Although we had to get up at 6am, we had only had about an hours sleep all night and so it wasn’t too hard to ‘wake up’. We jumped into the powerboat that was fixed to the back of the boat and got taken over to Hook Island. With sharp stones and shells on the small beach, we slipped on our flipflops and walked up the boulders and rock steps up to a viewpoint and aboriginal cave with real stencil art from 100s of years ago. We took a few snaps but rushed back down to the sea and there were so many mosquitoes, we wanted to avoid getting bitten more than we already had. Mand said she felt like she was on some ‘fat camp’ – having lack of sleep and walking up a steep path in the morning heat!
By 7am we were sailing towards Whitehaven beach which is a massive stretch of sand on the biggest island in the Whitsundays, called Whitsunday Island, believe it or not. It took 3 and a half hours to sail this bit so we were all ready to step on land again by the time we got there. We were given 2 and a half hours at this stop and so Gav walked up to a lookout point and took some stunning pictures of the ice white sand and bright blue sea, whilst Amanda waited on the beach with Gillian and Hannah, girls from the boat.
The sand on this beach is so fine that it was used to make the glass for the Hubble Telescope! It also meant you had to be really careful with your camera – a lot of people we’ve met have had cameras break on them because of fine sand – we have had a geeky bright blue waterproof case to keep ours safe and it’s done us proud so far!
As we were leaving the beach, a huge black raincloud came over us all and it started raining really heavy – we were lucky to get some good pictures before this happened. Once it rains here, it’s so so heavy, not like the light rain in England! We will never complain again!
As we were waiting for the powerboat to pick us up, we were waiting in the rainforest sheltering from the rain and Mand decided to start a friendly conversation with 2 lads opposite. She said “Hi, which boat are you on?”, everyone went silent and started laughing as they replied “The same as you” – clearly the tiredness had kicked in! In an earlier conversation on the beach, Hannah had been talking about the cook and Mand said “Is his name Dave?” when she knew it was Steve (##Correction by Gav – his name is actually Alex...!!!##). Maybe you had to be there with these blonde moments, but it was making us all chuckle.
Once we were all back on the boat – people that Amanda recognised and didn’t – we sailed for a few moments to a beach more protected from the storm, and had another snorkel. Here, we were surrounded by maybe 300 fish on a few occasions, the more you kicked into a different area, more fish came circling. It was absolutely amazing, such a magical experience! Once we swam back to the boat, the crew were throwing bread out to the fish – something that you aren’t meant to do but it meant that people worried about snorkelling got to see lots of fish too – there were fish the size of dinner plates, grey and yellow jumping to the surface. Safe on the boat and suddenly a big group of fish jumped out of the water on the other side of the boat, which meant that there was a prediator in the water they were trying to get away from – more than likely a big shark. The crew called everyone back on to the boat and we moored up for the night.
On our sail to our overnight stay the crew were throwing bits of meat to some massive birds of prey which were flying right next to the boat - it was super impressive to see them swooping down and catching the meat with their claws.
Tonight’s tea cooked by Steve/Dave/Alex was a roast beef dinner! So tasty with mash and vegetables! Unfortunately it wasn’t ready until 10pm but they gave us some dips with veg to keep us all going. We couldn’t knock the food, it was all really well cooked and there was always enough for seconds and even thirds sometimes!
We had a bit of forward planning for tonight’s bed for the night and grabbed the sofa indoors which was a lot comfier and we actually got some good sleep in. The crew had made a big undercover area on one of the trampolines with a tarpaulin which was great, but it was still really windy! The Canadian lads stayed out there and at one point, their pillows lifted from the strong wind whilst their heads were resting on them!
Although we were lying down for bed at 10pm from the tiredness, we were fast asleep when the crew sneaked up to Gav so sing Happy Birthday to him at midnight! He had his eyemask and earplugs on and so once he was tapped on the shoulder, woke up to about 12 faces staring at him, and a video playing on a mobile phone. The captain had a lady saying “Hey Birthday boy, I’ve got a little song to sing to you, oo I’m all embarrassed now...” and then sang Happy Birthday in a seductive tone. It was really funny....but after they played it 27 times, the joke had worn off a bit, as everyone was tired – the captain couldn’t stop giggling at his own video! In the morning it was almost as if we dreamt the strange encounter in the middle of our deep sleep! But Gav went back to sleep having turned the grand age of 27!
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