After a really good night’s sleep that wasn’t interrupted by any ghostly visits last night, it was an early start at 6.30am for breakfast - and what a spread, cereals, toast, fruit, croissants, tea and coffee.
Then onto the tender to take us to Whitsunday Island for our first walk. The 2km return warm-up walk from Saw Mill Beach to Dugong Beach took us up and over a bushy rise. A few stairs to clamour up and over but gorgeous views out to Cid Harbour. We were even lucky enough to spot turtles swimming off shore.
The real walk began from Saw Mill Beach and too us to the Whitsunday peak - 423m ascent, with a brutal number of stairs to get to the top. The 2.5km trip to the top took the better part of two hours, and was graded a difficult walk, which I can certainly confirm. Thankfully one of my fellow walkers, Greg stayed back with me and kept me honest over the second half of the walk. The view from the top was worth every aching muscle as an azure paradise was on display before us.
Far off in the distance, looking like a tiny miniature in a large bathtub lay Solway Lass, with her tender barely visible from up high. Absolutely stunning and sweeping views across the Whitsunday passage, with views to Hamilton Island (easy to identify by its high-rise apartment blocks) and beyond.
The slightly shorter but no less arduous return leg saw us retracing our steps back down the stairs we had walkie-talkie up and at just before the half way point I suddenly became aware of my knees, and they were not happy. Took is nice and slow to get to the bottom, but not careful enough not to have accidentally brushed the leaves of a Stinging Tree (Gympie Gympie) - a particularly nasty plants that renders plenty of warning signs telling you not to touch them.
As I walked by it I had my hand out for balance and only lightly brushed against the leaf with three fingers on my left hand. Wowee - it began to burn and sting and swell almost immediately- little electric shock pulses that made me realise with horror what I had done. Kerryn, who had been walking down with me remembered from the briefing we had received, told me not to rub it, so we continued our descent, mindful of the stinging pain (it took my mind off my aching knees!) back to the shore below.
Thommo came and collected us from the beach in the tender, and we were treated to the sight of a green turtle swimming not far from us, and then a loggerhead turtle cruised by, so in that short space of time we saw 2 of the 6 turtle species that inhabit the Whitsundays.
Back on board for lunch (a buffet of rolls, meats, cheese, salads and slaw), and now we had to work out how to manage my encounter with the stinging tree. It’s leaves are covered in tiny spiky spines that embed in the skin and are difficult to remove as they are too tiny for tweezers, big in numbers and break off if you rub them, leaving the rest below the surface. Thommo did a bit of a search and found that washing in soapy water and then adding a cold compress was the best option, however we improvised a bit and after washing in the soapy water, we applied some sail glue, waited for it to dry and then peeled it off the skin (hands up if you did that in school so you could see your fingerprint in the glue you removed). That seemed to work pretty well, and then I just continued to soak it in soapy water. It still itches, but the stinging seems to have settled. I guess it is now a waiting game for the small bits of spike to work their way out of my finger, but at least I didn’t need a trip to the hospital!
I spent most of the afternoon’s cruise up on the roof over the saloon just watching the world go by. Once again, nature gave us a show, with whales frolicking along both sides of the boat, and I even caught one of the little calfs breaching on my camera. We had nachos for afternoon tea, so all that great exercise I did has probably been negated by the delicious meals that they have prepared for us each day.
Tonight we are moored at Whitehaven Beach, it is so pristine and the whitest beach here in the Whitsundays, and ranked the third whitest in Australia. Not as many boats moored here as at Cid Island last night, but one has enough lights that it looks like a Christmas tree at night.
Spent the rest of the afternoon/evening getting to know more about our fellow walkers and I will have to make a single post about them, as they have so many interesting stories to tell.
An easier walk tomorrow for us, with more exploration of Whitehaven Beach, and a chance to swim, snorkel and do some stand up paddle boarding.
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