on the bus down to airlie beach i met victor from sweden, zealous about sailboats and sailing.
he kept laughing at me because i was cramming as much as possible into one day (i only had one day). since he had more time than i, he took things more slowly – but we ended up at the same spots at the same time later on… i met victor again just before i left whitsunday island (he had gone with some other tour), and a few days later in hervey bay.
airlie beach [G] is probably best known as the hub to whitehaven beach.
its pure-white sands on whitsunday island consist of silica, and the fine grain-size causes a funny squishy sound when you’re walking.
whitehaven beach has often been described as “the classic bacardi commercial beach”, and it deserves that!
since i couldn’t get a spot on a sailboat for the next day, i decided to take the two-island tour by fantasea. it was recommendet to me by veronika&johannes, a bavarian couple that i first met on the reef trip in cairns – i ran into them again that evening in airlie beach).
hamilton island was pretty boring, a “resort island” just for tourism, but whitehaven beach is truly stunning. the whole trip was nice, including the food onboard. not bad!
the tour included several hours at whitehaven beach, and i had some self-timer fun (i needed some photos to send home where it wouldn’t stop snowing). somebody was watching me, and later on tried the same thing – jumping around in front of his camera, and then running back to see if the photo turned out.
hehe, i must confess that it’s entertaining to watch people do that. :-)
[view photos: australia’s eastcoast – going south]
[view photos: whitsunday island]