehow obtain.. Stalking skills activated, I'll find out their Instagram names), we went down to the beach where some people started rubbing sand on their bodies because it was supposed to be a good exfoliator since the sand was so fine. We did that too, but with wet sand, and it made our skin feel so soft! You can even brush your teeth with it, and it's supposed to be good for oral hygiene, but we didn't feel like it because it would be so gritty.

In total, we had an hour and a half to explore everything and look for Lemon Sharks and Stingrays in the shallow water. Linni, Till, and I walked along the beach to the most Instagrammed tree in Australia - we didn't really understand why it was growing in the middle of the sand. It looked really impressive with its light and smooth wood and its many branching bare branches.

Next to the tree, there was a small seawater path flowing into a cut-off saltwater lake, where we spotted stingrays that initially looked like normal stones but slowly moved into the lake until we could see their long stingers! It was incredibly impressive, and I wished I had a diving mask to see the animals more clearly.

Afterward, we strolled along the water, did our exfoliation, took some more photos, and watched as the sandbanks slowly disappeared in the water as the tide came in.

Finally, we found a cool ocean view from a large rock where the waves crashed high.

Then we took the dinghy boat from Shitty Beach back to the Apollo, where we had lunch and then raised the sails for the long journey back to Airlie Beach, sitting all lined up on the safe side of the boat again. This time, the waves didn't splash so much.

When we could already see the houses of our destination, we spotted the backs of some dolphins, which completed the list of amazing animals we had seen on this trip - turtles, sharks, stingrays, and dolphins, so cool.

Once we arrived, we packed everything up and docked at the harbor, where we unfortunately had to say goodbye to everyone and the 3 Apollo crew members distributed hugs to everyone.

Now it was off to the hostel, and in a forbidden manner, we took a shower (because we had already checked out, but didn't feel like paying 5 dollars), and then at 5 pm, we went to the Premier bus stop to prepare for the longest bus ride to Sydney - it would take 9 hours to get to Agnes Water, 1770, and we would arrive there at 2 am. Have fun, but somehow I was actually looking forward to the bus rides because you could listen to music in peace there.

At the bus stop, we met our two favorite Frenchies who also wanted to take our bus, but a few hours longer than us, so we probably wouldn't see them again, although they were pretty cool.

They had promised us a beer, and even though we had already forgotten about it, FJ, the one with English skills (Lauric hadn't really spoken to us yet, probably because he doesn't speak English), pulled out a paper bag with a big Corona bottle from his backpack and said, 'Here is your present'. We then chatted a bit about our respective Whitsunday tours and sat down one behind the other on the bus, trying to get some sleep, which didn't work so well.

Song of the day: Africa by Toto because it was playing during the sail back on the Apollo and it somehow spreads this campfire feeling, which is kind of equivalent to a boat trip, and the song reminded me of Bra at home. Ily.