Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands

We have been really looking forward to Airlie Beach as it has been more than 30 years since our last visit and we were keen to see the changes.  The Whitsundays have been ravaged by a couple of devastating cyclones in the past few years but looking around now you would not know that.  It is a lovely place and has certainly grown from the sleepy village that we saw all those years ago.  We were lucky enough to spend a week on Hayman Island for our honeymoon, thanks to my generous parents, in 1978.  The island has been totally re-vamped since then and is now a millionaires paradise but we loved it the way it was with all its hidden bungalows. There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays with Hamilton Island being the largest.
The ship anchored offshore again and we were tendered into Airlie Harbour via the Island Hopper fast catamaran.  However, it took forever to leave the ship to join the tender.  I don't know what the problem has been getting passengers off the ship and on to tender, but passengers are starting to become very irritated with the slow process.  No doubt there will be some bad reviews about this at the end of the cruise.
We eventually made it ashore to join our tour that was "Travel by RIB to Whitehaven Beach".  Now,  I really should have researched what RIB actually was before I signed us up for this tour.  I am not a thrill seeker or adrenaline junkie, just a 62 year old woman who likes the slow lane.  RIB stands for Rigid Inflatable Boat that travels at around 90kmh across the ocean, and just for a thrill or two the skipper throws in a couple of 360 degree turns here and there.  Actually, it could have been worse I guess and it was all worth it when we reached Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island.

There have been a lot of travel shows lately featuring Whitehaven and I have been longing to see it for myself.  I was not disappointed.  It is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Who knew that there could be so many different shades of blue in the ocean.

We hiked to the lookout to take photos of the beach.  It is a 20 minute hike with about 300 steps but an easy walk and so worth doing.  After our photo shoot we trekked back down to the beach where our boat captain had laid out a very delicious cold cuts and salad lunch with lots of fresh fruit.  After our hike we were quite hungry so the lunch was very well received.

I just noticed another overloaded boat in the background!

We had around an hour on Whitehaven Beach before we once again boarded the RIB to make the one hour return journey back to Airlie Harbour. A big shout out to Ocean Rafting company and our captain James and his right hand man, Tom, who bent over backwards to make our journey as enjoyable as possible aboard "Wild Thing".