I’ve heard about this so much from all the travel talks I went to in England back when I was planning to come to Australia.

Whitsundays is made up of over 70 islands including the beautiful Whitehaven beach voted the best beach in Australia and one of the best in the world. The sand is so fine and perfect that you can even clean your jewellery with it and I did just that!

When choosing how I tour this place, I had to decide between sailing on a yacht, flying on a sea plane or doing something different like an Ocean Rafting trip. So I went for the last one and tried the fast boat as it was voted best on Tripadvisor.. My travel bible.

The tour started with me being picked up bright and early this morning from my little cabin in the rainforest (which I’m loving by the way, so great to have my own room for a few nights). I got the ‘thriller’ boat with 2 Australian guides leading. We headed straight for the snorkelling spot speeding through the water and past all the islands as we went. The boat was really fast and a really good experience, I sat at the front to see everything and here I could really feel the boat hit the water hard every time with a massive thud..scary!

When we got to the snorkelling spot there were 2 people that couldn’t swim at all and they put on life jackets. I debated whether to not bother as recently I’ve been working on my swimming to try and improve and I don’t think I’m as weak as I normally am. But I decided I wanted to make the best of my snorkelling experience and so I put a jacket on. Very glad I did this as the waves were really rather choppy and hard to swim against. It also allowed me to float and stick my head in the water.

I’ve done snorkelling twice before in both Thailand and Bali but both times I never worked up the confidence to put my face in and with no stinger suits and no safety talk I never felt assured that I’d be safe in the open water so I often avoided it. This tour however was really professional and I felt really comfortable.

Before I put my face in the water I couldn’t see anything at all and I expected it to be really disappointing for some reason. I was so wrong. After all, we were on the inner Great Barrier Reef! I’ve never swam underwater before and it’s an amazing feeling. So strange especially being able to breathe underwater. It made me really want to try diving!

Unfortunately, the water was quite dark because of recent weather so a lot of the fish were hiding and the coral wasn’t as bright as I was expecting. It was a shame as I didn’t get very good photographs however it has just made me want to head up to Cairns and dive the reef and give snorkelling another shot also. So I’m glad I went and glad to experience it and the coral and fish I did see was incredible to look at!

After the snorkelling, I headed to the beach to walk up to the Inlet lookout. This lookout provides you with views of Whitehaven beach from above. The place was very overcrowded but great views so was worth the walk! We even got to then head down to Whitehaven and walk along it. So very beautiful.

I even got a free yummy buffet lunch 😛 So I really enjoyed today but I’m even more excited for what I have booked for tomorrow!