Fitful night’s sleep last night following a case of restless legs. I ended up having to sleep with my clothes bag on my feet to settle them down and then settled into a great night’s sleep, with the gentle roll of the boat lulling me.
Breakfast was a little later this morning at 7am and then onto the tender for transportation to world-famous Whitehaven Beach.
Until you’ve walked on this beach, it’s hard to fathom how clean and white it is. The word pristine comes to mind as white is the only colour in the sand - there are no coloured flecks, no broken bits of shell. Just clean white sand. It is purportedly 98.6 percent silica and apparently NASA used sand from Whitehaven to make the lenses for the Hubble Telescope. It is also extremely sticky (it doesn’t brush off easily) and doesn’t hold heat due to its colour, so the beaches of Whitehaven are not suitable for turtle-nesting.
The walk to the lookout was lovely, with vistas across the islands. But the best part of Whitehaven was the opportunity to swim in the cool, clear water at the end of the walk. So refreshing for tired muscles, and the opportunity to kick back and wash off the dirt of the trail.
As we are on a boat with limited water storage, we are all limited to 45 second showers each day, so any chance to have a wash down is welcomed, so that 45 seconds is essentially used to just remove the salt from the skin.
Tender ride back to the ship and we moved to Tongue Bay to do the Hill Inlet Lookout to see the Swirling Sands, and check out the Cow Tail Stingrays.
So quick biology lesson first. There are 7 sea turtle species, 6 of which can be found in the Whitsundays. The species here are the loggerhead, green, hawks bill, Kemps Ridley, flat back and leatherback. We have sighted loggerhead and green sea turtles so far - will be interesting to see if we can spot the others.
Betty’s Beach features cow tail sting rays and lemon sharks - as it is sheltered and not easily accessible by larger predators, they are quite social and we were able to walk right up to them in the water and take photos and snorkel with them. They are such beautifully majestic creatures who “fly” through the water, their “wings” floating effortlessly to propel them along.
On our return tender we once again saw a green sea turtle swimming nearby, and a mother whale and her calf frolicking not far from the boat. This has been my favourite day so far, with some of the most amazing views and experiences.
The weather turned ordinary after lunch, with wind and rain squalls, but that didn’t stop me sitting up the front of the ship and just watching the world go by. Witnessed more whales, watched the crew drop the anchor and then had my quick shower. Now sat in the saloon and enjoying a bit of a sing and dance while we wait for dinner. Not sure what tomorrow will bring but I’m sure it will be something special.
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