You win some, you loose some. It doesn't matter where in the world you are, sometimes the weather just doesn't play ball...
Whitehaven Beach is billed as the 'jewel in the crown' of the Whitsunday Islands. 7km of white sand and blue sky. We'd made plans to get a water taxi with some camp kit and a kayak, so that we could enjoy a night at the beach, without the hundreds of day trippers that are unloaded there during the day.
As it turned out, today, it wasn't the picture postcard scene that we'd envisaged! In fact there was not a scrap of blue sky to be seen at all.
As the boat (which was a like something from the Normandy landings) pulled away, leaving us at the beach, we rushed to get the tent up before the heavens opened. A task that was made trickier after discovering that we had been given a tent with a broken tent pole and a ripped flysheet.
Having got soaked, but the tent repaired, erected and managed to keep most of our gear under some sort of shelter, the rain eased off a bit and we had the chance to survey our new surroundings.
It looked like more rain was in the way, so given that we were already wet, we set off on our little boat to explore the coast and go snorkelling.
Although the main beach was packed with disappointed tourists, we were able to paddle away just around the corner at the southern tip of the beach, to our own secluded snorkelling site. Although it's not the season for stinging jellyfish, we'd heard that a few had been spotted, so took the precaution of wearing a 'stinger suit'. Not only do they protect from nasty stings, they also look great too!
There was some colourful coral to see, but the water was quite cloudy and we were both quite nervous about bumping into anything that might sting us!
The next wave of rain was unbelievable and the wind picked up too. We'd just got out onto the rocks from snorkelling and were suddenly getting pelted by the wind and rain. The chill from the wind was considerable and we soon both felt quite cold. Luckily, we spotted a small cave, so left the boat tied up and took shelter, huddled together for about ten or fifteen minutes while the worst of it passed over. It eased off but wasn't stopping anytime soon and we were getting shiveringly cold; we paddled back to camp in the rain. The wind had dropped completely and the sea was eerily flat calm with the rain drops bouncing off the surface. Needless to say, back at camp, the flimsy tent had been breeched and Clare had to mop the puddles out with a sponge. At least we had our sleeping bags still packed in waterproof dry bags.
After getting changed, dried out and warmed up, we had some hot brews which boosted morale no end. All the tourist boat trips and sight seers had now left and the weather had calmed down a bit, so we went back out in the boat along the empty beach.
Despite the bad weather, it was still nice to have the place to ourselves.
Just before it got dark, we had dinner back at camp.
The tent is literally on the beach, so even when we retired inside, we could still enjoy the views and eventually fell asleep to the sound of waves lapping on the beach not long after sunset...
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