After a hot, tasty and smelly tour of the local sugar mill at Mackay we headed to the glitz and glamour of the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach, but not before visiting Mr Frosty and the big mango for a scoop of mango ice cream.

Our first day we went on a old yacht to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. Well it was meant to be a sailing cruise but there was no wind all day so the skipper had to rely on the diesel engine. During the cruise we saw numerous pods of whales close to the boat, most of the pods had a calf which was amazing and exciting, especially when eating delicious brownies. The first stop was Whitehaven Beach, said to be the best beach in Australia. Beautiful, the sand a lovely pale shiny white with tourquise waters. After a walk to a lookout of the beach we enjoyed the beautiful swimming conditions.

After a short ride on the yacht with more whales we arrived at another small island to snorkel. It was probably the best and most colourful coral I had seen on this trip yet. The colours where more bright because there was soft coral and there where so many huge beautiful fish swimming around it. It was low tide so I could get right up to the coral without touching it, maybe the best experience yet.

On the cruise the guide was explaining how rare it is to see bottlenose dolphins when a pod appeared on the port side of the yacht and glided behind us to the starboard side, that’s when I thought my day was complete. There was more though – I had delicious pizza and chips at a bar called Sorrentos watching the sunset over the marina. A perfect day.

Back at our caravan park the next morning when we were cooking breakfast, we saw a small green tree snake sliding along the top of a fence, then it did a poo and ate a lizard before disappearing into the grass!

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO