The Whitsundays, Giant Mangoes and Nicole Kidman

The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands lying off the coast of Queensland. Half a dozen or so have been developed, primarily for tourism, whilst the rest are part of a national park and are largely uninhabited. We set sail on “Voyager” at the crack of dawn (or thereabouts) for a trip to three of the islands – Hook Island, Whitsunday Island (the largest of the group) and Daydream Island. “Voyager” was a fast catamaran, very swish, with a crew of six and about 40 passengers.

First up was Hook Island where we split into two groups, the first to go snorkelling whilst the second experienced the pleasures of the glass bottomed boat. Unfortunately both were fairly unsuccessful as adverse weather conditions (lots of rain and a cyclone a few days earlier) had stirred up the seabed which meant that no one saw anything of any interest on either trip – underwater that is. Above water the sight of Sandra in an all-encompassing “stinger suit” (to stop jelly fish attack) more than made up for the disappointment! (see photo)

Whitsunday Island boasts Whitehaven Beach – often cited as “the world’s best beach” – several miles of pristine white sand. As we approached we could see it was a very popular place as there were dozens of yachts lying off shore with people being ferried to the beach. Perhaps most impressive were those in helicopters stopping for picnics. The boat slowed whilst we had lunch then disgorged its passengers onto the pristine white sand. Sandra and I spent a pleasant couple of hours sunning ourselves, although we still needed stinger suits for the water, before getting back to Voyager for the last leg of the trip to Daydream Island.

Daydream reminded us of the Maldives as the whole island was a single holiday resort. Evidence of the cyclone was all around and a lot of work had gone into straightening things out. There we came across a couple of new naturalist firsts for us – beach wallabies and giant stingrays.

Despite the poor snorkelling conditions we had a good day out in beautiful surroundings – and Sandra managed to pinch a bag full of Whitehaven sand which someone had told her was good for exfoliating (whatever that is – I don’t think I have ever exfoliated – must be a woman thing)

Back at camp we had drinks and a meal with fellow campers then exchanged e-mail addresses. I always thought these were immediately discarded and you would never hear again from people you meet on holiday but now I know better – don’t I Gwyn and Linda! – so who knows. The following day we set a new record for packing the vehicle – it was our slowest yet! After the usual bickering about whose fault it was, we set off north once again – this time heading for Bowen.

As far as I can make out Bowen has two claims to fame – it is home to the biggest mango in the world at over 10 metres tall and it was the location for the 2008 film “Australia” with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, which coincidentally Sandra and I had re-watched only two night previously. For the film the town was transformed into wartime Darwin and many of the locals got heavily involved with the film. I fear that fleeting fame went to the heads of the Bowen-ites who, foreseeing a big future in the film industry for the town, painted on the side of the large water tower that dominates the town with large letters spelling out BOWENWOOD. As far as I am aware film companies are not queuing for the remaking of Ben Hur in Bowen. I think they would be better sticking to what they do well – Mangoes.

Joking apart, Bowen was a nice place with a good feel about it and had some fabulous beaches which put Airlie Beach firmly in the shade.

An uneventful journey then took us to Townsville, Queensland’s second largest city and home of our next hosts Kevin Helen McCarthy.