Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach

 Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach 

As we walked along the beach route to the harbour, we passed several signs including this one warning of one of Australias smallest but deadliest locals, a small but almost invisible jellyfish.

A warning sign about the local jellyfish.

Our first view of the Whitsunday Islands, so called as James Cook named them when he discovered them on Whit Sunday. 

                                        

One of the other boats operated by the same company and identical to ours, leaving the harbour.

One of just many boats and ships moored in the bay.

Another view of the cliffs of one of the islands.

                                        

The welcome sign to Whitsunday Island.

We had a walk up to several lookouts.

                                        

A view from one of the lookouts across Whitehaven Bay.

Whitehaven Bay has some of the whitest sand in the world at 98.5% silica. It is protected but a ton was removed to build the Hubble Space Telescope.

A tree washed up on the shore. And we had a chance to have a swim but we would have to wear stinger suits, a loose fitting, thin body suit of nylon or propylene to counter stings of the jellyfish. 

A lizard lurking on the forest floor although I missed the spider further back up the track. I saw the web but no spider. From reports, it was as large as a man's hand but its body is small but the legs are long.

W head munch on board after a Zodiac transfer from the beach to the boat as it was low tide and the boat couldn't nudge into any soft sand.

A view of some of the coast of the Whitsundays.

Another view of the cliffs.

Every boat had snorkelers having a look at the fish, corals and sponges. 

A navigation beacon on a promontory. 

More snorkelers  opposite a lovely sandy beach though it was a nature reserve and we were not allowed to even touch the seafloor of the bay, let alone walk on the beach. 

It was more than an hour back to port but as we neared the entrance, there were two boats from the same tour company and they revved their engines and pushed the powerful catamarans to their full power and we shot along at up to 80 kilometres an hour. 

They criss crossed each others wakes in a battle of cat and mouse. Sometimes cutting through the wake was bumpy, sometimes it was smooth but it was exhilarating especially as sometimes the distance between the boats was just metres. We waved and shouted at each other in a spirit of friendly rivalry but our boat was more powerful but our skipper let the other boat enter harbour first.