The Whitsunday Islands

October 25th marked the midpoint of this trip and also the 2nd anniversary of my travels and the very first blog in Hong Kong.

We sailed into the Whitsunday Islands early and anchored near to Hamilton Island. The Whitsundays are made up of 74 islands and lie in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. 

Astrid talked me into doing a ship’s tour so four of us – me, Nancy, Ben and Astrid were tendered ashore early to catch the fast catamaran to Whitehaven Beach which is one of the top beaches in the world according to the beach voting fraternity. I was there two years ago and things had changed a lot. Cyclone Debbie hit six months ago after which there wasn’t a single leaf left on the trees. The greenery is growing back but the after effects were still clearly visible. Bizarrely I was the oldest person in our group today. 49, 45 and 42 respectively. Now that’s never happened before.

The possibility of jellyfish meant I didn’t go for a swim. Apparently anyone stung needs to be airlifted to hospital, not the normal urinating technique. Nancy went swimming. We figured that she was the only one who looked good in the unforgiving “stinger suit”. She looked like a sperm albeit a well formed one. The sand was the whitest and finest I’ve ever encountered and it made a curious sound under foot. 

After three hours we were roasting so headed back to Hamilton Island. We found a bar to watch the first game of the World Series as Ben is a Dodgers fan. 

After lunch we hired a golf cart and scooted round the island before returning to the ship for trivia/ happy hour. I mean who wants to spend time on the beautiful Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays when there’s a game of trivia to be had. Honestly. 

Update on the clockwise walkers. Well they’ve conformed and will now be known as the walkers who used to be clockwise walkers. He still suffers from not knowing where his waistline is but at least his trousers would be safe in a deep puddle.