Airlie Beach & Alva Beach

We decided to spoil ourselves during this section of the trip as it was my 50th and R’s 44th birthdays. So, we did a 2-day sailing trip and a wreck dive that we missed last time.

Airlie Beach

We really liked Airlie Beach last time we went around Australia so we were excited to see it again… it didn’t disappoint! Such a cute little tourist town with tons of boutique shops, cafes, restaurants and a really touristy beachy feel. However, they’ve been very hard hit by COVID and the lack of international tourists and backpackers. This, followed by the devastation caused by the cyclone a few years ago, and they are struggling to recover. All the scuba diving businesses that were here 15 years ago are gone and the operators we talked to told us about how many businesses have gone under and how they are struggling. There were however still several operators still providing trips around the Whitsunday islands and Whitehaven beach.

Airlie Beach also hase a great lagoon swimming area and an “Ewok” playground.

The Summertime

To spoil me for my 50th birthday, we decided to take a 2 day / 1 night sailing trip around the Whitsunday islands and over to the famous Whitehaven beach. This is one of those things I’ve wanted to do since I came to Australia and have never done it for some reason. The boat we choose was a beautiful old sailboat called Summertime.

On the first day, we sailed by some of the islands to the other side of Whitsunday island over to Whitehaven beach – I can see why people say it’s one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand keeps shifting so the beach constantly changes what it looks like. It’s made up of a high quantity of silica so it is always nice and cool and white. The other incredible thing was the number of rays right on the beach swimming around the people (see photo below).

We had fun in the evening drinking some cocktails and chatting with the other customers on the boat. The next morning we did a kayak trip along the shore which was great until a storm came out of nowhere and C and I had to be rescued! (See our son’s blog for more on the Summertime and a kid’s perspective of the trip).

Unfortunately, my phone battery died and I didn’t get any photos of the second day of the trip. But here’s another one of the jacuzzi onboard the boat and of the Whitsunday islands.

The last 4 days of our time in Airlie Beach, we stayed at the Big 4 Whitsunday Adventure park to spoil the kids. Wow – what an incredible park! They had everything – heated pool, 13 waterslides, farm animals, mini golf, tennis, badminton, outdoor movies, etc. I would HIGHLY recommend staying at this park for a couple of days if you’re in the area and you have kids. Our kids fed the farm animals each morning (chasing and catching chickens seemed to be the highlight), had a game of tennis at lunch and spent the afternoon at the pool / waterslides.

Yongala Shipwreck

After Airlie Beach, we decided that R and I really wanted to Dive the SS Yongala shipwreck. We missed it 15 years ago when we went around Australia last time so we really wanted to do it this time. We decided to go with Yongala Dive from Alva beach since it is the closest operator to the shipwreck. Thank god we did too because R and I found the sea to be quite rough and even I got seasick (which is very rare)! And apparently, we went on a very calm day – normally the swell is an average of 3 metres (9 feet)!! Here are some photos of us before and after the dive (showing off my selfie skills again).

I didn’t have an underwater camera with me so I couldn’t take any pictures which is a shame because it really was a beautiful dive. I would definitely agree that it’s one of the top 2 wreck dives I’ve ever done. (Some people claim it’s one of the top 10 dives in the world…). If you’d like to see what our experience was like, this youtube video is a good example – and it’s on the same boat we took. We saw turtles, rays, tons of snakes, big cods, parrotfish and wrasse, batfish, angelfish, shoals of barracuda and tons of various juveniles as well. There were a huge amount of fish on this wreck.

It felt great to dive again – particularly in warm water with stuff to actually see!

Alva Beach

The caravan we stayed at was really busy which was surprising since it’s sort of in the middle of nowhere… It’s quite a long walk to the beach which you can’t swim in since we’re in crocodile territory. But, the caravan park is really peaceful and relaxing with tons of coconut trees and it’s right next door to the dive shop.

While we were staying there, the Burdekin / Ayr show was on. We quite like going to these country shows – always interesting things and people there. We saw duck racing, a person doing tricks with a horse and a stunt bike and motorbike guy. His show was really scary – I kept thinking he was going to crash. Then he jumped the fence, singled me out and made me part of his comedy show! I was so embarassed!!