The most famous of these islands is Whitehaven Beach, boasting the purest beach in the world at 98% pure white silica sand. You can go up to a lookout where you can see all the colors of the ocean right in front of your eyes. It was cloudy (and even rained on us a bit), so the colors weren't quite as brilliant in these pics as later when the sun shined down upon us.
Hey, I just realized that if you look at Bruce's swimsuit, you can pretty much get the idea! Over our shoulders you're looking at some of those 74 islands. Oh, and there was absolutely NO picture on our camera that did the white sand justice, but put your imagination into gear here. This was looking down onto Whitehaven Beach.
And here is that beautiful sand!
BUT the best part of the day came next when we went snorkeling! A little back story here: The last several times we've snorkeled (no matter where it was), we've been a bit disappointed. You see, we remember snorkeling back in the old days before reefs started dying and whatever else is happening that has drastically reduced the number of fish you might see. However, this was good snorkeling. We saw some of the usuals.
But then THIS guy showed up!
If you know my "been bit by a grouper" story, Bruce says that this guy was even bigger than that grouper (although in MY grouper stories, the grouper is at least 6 feet long!). This guy was probably about 4 feet.
Then along came this one!
Although it was a bit smaller, by this time I'm saying "Holy Crap! These are the biggest fish we've seen!" That right there made my day! Oh, and something like this one too
We moved onto a second spot that was all about the coral on the Great Barrier Reef. While I wasn't nearly as enthralled with coral, it is still awesome in itself!
And to end our day we had a wild rafting boat ride back to Airlie Beach. And I do mean wild! There were two rafting boats kind of traveling together. Turns out the captains were husband and wife. Guess they decided to put on a show because they surfed each other's wakes, put the boats veeeery close together and chased each other in a circle. Loads of fun!
We said goodbye to these cuties today too, Buck (from California) and Maita (from Spain).
We first met this couple at the Bundaberg Distillery. Just had a nice little chat and thought that was the end of it. Then we saw them further north when we went to the kangaroos on the beach. I jokingly said, "Hey, we're heading to Airlie Beach. You coming?" And guess what, yes they were! We saw them on our first day, we show up at the boat this morning and there they were! Stalkers maybe? Naw......... just a heck of a nice couple! We head back down to Sydney tomorrow though. They continue their trek north.
Do y'all know that we are 34 days into Our Aussie Adventure??!! Time is a flyin'!
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