Another day, another early start for a touristy trip out of Airlie Beach to the Great Barrier Reef. Time for a spot of ‘Ocean Rafting’. We headed out the harbour at breakneck pace on a bright yellow RIB (rigid inflatable boat) laden with around 20 passengers. Rick, the young captain of the boat, took great delight in making the boat bounce high over the waves so that we were rewarded with the occasional face full of water. What a contrast to yesterday’s super sedate ride out to the Heart Reef!  This was a lot more fun and despite the speed and the roughness of the side, no one even mentioned feeling sick.

The first stop on the tour was Whitsunday Island where we got off and walked over the top of the island to Hill Inlet Lookout. This gave us fantastic views over Whitehaven Beach, which is reputed to be one of the best beaches in the world. It’s a stunning sight, with its swirling silica sands making beautiful natural patterns. According to Jamey, our English guide, the sand is so pure it was used by NASA to make the lens for the Hubble Space Telescope.

From the Hill Inlet Lookout, we headed down to Whitehaven Beach. There are two parts to the beach, one on either side of the Inlet. The sand is the softest I’ve ever felt. Weirdly, because of its high silica content it doesn’t heat up – so despite the fact that the sun was beating down, the sand wasn’t hot underfoot. On the down side, this means that turtles don’t lay their eggs here – the sand doesn’t get warm enough to allow the eggs to hatch.

After a leisurely stroll over the sand, Rick picked us up and drove us across the inlet to the main part of Whitehaven Beach. We spent an hour swimming or lying on the sand enjoying the sun and feeling very lucky to be in such a peaceful place. There is no development on Whitsunday Island, except for a basic camp site. Suddenly, it came back to me –  I’d been here before! When I was in Airlie Beach aged 18, I got a week’s work on a large yacht as chief washer upper for a party of tourists. A perk of the job was spending the night on Whitsunday Island. I vividly remember waking up in the morning, to be greeted by the sight of a Giant Iguana poking its head through my tent flap. It looked like a mini dinosaur, with horny scales and a mouthful of pointy teeth. I screamed and he made himself scarce. No one had thought to tell me that there were Giant Iguanas on Whitsunday Island!

No such scary encounters this time, but I did have to leave the beach and return to the boat very quicky when a flurry of rain hit. Fortunately, the boat had a cover overhead. Rick and James had prepared a picnic lunch, so the timing was perfect.

After lunch, the sea became rougher and our captain decided to head for the South East end of Hook Island to a protected bay called Nara Inlet. First of all we had to negotiate the passage between Whitsunday and Hook, known as God’s Washing Machine. The size of the waves was awesome. As the boat bucked and twisted like a roller coaster, I outscreamed everyone. The ten year old sitting next to me looked quite impressed!

Arriving in Nara Inlet, the sun was shining and the water was calm. We spent half an hour snorkelling with an array of big fish, including a couple of huge Humphead Maori Wrasse – whether these had transitioned from female to male, I didn’t have a chance to ask! There were also some very aggressive black fish called Giant Trevallies which I didn’t want to get too close to. James threw some bread in the water and some seagulls dived for it, but the Humphead Maori Wrasse was too quick for them, rising up above the surface of the water to take the bread.

After Nara Inlet, we headed round the corner to Butterfly Bay and snorkelled over some colourful shallow coral reef alive with tiny fish, clams and anenomes. A complete contrast to the big fish of Nara Inlet.

After that it was back on the boat for a final bone crunching ride back to shore. As we approached the harbour, Rick couldn’t resist spinning a final few donuts. When I stepped out onto dry land, I was grinning widely but scarcely able to walk!