24.11.2018 | Australia, Travel

Cape Hillsborough, Airlie Beach and the amazing Whitsundays

–

We spent the last day at the Lady Musgrave Reef, the next day we moved on to Cape Hillsborough National Park and Airlie Beach to spend the next day at Whitehaven Beach and at the Whitsundays.

Clairview

Three small towns: Rockhampton, Clairview und Mackay

In the morning it was very foggy and we used it to buy some food in Rockhampton. The town is pretty industrial and not really beautiful. We drove further up to Clairview, meanwhile, the fog was almost completely dispersed and it was around 27 degree. In Clairview we stopped with our camper directly at the beach and looked at the turquoise water and the offshore island. The landscape is pretty similar to the outback and very lonely, it reminded me of Africa´s steppe, bathed in a golden light of the sun. All around there is an endless expanse of nature, a few meager trees and partly some hills. In Mackay, we went through the beautiful shopping street. A lot of people told us to spend more time between Airlie Beach and Port Douglas and to hurry up between Tin Can Bay and Port Douglas.

Cape Hillsborough National Park

There was a noticeable change in the landscape on our way to the Cape Hillsborough National Park. Meager red sand fields changed to fertile green sugar cane fields. We were surrounded by palm trees, fern and grass as in Indonesia. We saw some beautiful rocky hills. In the national park, we drove some winding roads to the top until we reach the parking spot of the famous “Wedge Island Reef” beach. After walking some steps we found ourselves at a dreamy beach like those movie beaches. On the left side you see big hills with jungle reaching the ocean and in front of you, there is turquoise water and an island, walkable at low tide. Everywhere were palm trees and the sand is very fine and grey. When we walked around we suddenly saw a water snake! I almost stepped on it. The brown snake with a little head and scaly light points at the side, relaxed on the warm sand. It doesn´t move, anyway, we kept distance. At first, we thought it is a toxic Brown Snake, but then we recognized the end of the tail, formed as a fin. Everywhere were little crabs and in the trees, we found some wallabies.

Overnight stay in Airlie Beach

We stayed on a large Big4 Camping space in Airlie Beach. There were a heated pool and an outdoor movie. Airlie Beach is a cute little town and main exit to the Whitsundays. All of the sailing tours, motor boats and rafting tours to the Whitsundays start here. In the early morning, we drove to the harbor of Airlie Beach and paid 2 AUS Dollar per hour on the first parking space. actually, we wanted to do a sailing trip, but we had only a day, therefore we decided on a rafting tour with @oceanrafting. We got free wetsuits and we even were allowed to fly our drone.

Rafting tour to the White Heaven Beach

Ross and Christal were the guides of our group (around 15 people). They both had a great humor and loved to crank up the music. We could choose between sitting in the middle or sitting on the edge of the boat. Ross rafted the boat out of the harbor and drove sharply turns, we had to hold on tight. We fastly reached the Whitsunday islands, the offshore islands in front of Airlie Beach. They aren´t part of the Great Barrier Reef, which is located far out the ocean. We drove through the expensive Whitsunday Islands and looked at private villas, big yachts and luxury resorts for 1000-20.000 AUS Dollar per night. Overall there are 70 little islands, all of them are pretty high because of their volcanic origin. In the past, the islands were attached to the mainland, until the sea level rose. In the past, the Ngaro Aborigines lived at the Whitsundays. Sadly they were displaced by the colonization in 1861. It felt strange that the actual inhabitants were replaced by the most expensive villas of Australia. We reached a passage shortly before the Whitehaven Beach and we snorkeled there for 30 minutes. The corals were colorful but compared with the Outer Reef it was very turbid. Our group was very nice, three other German people and a lot of other nationalities.

Whitehaven Beach – a dream beach

The Whitehaven Beach was fantastic! The Whitehaven Beach has the most turquoise and clearest water and you will find the whitest sand beach there. At first, we stopped on the long main Whitehaven Beach. There was the finest sand, not a single stone, turquoise water, a few boats and mountains on the horizon. It is simply a paradise, a lot of famous people came to this place. It wasn´t crowded at all and it felt like the Caribbean. We found a really big lizard. We got a nice salad buffet on the boat. It was really nice to swim in the clear water. We then moved on to the northern Whitehaven Beach with the Hill Inlet Lookout, the other side of this famous beach. The two beaches are separated by inland water flowing from the ocean to the mainland. Around the river there are these wonderful sandbanks, you often see stingrays in the curved river. With Crystal, we walked on top of the viewing platform “Hill Inlet Lookout”. We had the best view over the ocean and the sand formations. Afterward, we even saw a Lemon Shark in the ocean. The water was perfect for a swim. On our way back to the harbor, we got melon and Lamingtons, a typical Australian dessert. We rafted over the water and had a wonderful day!