So on Thursday I flew to Arlie Beach (actually Proserpine) and after a half hour shuttle ride, arrived at the Coral Sea Resort, my home for one night before hopping aboard the Entice (a catamaran) for a three day trip around the Whitsundays. And quite frankly, after checking in and going to my room, I was seriously considering skipping the trip and just camping out at the hotel given the spectacular view I had from my hotel room of the Coral Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean).
Anyway, I did not skip the trip and instead joined a couple from Perth, Australia, a couple from Denmark and a young girl from London at 3:50 on Friday afternoon to board the Entice. Our captain, Greg, and first mate, Dean, where there to greet us and before we knew it, we were pushing of and onto our adventure.
Now, unfortunately, as we headed out across Whitsunday Passage, the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up making it downright chilly on the deck. However, once we crossed Whitsunday Passage, the wind died down as we entered Hook Passage.
Once we were through Hook Passage, we sat down for a lovely meal of Tasmanian salmon, mashed yams and salad. By 8:30, I was ready for bed. The wave action on the boat felt like someone rocking me to sleep so off to bed I went.
I was up at 6:30 just as we pulled up anchor and set sail for Tongue Bay (off Whitsunday Island) where we were going to anchor and go ashore to spend a three hours on the island and the very famous Whitehaven Beach. So by 8:00 a.m., we were loaded into the dingy and motored to the shore.
From here, we spent about 15 minutes hiking through a forest and up multiple stairs to reach the view point overlooking Whitehaven Beach famous for its white silica sand beach and turquoise waters. And once at the first viewpoint, I had to admit It was truly a beautiful site.
We proceeded to hike to two other lookout points, befoe Dean (who had accompanied us) took us back in the direction we had come. However, instead of going all the way back to Tongue Bay, we veered off onto another path, which led to the Whitehaven Beach.
The path took us down multiple groups of stairs and in less than 10 minutes we reached the beach. Now I am not a huge beach person, but the other five were dying to swim and laze around the sand. I opted out and instead found a palm tree and sat under the tree taking in the views.
About an hour later, the group of five came by and asked me if I wanted to go back to the lookout points. Uh no thanks. Instead, I left the beach, walked up the stairs and down to the other side to the little beach in front of Tongue Bay and sat and watched boat after boat run dozens and dozens to shore. (This is why we came early … to avoid the boats with the day trippers, who leave Arlie Beach around 8:00 a.m. and return back at the end of the day.)
Anyway, shortly before 11:00 the others showed up and we radioed the boat that we were ready to be picked up. By 11:15, we were back on board and headed to Mantaray Bay, at the northern tip of Whitsunday Island, to do some snorkeling.
The trip took us along part of the length of Whitsunday Island and some very interesting rock formations, including one that looks like a dog and another that looked like bales of hay. By 1:00 we reached Mantaray Bay just off the coast of Hook Island and decided to have lunch first before heading out to snorkel.
Now I was supremely excited to do some snorkeling, but I think Greg screwed us over. Once we finished lunch and were loaded in the dingy, we drove around the bay a bit trying to determine the best spot to jump in. The first area we passed was teeming with fish. We could see hundreds and hundreds of multi-coloured fish, but for whatever reason, Greg passed on this area took us around the corner to another area where some of the day tripper boats were parked, We ended up snorkeling in this area, but in my opinion the area was not only too crowded, the fish were not nearly as plentiful. Sure there were some pretty fish, but the other area seemed to be far, far better.
Anyway, we spent about a half hour snorkeling before we climbed backion the dingy and headed to the catamaran. From here, we travelled about a half hour to Cockatoo Point (also just off the coast of Hook Island). We decided to anchor here for the night and also do another round of snorkeling. Unfortunately, the snorkeling here was CRAP. Nothing to see at all.
By the time we were back in the boat, it was closing in on 4:30. I decided to take a bit of a nap and next thing I knew, it was 6:30. We ended up having dinner about an hour later and went back on deck to see if we could spot any sharks hanging around the boat. Sadly, we were shut out on this as well.
I ended up going to bed at 9:00 and was up again at 6:30 a.m. And after a quick breakfast, Greg drove the Catarmaran across the bay to Langford Island. Once we neared Langford Island, we piled into the dingy and we pulled up on the island. We ended up going for a short walk along a small canal on the island where we spotted some baby stingrays and some baby reef sharks before taking a series of stairs to a viewpoint.
Now unfortunately, the viewpoint was crawling with mosquitos. I have no idea why Greg didn’t warn us to spray up. (I actually thought we were just going for a walk on the sand and not a hike through the forest.). Anyway, less than two minutes after we arrived, we were booking it down the stairs to avoid being bitten more than we already were. (I ended up with several bites around my ankles. Pissed me off since I have been so diligent avoiding mosquito bites.)
Anyway, once back down the stairs some of the group went for a swim. I opted to stand in about a foot of water and let the saltwater take some of the itchiness out of the bites.
So by 10:00 we were back on the catamaran and headed a short distance to Caves Cove where we anchored and did one more snorkel trip. Now the water here was much clearer than the prior stops, but the fish were tiny, tiny, tiny (although the coral was fantastic to look at).
We ended up spending about a half hour in the water before heading back to the catamaran. Sadly, it was time to start the trip back to Arlie Beach and by 1:30 p.m., Arlie Beach came into view and by 2:00 we were anchored back at the marina. The trip had been fun, although I was still disappointed with the snorkeling.
So I have one more night in Arlie Beach at the fabulous Coral Sea Resort before flying back to Brisbane where I will spend the next five nights before heading north to Papua New Guinea. (Now THAT is going to be an adventure.)
