The Jo Guest Posse – The Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday islands and the main reason the town actually exists, thousands of people flock there every year to explore the islands.

We found a trip advertised that would take us around the islands on a boat for 3 or 4 days.  It involved camping on one of the islands and using that as a base then exploring the islands during the daytime.  It all sounded very good so we went to get some more information.  It turns out that the owner of the boat was married to a lady who ran a backpackers hostel and we were offered a special rate on the trip as long as we stayed at their hostel after we returned, we agreed and the trip was booked.  We were given a card and told to pop down for a pre trip briefing that afternoon in one of the bars on the main street.  They were doing a slide show and that kind of thing and we could also meet some of the other people who were going to be on the same boat as well as get to know the crew.

As soon as we got there barb saw someone she knew, it turns out that one of the Girls that Barb had travelled earlier with was going to be working on the boat, this was Shirley and she was also Canadian.  It turned out that most of the crew were either Canadian or English.

After a few introductions and some information on the boat we were invited to take advantage of the Buffet and a few complimentary drinks and the ice was broken.  It turns out that the people on the boat were all good fun and also a good mix of Australians and English.

The next morning we checked out of the hostel and waited at the entrance for our lift to the boat.  The captain’s wife came over to us and told us to follow her as she was taking us to the boat.  We followed her to her battered little vehicle and she told us that we needed to give her a push as she’d broken down.  After looking at her car a few things sprang to mind, the first was how we were all going to fit in the car, with, she needs some air in those tyres coming a close second.  These were eclipsed by Kev’s whispered comment of “I hope the boat is in better shape than her car”.
Our worries were unfounded; the boat was pretty good and easily big enough for all of the people to sit comfortably.
The first stop was the island that was to be our home for the next few nights so we unloaded the boat and got all of the camping gear together and pitched the tents on the area that was to be the makeshift camp site. Just by the site were a few buildings with fully equipped kitchens, showers and all the essentials so we were not completely roughing it.

Our first trip out took us to Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island this was the picture postcard beach that everyone dreams of visiting.  I have never seen sand so pure, it is completely white and we were told that this is because the silicon percentage is so high.  In fact, the sand was so pure that it actually squeaks as you walk.  We nicknamed it Squeaky beach.

There were several points around the Whitsunday Islands where the boat would just stop so that we could swim or go Snorkeling. The crew would normally through bread over the side of the boat to attract the fish.  One time they did this and within minutes there loads of fish, all about 7-8 inches long.  We later found out that these were called Batfish.

Most of the time when we explored an island we had a choice of how we went ashore, you could either swim or take the smaller boat across. Most of the time my choice was boat as my swimming still wasn't brilliant but one day I decided to give it a go.  The shore was only about 200m away so I felt confident that I could make this without any issues.  At first it was looking good but I soon tired and realized I had been a little over confident and hadn't considered the tidal flow.  I must have only been gaining one strokes distance for every 2 or 3 strokes taken and I was tiring quickly.  I had a mask and Snorkel with me so tried to use these and just kick faster and that did the trick for a while but it also made me realize just how deep the water was. Luckily someone realized I was struggling and stayed with me and encouraged me to keep going while someone else summoned the boat.  A few minutes later I was on the little boat and heading to shore.  I was more embarrassed than anything and didn't attempt anything like this again.


As well as Whitsunday Island we also visited the Nara Inlet on Hook Island.  After we had got to shore there was a bit of a climb up an old waterfall to a cave system where we could see some old aboriginal art on the walls.  It was worth the climb just for the views of the islands without the bonus of the cultural aspects.  From the top we were looking directly down onto our boat and I felt really lucky to be in such incredible surroundings.  We made our way back down to the shore and back to the boat, some people decided to swim back to the boat, one of the guys slowed right down and said he’d just felt something in the water.  We all looked and could see ghostly figures around the boat, in few minutes the boat was completely surrounded by hundreds of jellyfish and there were still people in the water.  Luckily they turned out to be totally harmless but it gave us all a scare as we had all heard about the Box Jellyfish sting and we were probably in the right time of year for these.

After our days out we would be brought back to shore on the smaller boat with the outboard motor attached, this was normally tied up to the pier all night ready for us to use the following morning. One evening we were walking down the pier and could see something in the water, as we got closer we saw quite a lot of debris floating by where the boat was moored; life jackets etc were in the water.  We ran over to see what had happened and saw the boat was almost completely underwater.  When Scott had tied the boat up he had tied the rope too low on the pier, as the tide had come in the rope had reached the full extent and the boat had started to tilt allowing the water to flow into the boat. In no time the boat had started to sink.  We managed to get someone out to it but by then it was too late.  All they could do then was gather the things that were in the boat and dry them off and wait for the tide to go out so that the boat could be recovered.  After that the culprit was nicknamed “Scott of the pacific”.