Whitsunday Islands

Part of the splendor that is the Whitsunday Islands is the contrast of the islands themselves with the water around them.  The land and trees look a bit like the San Juan Islands, rocky and covered with greenery.  But many islands had sweeping white beaches with fine sand, and others had broken coral-laced beaches that looked like sand from a distance but felt like jagged rocks when tread upon.  All of this was surrounded by emerald-ish, crystal clear water.  Our two nights and three days on the Apollo were a nice blend of swimming, chatting, acting as weights when the sails were up (as in all passengers had to line one side of the boat  to keep it from tipping - at times the boat was pushed so much that one had to hold on the rail to avoid falling back toward the water).  We met some more nice travelers to chat with (including a RARE German basketball fan with whom Jeff BSed with for some much needed sports talk).  We also got our second set of glimpses of the Southern stars (Fraser had some nice, clear nights too) and confirmed our theory that most travelers in Australia are German (more than 50% of our fellow shipmates were Germans, and we were told by more than one person that Oz stopped issuing work visa's to them because there were already more than  4 million in the country - there are only 22 million Australian citizens[!]).

We also had one of our best wildlife encounters while sailing the Whitsundays, or we should say, Annette did.  Jeff missed it.  He was down in the bottom of the boat preparing a hip-hop playlist.  The captain had put on a mix of Aussie hip-hop our second full day on the water and Jeff wanted to return the favor by playing some of his favorites.  Only his iPod ended up dying before the playlist ever saw the light of day and Jeff missed a pretty incredible moment.  Annette was up on the deck of our racing sailboat-turned cruise for backpackers when she heard the captain yell out, "Whale! Whale, right in front of us!"  The captain jerked the boat to avoid, in what he later described as a moment of panic, a humpback whale mum and calf.  Annette happened to be sitting on the right side of the boat, as she got to watch the momma and babe pass within about 6 or 7 feet of he boat and she described the mother as being the width of a large SUV. Everybody started taking photos like mad.  The captain wiped his brow, happy to have avoided wrecking a million dollar boat with 26 tourists and 3 crew by slamming into two whales.  And Jeff was downstairs, lining up a doomed but perfect US hip-hop sampler on his ipod that would die just a few hours later.  The real tradgedy though, was that Jeff also had our camera with him downstairs.  Annette was grateful for the up-close view of the whales, but regrets not having a photo to share with you all (damn it, Jeff!).
 
But the Whitsunday's provided plenty of other pleasing wildlife encounters (just none quite as amazing as the near-miss/once-in-a-lifetime photo op with the mum and calf).  We saw plenty of other whales from varying distances - enough that the captain noted that he had never seen so many on one three day trip before.  We also saw a nursery lagoon bursting with baby sting  rays and black-tipped reef sharks, several turtles, as well as eagles and birds a-plenty (the first-mate of our ship showed off by tossing chicken bones high in the air when eagles were near so they could swoop down and pluck them out of the air - a practiced routine, but impressive none the less). 

The natural beauty shined too.  The most impressive area we visited was the famous whitehaven beach, which was as pretty as all of the photos we had seen (and also housed the shark/ray nursery).  We also did one dive, which introduced us to the outer Great Barrier Reef and the astounding colors of  the coral that grows there.  The water was far colder than what we were used too, but we still tried snorkeling a few times after our chilly dive.  There were fewer fish around than we were used to in the tropics, but the size, variety, and (again) color of the coral gave us a sneak-peak of the beauty to come diving the GBR about a week later. 

The third wonder of the Whitsunday Islands, after the natural beauty and wildlife, is Eugene, our ship's cook.  Ours was his first trip out as Apollo's new chef.  And the meals he was able to create from the cramped and inadequate ship kitchen were worthy of praise.  Eugene modestly whipped up delicious pastas, potato salads, chicken lunches, and rice dishes out of a tiny, joke of a kitchen.  With some help from the captain, Eugene made a delightful Oz BBQ dinner that capped off his glorious run.  Annette brought no hat, but Jeff certainly tipped his cap to Eugene (and Annette gave her verbal praises) for a job very well done.

We arrived back in Airlie Beach (the shoving off point for all of the one billion offered Whitsunday cruises) around 4 o'clock with several hours before our over-night bus to Cairns was set to pick us up.  And so it was that we saw how thin the line is between homelessness and backpacking.  We set up a temporary camp on a bench in a waterfront park to re-organize our big backpacks, which we had left in lockers for the duration of the cruise.  We then hucked our gear to dinner and a bathroom break/time killing sit-down at a nearby food court,  before finally making our way to the bus stop to catch our Ozzie dog (Australian Greyhound) to the shining beacon of Cairns - where we were to meet up with Jeff's parents, dive the Great Barrier Reef, explore the area's rain-forest, and unwind at our vacation rental for a week, the Love Shack!


Note:
Traveling with so many Germans isn't all bad.  On Fraser Island we learned that the German word for hooded sweatshirt, or hoodie, is "kapuzenpulli."  A funny word to say or hear anytime!  Annette also learned, erroneously, from a Team Bondage friend on FI that Germans call the Milky Way the "Milky Tree."  Unfortunately the Germans on Apollo corrected us.  Annette had misheard our friend.  They actually call it the "Milky Street," which is still cool but not nearly as funny.  Another bonus of hanging out with so many Germans is being able to test the unintentional comedy scale.  Without knowing it, Germans often crack everyone else up.  We think it is the combination of some really funny-sounding voices, their accents when speaking English, and a pretty hysterical language.  Whether speaking German or English, some German folks just sound comical.  We truly cherished one fella in particular on our Apollo boat.  His drunkenness plus our slight buzzes made for two evenings of some really fantastic unintentional comedy.  The last few sentences might have seemed to be in poor taste, but those of you who have spent much time with any Germans will surely agree that there is no funnier sounding language or accent.  Even another German on the boat told Jeff, with a smile, that the aforementioned fella with the funny voice was annoying.  We wouldn't say annoying, just unfortunate in the best way.