Photos from Our Sailing Trip to the Whitsunday Islands

Matthew and I had a wonderful time on our 4 day sailing trip to the Whitsundays. We booked with Intrepid Tours again, and once we were there, we learned this is a new area for them, and they rent the boats from Sunsail Yacht Charters. We were on Sunshine, a 4-cabin cataraman, which was about 38 feet or so.

It was a very small group -- just our skipper Lance, a Kiwi who's been sailing for more than 15 years, and only one other passenger, Mairead, from Ireland.

Day 1: Arrived early afternoon and wandered around Hamilton Island on our own before meeting up with the tour at 5 pm for a quick introduction on the boat, and then dinner at the Marina Tavern. We slept on the boat in the marina, and sailed the next day.

Rainbow at Hamilton Island Marina

Day 2: leisurely breakfast on the boat, picked up snorkel gear, then headed out! The sailing was okay at first, but then it got pretty choppy. I felt uncomfortable, but not ill. Poor Mairead was quite seasick. We finally got into calmer waters - yay! First stop was snorkeling at Chalkies Beach, which was fun, but the water was chilly, and we couldn't stay out as long as we would have liked.

Matthew at Chalkies Beach

Headed over to Whitehaven Beach, where we anchored for the night. Champagne at sunset, then took the dinghy for a twilight walk along the fine white sand beach, which is 98% silica.

Lance, Matthew and Mairead walking along Whitehaven Beach at sunset

Day 3: From Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, we headed to Dumbbell Island where we anchored at a public mooring and went snorkeling right off the boat. The snorkeling was even better than at Chalkies Beach, and we saw so many cool, colorful fish. Again, the water was chilly, so we had to head back sooner than we'd have liked.

Lunch on the boat, then we sailed to Nara Inlet on Hook Island. I got to pilot the boat a bit, which was fun, but also a little nerve-wracking as I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing! ;) Matthew took over when we got to Nara Inlet, and Lance let him pilot the boat up the beautiful inlet, where we anchored for the night.

Nara Inlet, Hook Island

Day 4: Rained again overnight, so everything was damp. We took the dinghy to a rocky beach where there are steps up to a cave with Aboriginal rock paintings. The signs said that there's evidence that Aborigines have been using the caves in the area for for the past 9,000 years.

Next we sailed to Cid Harbor on Whitsunday Island. We anchored and took the dinghy to the beach to do a 3-hour bushwalk from Sawmill Beach to Whitsunday Peak. The walk was very humid!

Back at the boat, we packed up and relaxed while waiting for the chase boat to pick us up and take us back to Hamilton Island. We only opted for the 4-day tour, while Mairead was on the 7-day tour, so it was just Lance and her for the rest of the trip!

The chase boat was a large dingy with a faster engine and a canopy top, but otherwise all open and we got quite wet. Partway through, we stopped and Luke said, "Just a little steering trouble, guys." He called the base to say he'd lost the steering. It was cold and windy, we were in open water, and only able to go in circles! Lots of deep breathing! Another call, and he was able to fix it. We made it safely back to Hamilton Island, thank goodness!!

Sunsail dropped us off at our hotel, and we took a nice, long hot shower before a relaxing dinner at the Beach Club. Then, flew back to Sydney the next day. It was a great trip!

Here's the album with our photos from the trip.

Whitsunday Islands Sailing Trip

P.S. Wildlife spotted: lizards, green tree ants, osprey, oystercatchers, sea turtles, 1 spider, 1 snake, bats, beach stone-curlews, heaps of seagulls, and heaps of fish (parrotfish, five-banded wrasse, moon wrasse, etc).

Trip to Central Australia - Photos from Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon

Matthew and I had an excellent trip to "The Red Centre." We flew to Alice Springs, stayed one night and were picked up at 6 am the next morning by our tour company, Intrepid Connections, for the 3-day "Central Rock and Canyon" tour.

The drive from Alice Spring to Uluru is long - 5 hours (including lots of toilet/petrol stops). Our first stop was at the Outback Camel Farm, for a quick camel ride. It was quite bumpy when the handler told them to run!

Stop 2 was at the Erldunda Roadhouse for petrol, toilet, coffee, etc. They have a giant frill neck lizard and a giant echidna in a covered area, which are from some Expo in the 1980s.

