[Whiteheaven Beach on Whitsunday-Island: click picture for enlargement]
Hello People!
Sorry for letting you wait for so long. I've been traveling- the east coast is like a roller coaster!
After Prosperpine, where Leanne was working, I returned to Airlie Beach. Airlie Beach is the main port for boats sailing to the Whitsunday Islands. These are a couple of amazing islands with great snorkling, wildlife (tropic forrest, sealife, etc) and beautiful beaches! I did a 3-day, 2-night trip there. Just check the pictures at picasa. In reality it is ofcourse 10x better.
I was on a very small sail-boat called 'Silent Night'. Only 12 people could be on board. Typical backpacker-party-boats normally hold around 20-30. I was on a small boat to get a real sailing adventure. It was a nice mix of people: a 70year old South African woman with her 50-something year old daughter (amazing, they were so nice and taking care of us), a couple of younger girls (English and American, very nice and a bit alternative/artifarty) and a german couple. And there were a Canadian woman (50's) and a scottish woman (end '30s). Fortunately the skipper and his mate were man aswell, so it was balanced out a bit.
It was just SUPER! Jack (the deck-mate) noticed I liked the sailing and explained a lot to me and let me help in running the boat. I absolutely loved it. Fortunately we had great sailing weather: sunshine and a nice breeze. I loved loved loved it! So cool when your boat is plowing through the water in a 45degree angle! I was even allowed to steer the boat for a while! I am addicted.
One evening we were having dinner on the deck while anchored in a little bay when we suddenly heard: ppssshhhhhh. A singel dolphin has hunting the little fish that the deck-light attracted! Just one or two meters from our boat. It spent at least 20min diving down and coming up again.. the light reflecting on her silver body while she was down in the dork waters... how cool is that! Our skipper (sailing the Whitsundays since 14 yrs) had never seen a single female alone, hunting at night near his boat!
One of the days we visited an island with an amazing beach; Whiteheaven Beach. Just check the pictures.. I can describe it! Heaven on earth. And so many fish and rays and little sharks in the shallow waters.. just incredible!
After the Whitsundays I travelled to Harvey Bay. This is the main gateway to visit Fraser Island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand-island in the world and is one big nature reserve. It has many different types of forest (even rain forest) and an incredible amount of species of wildlife (among them the famous Dingo's which I haven't seen). What I did see: Sharks, sea turtles, 1m jellyfish, dolphins, whales, flying possums (looks sort of like flying "eekhoorns"), rays, beautiful sweet-water fish, etc. Bloody amazing. I was on a guided tour which used a sort of Paris-Dakar 4WD bus. It was soo cool. And met amazing people again (from Brazil (Carolina you're amazing!!), Liege, France, England, Kosovo). On the island there are a couple of amazing fresh-water lakes which were great to swim in!
After Fraser Island I spent a couple of days in Rainbow Beach and traveled (all the time with Greyhound bus) to Noosa. In Noosa I stayed at one of the most amazing hostel's ever. A traditional 'Queenslander" (local historic building). And I did a canoe-trip in the wetlands just north of Noosa. 3 days of canoeing: I saw some river-sharks, some big iguana's (sort of lizards), kangaroos and a swimming Tigersnake! Awsome!
It was with a small group; we got 5 canoes for 10 people. With tents and food and sleepingbags we set out and canoed up the river for a couple of hours and made a camp there. The second day we canoed further upstream to visit a big sand-dune in the middle of the National Park. It was like a desert! And that amidst so much green forests and swampy lakes. Incredible.
What a trip this has turned out to be! It is hard to explain how good it was. I hope the pictures do a better job at that than me! And then: I am only giving you a short version of it!
THE PICTURES
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