Whitsunday Islands, Australia

Everyone is told that when in Australia you have to go to the Great Barrier Reef. In addition, Australians will also say you have to go to the Whitsunday Islands since it has the best beaches in the world and it's absolutely beautiful. After spending some time on Australia's beaches (see Sydney P.2) I am willing to say that Australians know beaches and I was willing to listen to their beach advice. To knock out two birds with one stone, the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands, Lara and I decided to join a small boat cruise that goes to both. After a flight halfway across Australia, ferry ride, and hike across town we arrived at our boat in Airlie Beach. The boat was a large, 3 masted, sailboat with 20 passengers and 6 crew. We left the dock at 4pm and spent the remainder of the day boating to and around Hayman Island. The water everywhere was awesome. It's that crystal clear blue that you see in movies and you can see at least 20 feet deep. It's just like the San Francisco Bay...... The first night we dropped anchor in a bay inside of Hayman Island. Lara and I had never heard about it, but apparently Hayman Island is an ultra posh resort island that only the rich and famous can get into. Since we were only peons to these people we were confined to the water, but the back side of the island looks nice. We can't complain at all about spending the night on the boat instead of a super resort because that night we were treated to an incredible show by mother nature. After the sun set Lara and I laid on the deck of the boat and watched no fewer than eight shooting stars go by as we checked out the southern stars. Since we had never been south of the equator we had never seen most of the stars in the Australian sky. The star show was amazing. Not to be outdone, the fish put on an equally impressive show. As we were watching the stars we heard splashing almost non-stop. We got a flashlight and headlamp and shined it on the water. For about an hour we watched huge fish chase and eat medium sized fish as the medium sized fish chased and ate the small fish. There was one fish, two fish, red fish, and blue fish, but alas, the dog did not go. That night will definitely be one that we remember for a long time.

Our first full day on the boat our captain took us to the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling and scuba diving. Lara and I signed up to do scuba diving and it would be my first time and Lara's second, but first real dive. I think our dive instructor was Jacques Cousteau's lazy son. Our dive lesson was as follows (in a french accent), "Poot yure arms up like theece. Steek theece in yure mouth. Can you breathe? Gewd. Now off zee boat." Our dive lesson wasn't the best. We were told to equalize our ears when diving the night before but I wasn't sure how hard we were supposed to push and how painful it was supposed to be. Once we dove down Lara had ear problems and Jacques Jr. sent her back to the boat. I was having off and on ear problems and tried to equalize my ears several times but just gutted it out. When we finished the dive 1/2 an hour later I had a bloody nose/mouth and my ears were filled with fluid. Junior told me to just toss some water on my face to wash off the blood. Clearly, staying underwater with my ears in pain was the wrong decision since it's been almost three weeks and my left ear still isn't back to normal. Thanks frenchy. The dive was pretty cool though. It was just me, Jacques Junior, and a guy from Seattle, so very small. I saw a shark, crazy fish, and got to touch a jelly fish. The giant squid and mermaids were not in season I guess. The remainder of the day was spent lounging on the boat trying to pop my ears.

For day two of our boat adventure we were taken to Whitsunday Island for a bushwalk. We've come to realize that a bushwalk isn't some crazy Australian adventure that involves finding yourself and fighting off crocodiles with your bare hands. A bushwalk is simply the Australian name for hike or outdoor walk. Our bushwalk involved being dropped off on the island from the boat's inflatable raft, hiking 1/2 a mile and lounging on the beach for a few hours. The beach was absolutely beautiful and the sand on the beach was like powder sugar. It was like no place we had been before. Unfortunately, we couldn't go swimming in this paradise because of jelly fish and sting rays. That was fine with us because we got to watch the sting rays from the shore. The sting rays were huge, some as large as a trash can lid and they would bury themselves in the sand or just swim right along the coast. After spending some time on the beach we got back on the boat and went to a snorkeling spot. On the way we spotted some giant turtles and dolphins (the dolphins weren't giant). That night we were treated to a great sunset and meal (the cook on the boat was incredible).

The following morning we did another bushwalk to an aboriginal cave with interesting cave drawings. After the bushwalk we pulled up the anchor and made for port. Our experience in the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef was incredible, even with Jacques Junior.