Shute Harbour, Airlie Beach, Hook & Hayman Islands

View from the south end of Hayman Island

 

After leaving Hamilton Island, we sailed over to Shute Harbour on the mainland where we hid out for protection against the North-westerly winds for a couple of days. No sooner had we arrived when we heard from Peter on Troutbridge that he was almost there as well. He's made brilliant time catching up - it was terrific to meet up with him again and share a few drinks and dinner aboard Calypso. When we had left him behind in Brisbane, we weren't sure if he'd be in a position to carry on northwards or simply have to give up on his cruising for good. He's now booked and will be joining us on the Indonesian Rally up to Singapore.

Airlie Beach

While there, we took a bus trip over to Airlie Beach, a small tourist town which had, surprisingly, some great supermarkets for stocking up with some of those essentials. We had a good look around the town, enjoyed some local fish and chips and then picked up some desperately needed fruit and veggies before returning.

Aboriginal rock art

In fairly gusty conditions, we left there and opted for a short trip over to Nara Inlet on Hook Island in the Whitsundays where we visited a cave site with some ancient Aboriginal rock paintings. After a one night stay, it was then another short hop up to Hayman Island. Conditions were definitely getting a bit boisterous by now but we were able to pick up a mooring buoy placed there by the Parks authorities to help to protect the nearby reefs and negating the need to drop anchor (so much easier).

That afternoon we decided to go for a bit of exercise which proved to be an extended hike around Hayman Island where we had a good many sightings of wallabies, the smaller and darker cousin to the kangaroo. I described this hike as 'extended' simply because we got so horribly lost when trying to follow the path to Cook's Lookout point and ended up, hours later, in the lavish resort and marina on the South-west corner with the sun starting to set with still a considerable distance to go to get back up to the Blue Pearl Bay on the North-west side of the island where we had left the dinghy and Calypso.

Luck was with us as we met some folks in a golf cart who, upon hearing our plight, kindly drove us to the steps leading up to the hiking trail that would take us back to our bay. This saved us at least an hour which meant that we arrived back at our dinghy (somewhat exhausted) just in time to watch the sun go down.

PHOTO GALLERY:

 

Looking out to the entrance of Nara Inlet

Hiking up Hayman - that black mass behind our dinghy is a solid shoal of fish

View overlooking the Whitsundays

This is the only one that posed for us

Our anchorage