The Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system in the Coral Sea off the coast of the state of Queensland in Australia. It stretches over 2300 km and is made up of 2900 individual reefs. It is the largest living structure on earth and is visible from space. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and is listed as a World Heritage site.

The reef runs from the Cape York Peninsula in the north right down to Fraser Island in the south off the Queensland coast. While MacKay is officially in the central Great Barrier Reef region, there are no organised tours operating from MacKay. I imagine this is because the reef is too far away from the mainland at this point. Or it could be its close proximity to Airlie Beach where many licensed tours leave from. Airlie beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the central Great Barrier Reef region. Captain James Cook named the islands as he believed he passed the area on Whitsunday or Pentecost, apparently he got it wrong but the name stuck.

Walking toward the boat to start our Great Barrier Reef experience 

Approaching the reef and pontoon

Just two hours drive north of MacKay, Airlie is easily reachable for a weekend. Since we were literally only sleeping and keeping a bag there, we chose to stay at the cheap and very central Magnums backpackers, in a twin room mind you, not an 8 bed dorm. As so aptly put by the Lonely Planet, Airlie is a backpacker’s good-time town of the highest order. The bars lining the main street were in full swing every night and as evidenced by the vomit in the mixed shared bathroom in the morning, quite a few revellers were staying at Magnums. It was a good reminder why we don’t usually stay at backpackers, especially with a shared bathroom. For us however, the main attractions were under the water.

My new motto!!

Magnums Backpacker Accommodation at Airlie Beach

We headed off bright and early on Saturday morning for a Cruise Whitsunday tour to the Hardy Reef, one of the outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. The tour departs from Airlie and arrives at Reefworld, a permanently anchored floating pontoon, 3 hours later after a pick up/drop off stop at Hamilton Island. It was pretty amazing approaching the reef, the boat is in the middle of the deep wide ocean and suddenly the shallow reef area appears. It’s pretty awesome. Upon arrival, we wasted no time and got straight into the water. The cruise company also offers optional extras such as a dive course, a semi-submersible boat trip, and helicopter flips over the reef including the famous and protected heart reef, but we were happy to snorkel and do our own thing in the water. It’s also really safe, there are lifeguards on duty all the time and the allowed snorkel area is roped off and has floating rest stops along the edges.

Swimming with a Humphead Wrasse

Queensland is home to stingers incl. box jellyfish hence the very attractive stinger suits. Stinger suit in Queensland, burkini everywhere else in the world! 

The tide was relatively high when we arrived so we were able to snorkel over the top of the reef. It was the first time we had been to a deep ocean reef with a reef wall descending into the ocean and this was definitely the more interesting part to swim around. We saw loads of coral, lots of fish, giant clams of all sizes including some massive ones, and two feather star starfish, a black one and a maroon-red one. The different types of coral were amazing and huge individual ones. There were lots of fish but not that many different types but it was fun swimming in a big school of fish. Our favourite fish was the Mãori or Humphead Wrasse. They are super friendly curious fish and know the diving photographers carry food! He was happy to stick around for a while and be gently positioned for photos. This area is also known for the Queensland Giant Grouper but we didn’t see any. After a lunch break on the pontoon the tide had dropped quite a lot, it was not possible to snorkel over the top of the reef anymore, but the sunlight could penetrate deeper into the reef wall so we could see more. We had four hours at the reef but this went by super quickly and soon it was time to head back. We really wanted to see and swim with a turtle but we didn’t see any while in the water. As we walked back on to the boat from the pontoon we spotted chunky, the resident turtle named for the chunk missing from his shell, snacking on growth on the underside of the pontoon. We didn’t get to swim with him but were happy to see him.

The permanent floating pontoon.

Leaving the reef at low tide. 

Cruising through the Whitsunday Islands

Hamilton ISlands

Sunset in the Whitsundays

On the Sunday we booked an Ocean Rafting trip around the Whitsunday Islands. This company prides itself on providing the ride of your life in their semi-rigid inflatable boats and two days of exploring in one. They offer two tours which are the same except one has more beach time and the other more snorkel time, we chose the tour with more snorkel time. The day started with an exhilarating hour boat ride to Whitsunday Island, the largest of the group of 74 islands. We were dropped off at Tongue Bay and did a mini-bush walk to the top of Tongue Point for amazing views over the famous Hill Inlet and Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven beach is 7 km long and is made up of 98% silica giving it a bright white colour. As the tide rises and falls the white sand is swirled and blends and ripples with the turquoise water to provide the most breath taking views. Because the movement of the sand is dependent on the tide, the inlet never looks the same twice. After soaking in the views there was free time to enjoy the beach and swim in the tranquil waters and enjoy a picnic lunch on the beach.

At Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island

View of Hill Inlet from Tongue Point

View of Whitehaven Beach from Tongue Point

Our Ocean Rafting boat

Boibs at Hill Inlet

The Ocean Rafting boats

Whitehaven Beach

Justin enjoying a float

From Whitehaven Beach we were whisked away to two snorkel spots. The first snorkel spot was all about the fish and we enjoyed swimming with another large Mãori Wrasse and a Giant Trevally. The second snorkel spot was all about the coral, wow, so many different kinds and all colours concentrated in one small spot, simply amazing. Bron had a sunblock-in-eyes emergency during the second snorkel and had to go back to the boat to flush it out so she missed most of the snorkel time but did manage to get back into the water for a highlights package swim with Justin before being called back to the boat. The day ended with an hour boat ride back to Airlie Beach and then it was time to drive back to MacKay. After a long day in the sun we were glad it was only two hours!

We feel super blessed for this amazing weekend away and for the opportunity to visit the Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands. And for the opportunity to visit the Great Barrier and Ningaloo reefs within 4 months of each other. They are different from each other but both are just amazing and definitely worth the effort to visit. We found Ningaloo at Exmouth to have more fish, in number, size and variety, but the part of the central Great Barrier Reef that we visited had more amazing coral structures. Ningaloo also has the annual Whale Shark migration and it’s possible to see whales seasonally at both reefs. Airlie Beach is definitely party central whereas one can enjoy hiking and all the Australian wildlife in the Cape Range National Park at Exmouth. If you can’t choose, go to both, it’s well worth the effort.  

See you on the other side of a week in Singapore with the Finnemore Four followed by Christmas in Perth! Can’t wait!!!