I woke up at 6am and kiped breakfast, heading to the terminal pretty much as soon as I had otten dressed, making it there for 6.40. Technically I was late, as they stated 6.30, but the boat didn't leave till 7am, and I had no luggage, so there wasn't any issue.
The boat went directly to Whithaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, and I took full advantage of the complimentary tea that was on offer!
By the time we made it to the beach, the hot weather was in full swing, and the sun was shining fiercely, determined to bake anyone without sun cream - fortunately I was prepared. I decided to head straight to the viewpoint, which was at the far end of the beach, and up through a jungle walk. There were lots of lizards, and the main thing I noticed was a high pitched whining sound, which sounded like a damp log on a fire, which was hissing steam as it burned.
The beach was bright white, due to being a very high concentration of silica, and a side effect of this was that it was much cooler to walk on, far cooler than the sand had been on Wave Break Island, despite the sun and air temperatures being much hotter here.
I enjoyed lazing on the beach and walking up to my ankles in the very warm sea water, which was so clear you could see fish swimming in it as if you were looking through an aquarium.
All good things must come to an end though, and the boat arrived to pick us up at around 11.40am
This wasn't the end of the trip though, as we were whisked to Day Dream Island, and given a selection of muffins and biscuits and free tea and coffee again. While they fed us up for further leisurely basking activities, hey went through the photos that the professional photographer had taken. A lot of them were gerat fun looking, with some of the groups having gotten involved with throwing each other in the air, or doing jumps. As I had disappeared up the hill from the word go, the photographer missed me completely, and I was silently glaf that I didn't have any temptation to go buying yet more photos of myself!
When we reached Daydream Island, my first destination was the cafe where I had a prepaid voucher for lunch up to the value of $20, as having missed breakfast, I was quite hungry! A wallaby was quietly munching away on some vegetation as we walked along the coastal board walk to the village, and several people stopped to take photos - though by now I have to admit I was a bit roo'd out and didn't feel the need to photograph yet more of them!
I ordered up a few slices of Island Pizza, a Salmon Cabitta thing, and some lemonade to wash it down, though I only managed to eat the pizza before feeling full, so I put the salmon sandwich in my bag for later.
After eating, I stopped to take a fiew photos of the mermaid statue in the village, and sent them up on Facebook for Sandy to admire, before heading through the rainforest next. There, I saw several butterflies that were the size of birds, seemingly just flying all the time. There were several really nice view points to look from, and again I was aware of the high pitched whining coming from various parts of the forest.
As I reached the other end I found I was on the path to Lovers Cove, which from the information I had to hand was the best place to go snorkelling on the inner reef and get great views of fish. I headed the other way to the resort hotel reception, and hey directed me to the beach hut on Mermaid Beach to enquire about snorkels.
I headed there, view the mermaid viewpoint, where there are 3 mermaids on rocks just offshore. They looked pretty stunning, so I uploaded those to Facebook too!
The beach here was made up of dead coral, which was almost rocky, but had all the common coral shapes that everyone is familiar, and the sound it made a you walked on it was bright clinking sounds.
I found the beach hut in question, and enquired about the snorkel mask options. Unfortunately they didn't have any prescription ones, and none of the ones they had fit over my goggles or glasses. I decided to chance my arm and ask about the whining sounds I had been hearing earlier, but nobody there was able to tell me, instead directing me to the people who did the living reef tours.
I took up the advice, and was kindly informed that it was most likely Cicadas that I had heard - I checked on YouTube for any recordings and was able to confirm this as the case. Having achieved this, I went to let the beach hut people know the answer, as they were curious by my question, and then went to swim in the spa pool to cool down.
After elaxing i the pool and lounging on the sun loungers there, I decided I should really at least go to Lovers Cove, if only for the ability to say I had done it.
This beach was also a coral beach, and there was some more great view both of the island itself and the other whitsundays across the seas. Again, the water was crystal clear, and lots of fish were swimming around, very easy to photograph. As I was admiring this but being nervous of jelly fish, a snorkler surfaced, and offered me the rest of her fish food, as she wasn't able to utilise it and snorkle at the same time. There were so many fish, I almost felt like I was snorkeling , despite being above the water and nice and dry!
Not wanting to miss the boat back, as it was now around 5pm, I headed to the other side of the island and the pier to wait, where I was rewarded by my first decent chance to capture a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo on film. Despite seeing one most days since getting to New South Wales and Queensland, I was never able to photograph any as they were in flight and moved too fast.
On the boat back, I met a Scottish person, wearing a Scotland cap - Imy introductory sentence being "Wayhey, another Scottish person!". We chatted about our plans, he had just come from Cairns and had been out on a barrier reef cruise similar to the one I was about to do. I mentioned my plan of renting an underwater camera, and he gave me suggestions as to which store to go to - there being 2 in the town but Calypso being the one that had the best value for money.
After the boat docked at Port of Airlie, I walked back to the chalet/hostel room, and met my new room mates for the night - Nicola from Yorkshire, and Karoline Austria. The english guys had left that day, as well as the german who had been sleeping in the bunk below mine, which was now occupied by Nicola.
Reception at this hostel opens after I was due to leave, so I arranged an early check out with them - this involving them using an old fashioned credit card triplicate scanning machine thing, and giving m YHA hostel card back. All I had to do to avoid being charged was post my key through the key hole when I left in the morning.
I went to the kitchen and made dinner using the two portions of meat and veg and one portion of noodles, and when it was on my plate I thought it was maybe too much, but it disappeared fast enough so I must have been hungrier than I thought!
I headed to the BBQ area after that to catch up on some Japanese reviews, before pre-packing my kit ready for departure, and heading to sleep.