After a few more stops, including one on the side of the highway to gather firewood, we finally arrived at our permanent campsite, which has canvas safari-style tents, and a big screened in cookhouse, which was nice, as the flies in Central Australia are annoying. For lunch, our camp host made us quiche and salad. (We were prepared to help with cooking and dishes, but the hostie and the guide did everything and didn't want help!)

our campsite

Matthew and "the bus"

After lunch, we went to the Cultural Centre at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, for a little introduction to the area, and then we were on our way for our base walk to get up close to Uluru. We did the Mala Walk (mala means rufous hare-wallaby), where we saw caves and rock formations. Our guide, Craig, was excellent and told us all sorts of information, including the Aboriginal names and cultural significance of things.

Craig talking about the Teaching Cave and its drawings

We drove to another side of Uluru to go to the Mutitjulu Waterhole, which was awesome. That side of Uluru was not in direct afternoon sun, so cooler, and with the waterhole, there were more trees and birds there. It was so peaceful at the waterhole.

Finally, it was back in the bus to drive to our sunset viewing area for sparkling wine and watching the sunset.

On the drive back to the campsite, we pulled over to get a photo of the sliver of the Moon and Venus.

Dinner was an Aussie BBQ with beef and kangaroo steak, and camel sausages. Apparently with 1 million wild camels in Australia, they're trying to do something with all the camels, and are encouraging people to eat camel!

The next morning, we woke up at 5 am and had breakfast (so nice to have the hostie cooking for us) before heading out to Kata Tjuta for our sunrise walk. (At 6:15 am, we were in the bus waiting at the National Park gates for them to open and let us in.) The Valley of Winds Walk at Kata Tjuta is so lovely, and possibly my favorite walk of the whole trip, although they were all so different, it's hard to compare. It's also nice because the wind kept the flies away!

Setting out before sunrise 

Craig explaining the geologic formations of the area

We spotted a Euro!

After the 7.4 km Valley of the Winds Walk, we drove around Uluru a bit more, including a stop at a different viewing area, where you can take a panorama of both Kata Tjuta and Uluru. However, Uluru is 3 km away!

After lunch at our campsite (camel burgers), we drove several hours to our campsite at Kings Canyon. Dinner was macadamia chicken curry and rice, and chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, Craig played us some didgeridoo and also made us Aussie damper in the campfire.

He offered swags to anyone who wanted to sleep out under the stars, and a few people, including Matthew, took him up on it, while the rest of us slept in our tents.

The next morning, we were up at 4:30 am to have breakfast before starting out before sunrise for the 6 km Kings Canyon Rim Walk. I've never started hiking in the complete darkness before! As we were hiking, early morning light started peeking out, which was really cool, but it was chilly while we were waiting at the viewing area at the top for the sunrise to warm us up!

We passed through "Priscilla's Crack," which was seen in the film "Priscilla Queen of the Desert." In fact, the whole Kings Canyon is in the scene below.

Adam Climbs a Mountain
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert — MOVIECLIPS.com

Here's us at the top, towards the end of our walk.

Finally, we had lunch at the campsite, then back in the bus for the long drive back to Alice Springs. We were really grateful for Craig, who besides being a cheerful and knowledgeable guide, also did all the driving.

Back in the Alice, we were dropped off at our various hotels, and luckily one of them was Heavitree Gap Outback Lodge, which is right at the base of the MacDonnell Ranges. Black-flanked rock wallabies come down at sunset for food pellets (sold at Reception).

We stayed one last night at our hotel in the Alice, then we flew out the next afternoon (only one flight per day to Sydney on Qantas).

It was really a great trip, and we were glad the tour worked out so well. Here's the album with the rest of our photos from the trip.

Central Australia Trip - Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon

P.S. We spotted less wildlife than we expected on this trip. Most animals in the area really do hide out during the heat of the day. But even when we were out driving before sunrise, we still only spotted 2 roos. Anyway, here's a list of all the wildlife we spotted:

galah, hawk/eagle with a V tail (not a wedge-tailed eagle), Corella (white parrot), Willie Wagtail, red kangaroo, ants, flies, thorny devil, dingoes, Euro/wallaroo, black-flanked rock wallaby, emu, camel, brumby.

Yay, sunbeam!