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Fraser & Whitsunday

The island tour.

By Javi Lorbada

February 4^th, 2019

This story is part of the Queensland leg of the trip, check that out if you haven't!

Both islands were visited as part of a tour.

Fraser, it was really cool, we were part of a big group, and our driver John was amazing. On top of that, the island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 1,840 km, which is Impressive!

Whitsunday Islands was a shorter trip. There are 74 islands here and we mainly to visit Whitehaven Beach. Wonderful as I had never seen before.

Hervey Bay - Fraser Island

We woke up before sunrise without the alarm and it felt good. We packed things for the tour, had breakfast and headed to the resort where they picked us up for the Fraser Island.

Ferry was about a 45 min, cool to see the island from the ocean, without much time we jumped onto the truck-bus for the coming days.

Our guide John was the best, he did a brief introduction and headed onto the first site, lake Mackenzie. The water there is as clear as drinking water, and the sand it's just white, so you can imagine how beautiful is the lake, on the other side the main beach was packed with tourist, thankfully walking 10 min away you could find another beach just as beautiful and it would be empty. We had a sunbath a swim and lunch.

Second stop was the walk to another lake, not as beautiful as Mackenzie but the walk through the rain forest was wonderful.

The second walk was through a rain forest that grows in the sand was unbelievable, so beautiful to see it happening on earth.

The sunlight ended up at the beach close to the pier and after dinner, we walked to the jetty again for stargazing, we got to see the full Milky Way from one side to the other, simply magical.

Fraser Island - Childers

7:30 we jumped at the bus and headed the east coast, also known as the 75-mile beach, yes, that long! But reaching this side of the island took us about 45 min, then we jumped on a plane for the scenic flight, light conditions weren't that good but the flight was cheap compared to other places. It was great, short but great. A totally different perspective of the island, especially showing how big it is.

We landed at Maheno Wreck, and this was the highlight for me, insane wreck, biggest I've ever seen, it was windy but I flew the drone a few minutes and kept going.

Then we arrived at the Indian Head hill, we were supposed to spotlight marine life from up there, sting rays, turtles or sharks, but we didn't see any of that like I mentioned it was too windy and there were a lot of waves and clouds.

Next stop was the Champagne Pools, fancy rock polls by the Pacific, also the only area where to have a bath in the ocean, the beaches are too dangerous because of marine life such as sharks and jelly fish.

On the way back to the lodge we stopped at two spots, the pinnacles, sand layer cake, and then we went to Eli Creek, this place was really cool, outstanding to see such clean water and white sand.

We had a long way back to the lodge for dinner and shower. About 8:30 we took the ferry back to the mainland.

Airley Beach - Whitsunday Islands

The people from the tour to Whitsunday Islands picked us up at 7:20, and straight ahead we jumped onto the sailing boat.

Weather was shit, moody and rainy, and at the contrary of the other 12 people aboard I loved it! In the tropics was the rainy season, one week before they had a cyclone, didn't touch Airley Beach, but there were some heavy rains and floods.

Anyway the 2 hours sailing were grey and rainy, but as soon as we arrive to Whitsunday Heaven Beach the sun came out, clouds didn't go anywhere but we had a beautiful moment of light.

I personally don't like 1 day tours, we were rushing to see everything with almost no time to enjoy, so we walked around the beach, flew the drone and started the walk to the lockout.

From the lookout the view was amazing, I had seen pictures of this island but I never imagine how beautiful actually it is.

Back down to the boat for lunch, and enjoy a bit of the air breeze around the islands.

After lunch we went for a snorkel, it wasn't the best dive I've done, choppy waters from the rainy season, and some dead coral, I can imagine in a good season this must be stunning.

Next we headed back to Airley Beach, and the wind picked up! So the captain and crew started to sail, real sailing, no motor!

That was fascinating! One of the moments of the day! It was really enjoyable to sail the waters without any other noise but the wind, such an awesome feeling.

As you can imagine we were a bit slower than the schedule and I loved it, not too late we arrived at the pier and back to the van.

Once we arrived at Cairns, of course after these two islands, we headed to the Great Barrier Reef, which is what's all about the next story! Exciting!