October 13, 2023 sailing the Whitsunday Islands

The 74 Whitsunday Islands lie between the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.  Most of the islands are uninhabited.  They are known for their swirling silica-white sand beaches.  Dave had heard of them as a great sailing ground.  We considered chartering a sailboat, or doing a live aboard, like we did on the Great Barrier Reef, but on a sailboat.  But our budget determined that we just do a day sail to one of the islands.  We chose Whitsunday Sailing aboard the sailboat, Providence.  It was described as a Classic 62 ft gaff-rigged schooner built from Queensland Timber and is considered a baby tall ship.

 

Their company picked us up with a shuttle bus at 7:00am, along people from other locations.  We went to a marina to board the sailboat.  There were about 24 passengers and 2 crew.  We met several people from Germany and a couple from Nelson, New Zealand.  We spent most of the trip with a single woman from Belgium.  Her travel buddy was sick today, so she came alone.  She recently moved to Iceland to work on her graduate degree in English, which she will start when she returns.  She is studying the writings of J. R. Tolkien.  He had a o pare for his children that was from Iceland.  He would listen to the stories she would tell his kids before bedtime and used them in writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  She is staying in someone's home in Iceland.  Right before she left, the woman she stays with said "I know the family of the o pare, we can meet them when you return."  I have heard Iceland has a small population, so I  guess I'm not surprised.  She was very interesting to visit with.  I just wish I had gotten her contacts to follow up on her findings.

We were offered some really good muffins and spec bread with coffee or tea on the way to Whitsunday Island, the largest of the islands.  We were free to move about the boat on the deck.  We were only allowed below to use the head (bathroom).  They let me take the helm for awhile, which was fun.  There wasn't much wind, and a couple of their sails were damaged, so we didn't even sail.  Actually, the boat was in pretty bad shape.  We wondered when the sails were last used.  And the anchor chain was so rusty, it looked like it belonged in a museum.  So the sailing adventure was a bust for us.

We left the shore from the left side of map and passed through the islands on the north end of Whitsunday Island

our ship

starboard looking towards the bow

starboard looking aft

starboard looking aft as we moved toward the bow

Dave having second thoughts about the safety of this ship

rusty anchor chain

We anchored in a bay near the a part of the island known for it's beautiful beaches.  They had a dinghy that took everyone to shore in 2 trips.  We beached the dinghy and went to shore.  From there, we hiked to a couple scenic overlooks of the swirling sand. 

we anchored between the two finger like peninsulas to the right of the words Whitsunday Island

 

2 rays in the water below the overlook

 

 

 

 

this sign was in the restroom, some foreigners are used to standing over a hole in the floor and think they need to stand on the toilet

this tour guide was explaining to his group that the ants on this tree were edible

of course Dave had to try it

he said it tasted like dirty fingers

 We hiked to Whithaven Beach, but by then, Dave decided to pass on walking the beach.  He waited for me in the shade, while I made the most of our adventure.  It was a long walk in the sand to the most beautiful area, but I thought it was worth it.   

 

 

 

 

 

We were back to the boat by 12:30pm.  They served us lunch on the boat.  The food was very good.

 

 

We stopped at a fringe reef off of Dumbell Island to snorkel.  It was off the northeast tip of Whitsunday Island, halfway between WI and Border Island.  Dave chose to stay on the boat, so I snorkeled with our new friend from Belgium.  There was a current, so they took us by dinghy away from the boat.  Also, the current allowed us to drift without fins.  They don't allow fins because people damage the reef.  Then everyone could snorkel back towards the boat and board when they wanted to.  Of course they had to corral a few us is back to the boat at the end of our time limit.  The visibility was poor, but I saw a couple of unique types of coral and crinoids.  Crinoids sometimes called feather stars, are a marine invertebrate from the phylum Echinodermata, which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

crinoid

 

 

 After the snorkeling, they opened a cash bar on the boat and gave us fresh fruit.  We were back at the dock by 4:00 and took the shuttle bus back to our hotel. 

October 11-12, 2023 bus/train to Airlie Beach, Australia

We planned a train ride from Cairns to Airlie Beach, just for the experience.  They were working on part of the track (for years, I am now told), so we boarded a bus in Cairns at 7:30 am and switched to a train about halfway there.   It was a great way to see the countryside.  It was almost 400 miles, so would have taken too much time to rent a car (one way) and drive.

Cairns train station

we passed this train station with a sugar cane refinery behind it

banana trees with the flowers covered

Young sugar cane field.  They grow and cut the sugar cane from the same field for about 6 years.  Then the field is burned to start over

view of the sea at Caldwell

We had a complimentary lunch at a local restaurant in Ingham.  We were given a menu to choose from.  Dave had the rump roast and I had the roast of the day, which was pork.  It was a nice chance to visit with others on the bus.  2 ladies were from New Zealand and gave us some good information.  We continued by bus to Townsville and boarded the train about 3:30.   The train had a dining car.  So we had meat pies and locals beers which we could bring back to our seat.

our lunch cafe

this is the "cane train", it has a smaller gauge track

we saw several ant hills

our seats on the train

wild kangaroos on both sides of the fence

dining car

not much room in the dining car, so took food to our seats

 

We arrived in Proserpine at 7:20pm, which was 16 miles inland.  We thought we would take a taxi or uber into town once we arrived.  I had called the train station to confirm our seats the day before we left.  The agent asked if we had booked seats on the bus to Airlie Beach.  She explained that it was just as quick as a taxi and much cheaper.  She was able to make the reservation for us, which we did.  Once we were on the bus, the bus driver told us that taxis and ubers don't come out to Proserpine.  We would have had a hard time getting to Airlie Beach if we hadn't taken the bus.  That's what we refer to as the "luck of a fool".  We had to let our hotel know that we would be arriving after 5:00.  They left info for us at the office outside.  We had to do that a few places.  They don't have staff at the desk 24 hours.  But the places we have been staying have been smaller places with kitchens vs your typical hotel room.

October 12-We relaxed in our little cabin today.  I did some planning for our trip to New Zealand.  We had a general idea of what we wanted to do, but waited for some things to watch the weather, since it was spring and could snow.   We picked up a few groceries for our room.  It had a kitchenette.

nice variety and explanation of bananas

 

there were parrots right outside of our cabin

In the late afternoon, we walked the beach and chose a restaurant for dinner, Di'Vine Fish.  They were known for their rum bar, so I had to have a mojito, which was very good.

 

Mary's seafood platter

Dave's seafood chowder in a bread bowl