Whit Sunday Islands

Whit Sunday Islands
Originally uploaded by Sala.

Back from our trip, and I think everyone was happy to be back in their own beds.

We started our week getting off the plane to weather that was back in the summer temperatures. It’s been getting cooler in Surfers so we were all happy about that change. Our flight was only an hour and a half and we were there. We got into the taxi on our way to town and saw our first Kangaroo. Unfortunately it was dead on the side of the road; they're just like deer back home. At dusk and dawn they come out to the road to eat and they get smacked by trucks or cars. A sad sighting to say the least but the cabbie got a good laugh out of us.

When we got to our palace it was a little more rustic than some people were use to, I mean the bathrooms weren’t even in our rooms! It was a good little hostel but even I was happy to get out of that room the next day. We had a day about town checking out the sights before our boat trip, so four of us booked another boat trip out to the reef for some diving and snorkeling.

It was a great day and I was beside myself with excitement about being on the Great Barrier Reef. However with all the tourism there wasn’t too much to see. The dive was good, although our whole group seemed to want Brooke and I as their partners and we were crowed together on the whole dive. However I had a good time checking everything out and the Batfish are amazingly huge and friendly. We snorkeled for the rest of the afternoon and had a blast with Julia and Lisa screaming at every fish they came across, but they loved it and Brooke and I got them hooked on underwater life. Julia is convinced that she is going to become a professional snorkeler!

The next day we found Captain Ron and he showed us to our boat that we would call home for the next few days. New Horizon, it was a good sailboat, nothing fancy and our room was in the stern of the boat just under the Captains chair. I wasn’t thrilled about the stairs going up and down form our room but I actually got good at them, even when the boat was rocking.

So we set sail, had dinner, hung out and crashed. Most of the girls were feeling pretty sick the next day as the swells were big and the boat was rocking a lot. Nothing scary, just a whole lot of rocking back and forth. I was strong though and kept everyone in check! We got to our morning spot and got shuttled into shore on the dingy. We hiked up to the lookout and saw the most beautiful spot. White haven beach. Its voted one of the top five beaches in the world, and oh my god I can see why. Because it’s in a Marine park protected for the reef, there is no tourism on the beach, or the whole island for that matter. It was white, white, white sand, soft as baby powder as far as you could see. I’ve never felt anything like it before. The sand is so soft it can clean your silver jewelry. Our boat hands even told me that this sand is the sand used in the lense of the tubule telescope. Amazing. However there is a chance of stingers in the area. Tiny Jellyfish that can really harm you, so we all had to wear these great black wet suits any time we went in the water. It was quite the look. After a bit of chillin on the beach and swimming in the sandy bottom ocean it was time to head back to the boat.
The Captain decided rather than have everyone throw up on the boat and go back to the swells, we went to the bay where we will spend the night and got off the boat. We headed for the scuba spot and got suited up. There was only Brooke myself and Giean who were certified divers so guess what…we got to go alone. Yep we jumped in the water and dove by ourselves. I mean we couldn’t really get lost but I was still a bit nervous. This reef was amazing; it was alive with fish of all kinds. I was partial to the parrotfish that were the size of dogs. And the huge bat fish that followed us around. 37 minuets later we popped up and found out that we were nowhere near the beach. We had to call captain over to pick us up in the dingy. We passed over our equipment and headed to the beach snorkeling our way over. We spent the night in this bay and had sunset on the beach with drinks. It was a nice break from the boat.

The next morning we took off for one more bay and some more scuba. This was another great part of the reef and it had tons of caves to check out. The visibility under water wasn’t perfect but we had a batfish be-friend us and he followed us our whole dive. Again we got to go alone and check out everything. Then it was back to main land and a bit of shopping. The funny thing was we all had land sickness. When the land feels like it’s moving like a boat. A strange and unpleasant feeling but it went away after a good nights rest.
A couple of drinks at the bar with everyone from our boat, a mechanical bull ride later and I was crashing and out like a light.
So a bit of sun, tan, and burn later I’m back at it with major projects due this week. Man, am I ever glad I went to see all that though.
Check out the pictures at http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/