Up early this morning, we’ve a boat to catch!

We notice some rawkus outside our window

Turns out we have a couple visitors sheltering from the showers

Some porridge, coffees and showers to meet our shuttle – only a couple minutes late too ???? – we’re the first to be collected

The bus carts us around town picking up the rest of tourists on our tour

We fill out some additional waivers and then we’re loaded onto the Whitsundays Bullet vessel

Fun fact, the Whitsundays boasts the largest fleet of charter boats in the Southern Hemisphere

Just before we get on, we spot a few fishes right on the jetty – they’re Spotted Scat and no matter their name, they look quite pretty ????

The tour begins and it’s fair to say they weren’t joking with taking some waterproofs with you – the entire boat is soaked before we make it to our first stop!

The boat drops us off at a shore of Whitsunday Island that takes us to a lookout

It’s still pouring with rain but we might as well march on already being sodden!

The views are beautiful of the Hill Inlet ????

Whitehaven has some of the best, most pure sand in the world being 98% silica (typical rate is 95% around the world)

Hill Inlet is part of Whitehaven – we’re at the top end of 7km of beach and looking down an estuary of the Whitsunday Island that gets the moving sands

Common South Easterly trade winds, that we’re enduring today, are the puzzle piece that makes the landmarks change often on appearance

Unfortunately, for us today, the weather is rubbish so we’re not treated to the beautiful turquoise and light blue sways of water between the moving sand

There’s a small segment of one of the Pirates of the Carribbean that was filmed here – they planted 48 palm trees here as well to give it a more tropical feel but the Marine Parks didn’t like it as it changed the conditions and weather

There are 14 different types of mangroves that grow here and in better conditions, we’d be able to see Stingrays and Lemon Sharks from the viewpoint

We continue back and on the way we spot a Lace Monitor wondering away into the rainforest!

On the boat again, we’re then taken to South Whitehaven Beach

Before doing anything water-based, we get lunch provided

The weather clears up a little and we’re able to get our stinger suits on and go in for a dip, as well as a paddle

The tour is meant to take us somewhere else to do a little snorkeling but the conditions are so murky that we wouldn’t see anything so they cancel, sadly ????

We take another activity though – you can walk up on the island to a lookout of Whitehaven and the neck of the island

No phones this trip so no photos but it was beautiful and the weather was letting up too letting us get a glimpse of the baby blue waves

There’s even another Lace Monitor basking in the sun!

Back down to the shore, we have a dip to swim back to the boat and then sit in the sun on the boat’s bow to dry a little before we begin our return

The ride back is far less wet and choppy than the initial one and means we make it not absolutely soaked ????

On land, we’re carter back to our hotel where we get showered and ready to head out

Sod’s luck that it pours with rain as we aim for the bus, so we aim for the next and get to town

A little tired and worn out by the sun today, we go for something we’ve already had as it’s cheap and safe: Beached Bar & Grill

Live music accompanying our dinner again which is nice

We stay here for a drink and then try somewhere down the road we passed on the bus, The Airlie Beach Hotel “The Pub”, before getting back home for some needed sleep