Whitsundays - Continued...

...or: Paradise Dreaming.

On early Wednesday evening, the time had finally come: at the bus stop in the middle of Airlie Beach, more and more people with small black cotton bags arrived one by one. These had been issued as the only permissible bag for our luggage during the briefing by the tour operator. We looked at each other curiously - with whom would we be sharing the cabin? Soon the bus came and took us to Abel Point, the very exclusive marina in Airlie. There she was, the Solway Lass - our home for the next three and a half days.

So we sat, all 32 passengers, crowded together on deck and were greeted by the 5-member crew. Glenn, the captain, Abby as the first mate (known by the crew as 'mum' due to her experience and calm, caring nature - despite being only 28 years old), Claire, who supported Abby and received explanations from her, Emma, the cook, Kieran, the bartender and jack-of-all-trades (definitely NOT a girl 😉 according to the reactions of all the women on board), and Charlotte as a volunteer.

Glenn told us something about the eventful history of the Solway Lass and Abby gave us a first safety briefing. Then it was time, we set sail and motored into a starry night illuminated by the full moon. That was also the only downside of the trip: because the wind was unusually coming from the north and not from the south as usual, we could only briefly set sail once. Too bad, but nothing we could change.

After a while, Claire announced the cabin allocation and we familiarized ourselves with the ship. I ended up in an international 6-person cabin: 2 Germans, one American, a Chinese, a Canadian, and an Australian. In addition, there were passengers from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Italy on board, with about a third of them being German-speaking. Anyway, we were a colorful mix. A family with 3 children on a world trip, the children ranging in age from 19 months to 12 years old, young and 'middle-aged' couples (estimated up to mid-60s), and solo travelers of different ages. And it fit perfectly. As soon as anyone who didn't speak German sat at the table - which was almost always - the conversation language was English so that everyone could follow. Wonderful and interesting conversations arose and some good acquaintances and even friendships were formed. So much so that after the trip, all those who didn't have to travel further met for dinner and a visit to the bar. Even the crew joined in (except Glenn), Abby was already off on her next trip. Hard to believe that everyone will go in different directions the next day and soon be scattered all over the world!

But back to the trip:

We saw dreamy bays and beaches; Whitehaven Beach is especially beautiful, of course. The beach there is so white and fine that it doesn't even get hot. And I never thought that blue and turquoise could have so many shades. Simply beautiful! That's what paradise looks like!

However, it is still (fortunately!) a wild paradise with many species of sharks. Sharks are predators that hunt their prey and more or less defend their territory. And after all, we are the intruders in their territory, not the other way around!

Locals know the no-goes: never throw fish waste overboard, don't swim in bays known for high shark numbers, and never swim during twilight or at night. The crew told us that in all shark incidents of the recent past, these rules were not followed.

And something we couldn't negotiate with the crew was our swimwear. We were not allowed in the water without full-body wetsuits. There is a jellyfish species here, the Stingerfish, which is so tiny that you can't see them. But if you come into contact with them, you have 30 minutes to get treated in the hospital. Later, any treatment is probably unnecessary... So we put on those suits.

This way, we were able to snorkel at the coral reef to our heart's content and observe the many different fish. And unfortunately also see how much the corals have suffered from coral bleaching and last year's cyclone.

A (non-dangerous) young lemon shark swam among us, we saw small stingrays, some turtles, squids of various sizes, and - unfortunately at a great distance - dolphins.

In addition, we had the opportunity to try SUP or go rope-swinging. What a huge amount of fun! We would have loved to do that for days!

But since we decided against mutiny, after three and a half dreamy days, we had no choice but to say goodbye to fellow travelers, crew, and ship. Which we did with a heavy heart. And everyone agreed: this trip with these people in the Whitsundays was the best thing that could have happened to us!