Saturday 20 July
Airlie Beach Market was advertised to start at 6:00am so Linda and I decided to take a look before the bus came to pick us up at 9:15 for Ocean Rafting. Upon getting to the foreshore at 6:15 we found many of the stall holders still setting up their site. We bought some nice fresh fruit and vegies and a coffee and hot chocolate before finding breakfast cooked by an ex-kiwi chef - delicious omelettes.
On arriving back at the campsite we found both boys had eaten breakfast and were eager to catch the shuttle bus into Airlie Beach for the Ocean Rafting. Once at Airlie Beach we boarded the boat, a large inflatable with a steel hull and 2 x 250 horsepower outboard motors on the back.
 |
| Ocean Rafting in "Wild Thing" |
The tour involved circling Whitsunday Island while stopping at Border Island for a 1 hour snorkel, visiting Hill Inlet lookout and eating lunch on Whitehaven Beach before heading back to Airlie Beach.
 |
| Declan snorkelling |
The tour was fantastic. The snorkelling at Border Island was magnificent with the coral and fish probably better than that which we saw at Green Island.
 |
| Snorkelling with "Nemo" |
From there we cruised around to Hill Inlet lookout to view the magnificent Whitehaven Beach from above. This is truly a stunning beach with the near-white sands contrasting against the aqua blue water and green vegetation.
 |
| Overlooking Hill Inlet at Whitehaven Beach |
Once back aboard Wild Thing we cruised up the 7 kilometer length of Whitehaven Beach to have lunch at it's northern end. After a nice buffet lunch, while trying to stop the seagulls eating our meals, we relaxed on the beautiful beach sunbaking, swimming and playing beach cricket. On the return leg back to Airlie Beach we took in the sights of Hamilton Island and some of the exclusive resorts on the Whitsunday Islands before the drivers of our boat and one of the other Ocean Rafting boats thrilled all aboard with some surfing of the wakes of each boat and some "donuts". This was Declan's favourite part of the trip.
 |
| Wake surfing |
No comments:
Post a Comment