Whitsunday Wonderful

On Tuesday the 7th we embarked on our Whitsunday cruise aboard the majestic Condor, a maxi racing yacht (i.e. a huge sailing machine -- 23 meters long). We were to be on board for 3 days with 12 fellow travelers and a crew of 4 taking care of us, the sailing and keeping the sharks away (just joking about the last part).

The 74 Whitsunday Islands make up a Maritime National Park on/within The Great Barrier Reef, which makes for great sailing and adventure territory and the type of cruise we went on is a typical way to explore the region. And what a great way -- we had heard from quite a few people that their Whitsunday Cruise was the highlight of their AU trip and we now understand why. Basically the entire marine park looks like one of those Bounty (chocolate) commercials from the eighties - turquoise bays, white sandy beaches, nothing around but a few yachts and people having a good time.

Our yacht cruised at a leisurely pace from island to island, with breaks for snorkeling, beach walking and swimming, only interrupted by food breaks when the crew served us goodies fresh off the barbie (yes, they actually call it that, but no, they mostly do not grill shrimp...). It was pure relaxation and just a wonderful vacation experience.

Hmm. Since I know you are all in to wildlife stories, I should probably add a bit of info on what we saw and / or avoided... The snorkeling was indeed spectacular (it's the G.B. Reef after all) - better than anything I have seen before, tons and tons of fish that will swim with and next to you and the reed itself is just beautiful, so many colors, so many different types of coral. We also swam with turtles and had the chance to see dolphins and sharks, the latter we lured to the boat at night with flood lights and grilled chicken. So what did we avoid? Well, they will make you wear a so called stinger-suit when swimming (and you will want to wear it!) in order to avoid a couple of scary jellyfish, mostly the Irukandjis which are know to cause excruciating pain and possibly death, while being tiny and invisible... I won't go in to more detail on the deadly dangers of the AU tropical waters (-- I believe Mikhail's blog has more info, if you really want it) but will say that this suddenly made me feel much better about the blue bottles we encountered in Sydney, as these will 'only' cause excruciating pain...