9 September - Airlie Beach/ Whitsunday Islands

In an attempt to save time we decided to take the overnight bus from Hervey Beach to Airlie Beach, which is a 13 hour coach ride. The journey went fine, but we spent the next day wandering around Airlie Beach like zombies since it was not very comfortable sleeping in non-reclining bus seats.

View towards Airlie Beach

We are spending two days in Airlie Beach, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday islands. The Whitsunday Islands is a group of 74 islands off the coast of Queensland. We are in the tropics here and the scenery reminds us of Fiji. There are beautiful sandy beaches, rainforests and steep hills that drop into the sea. It is very pretty and no wonder tourists flock here to enjoy sailing, fishing and just lazing around in the sun.

The crew on SV Domino

We have spent today on a 40 feet sail boat along with 5 other people and Reg our skipper. We sailed from Airlie Beach to Bali Hai and among the Whitsunday islands. On our way we saw whales, dolphins and closer to the island turtles. We were able to go snorkeling on the reef and saw hundreds of rainbow coloured fish amongst the brightly coloured coral.

Stephen feeding the fish

The turtle coming up for air

Tomorrow we will leave the Whitsundays and head further north to Mission Beach. From there we will kayak out to the Family Group of islands, spending 3 days kayaking and camping.