January 8-12 - The Whitsunday Islands

Looking out at the amazing Whitehaven beach in the Whitsundays.

Cruising on the Catamaran.

The Whitsunday’s were heaven on earth!

The sail on the Whitsunday Blue was wonderful.  We shared the boat with 6 other guests and Rich & Veronica (our skipper and our hostess).  We had our own cabin with ensuite bath.  We ate 5 times a the day, snorkeled several times in different locations and spent time on Whitsunday Island’s white silica sand beach.  It couldn’t have been more wonderful.  

The 6 other guests did not know each other before our sail, but they were all from Germany.  They all spoke english very well and we all got along great.  Every evening we all retired for the night pretty early as the snorkeling, sun & sand is pretty exhausting :)  The stars at night were overwhelming!  There were more than I’ve ever seen before, and when the water was smooth, they reflected perfectly so you could hardly tell which way was up.  Incredible.

Our skipper, Rich, actually lived in Etobicoke from the time he was 7 and into his teens.  His brother still lives in London, Ontario.  We loved his Canadian-Australian accent :)  Veronica was the energizer bunny as she spent most of her time in the kitchen preparing meals, getting us set up for our island excursions, cleaning up after us and helping Rich set anchor.  Rich got to show us around and float around in the dingy making sure we weren’t eaten up by sharks while we snorkeled (not really :)...just made sure we were all safe).

We did wear scuba suits when swimming & snorkeling because of the ‘stingers’ in the warm waters.   To be ‘stung’ would be very serious...rarely even deadly.  We didn’t see any, but we did see an amazing display of colourful coral (it is the Great Barrier Reef!) and incredible fish.  At first when seeing fish come right up to us, it was a little frightening, but after some time it became quite comfortable. No matter how many times we went in, we were still incredibly overwhelmed with the beauty, and in wonder of the underwater world.  On the last day, we saw dolphins and even a  Blue Marlin which Rich had never seen when sailing in that area.  

We left the sailing trip with new friends, incredible memories and a maybe a bit too much sun (Brittany is sporting a wonderful new pink tone).

We picked up our suitcases at the Parkwood B&B and learned of the continued flooding further down the coast.  We  decided to continue 2 hours drive down the coast to the Grasswood B&B between Mackay & Sarina.  Another beautiful location and wonderful host Rosmarie.  Our room was a 3 room cabin separate from the house.  It was up on a hill and had an outdoor patio area that overlooked the mango orchard and the horse paddock.  The infinity edge pool also had the same view and while Brittany and I cooled off after settling in, we watched 2 kangaroos playing around in front of us!  There were beautiful birds and some even dove into the pool to cool off.

It was an amazing place.  Unfortunately we didn’t take the time to enjoy it as much as we should have...the news west of Brisbane was very grim.  It seems everyone was taken by surprise by some flash flooding and at that point at least 9 people had lost their lives and more were still missing.  As Brittany watched the sad news, I was sitting in Rosmarie’s kitchen on her computer booking flights to Brisbane as the inland roads we were planning to take had areas that were closed due to the floods.  

We slept well having booked our flight, but when we awoke and Rosmarie served us a sumptuous breakfast complete with homemade mango/pineapple, mango/passionfruit and mango/raspberry jam, she let us know the news was worse than the night before.  Brisbane itself was now being overtaken by the floods.  Spending the morning in her kitchen once again, I was online booking a second flight from Brisbane to Sydney as we would not be able to enjoy the Brisbane area and the first flight I booked was not changeable without losing our payment.  

We returned our car at the Mackay airport and went to the flight check-in desk where we were advised that we were taking a chance of being stranded at the Brisbane airport as flights were starting to be cancelled due to weather and if we were delayed or if our flight to Sydney could not leave Brisbane, we would have to spend at least the night in the Brisbane airport as no accommodations were accessible due to the flood.  We chose to stay here in Mackay and rebooked the flights without charge to the 13th.  We went to get our rental car back, and due to it’s mileage, it was not to be re-rented, so we now have a different Toyota Camry.  

We have checked into the ‘Ocean International Resort’ here in Mackay for 2 nights to wait out the devastating floods in Brisbane, and hopefully our flights will be fine on the 13th.  As we sat in the local ‘Hungry Jacks’ (Burger King in Canada - same logo and menu), we couldn’t help but be thankful that we are safe, comfortable and still on a beach in Australia!  Although our travel plans have had to change drastically, we are so blessed and our hearts go out to all those who right now have lost everything they had and some have even lost loved ones to the floods.  

We spent the early part of the evening at the local mall where Brittany did buy a cell phone that she can use ‘pay as you go’ while here in Australia for the year.  We picked up a few groceries and came back to the room to upload some of our photos and get some rest.

This morning I got an email from one of the locations where we were supposed to stay near Brisbane:

Hi there ...

as long as you are safe that is the main thing ... we have no flooding 

here in noosa and i would advise to avoid brisbane at all cost.. for 

the next few days .. all power has been cut off from the main brisbane 

center and river to peak there today and tomorrow ... 

I suppose we will have to wait until tomorrow to see if we will be delayed once again or not.  Looking back at the pictures and all the things we have seen and experienced, we have been so blessed with a trip of a lifetime already.  Although Mackay was not supposed to be an area where we spent a lot of time, and we’ve had to cancel 5 other beautiful vacation areas we had planned along the route, we need to remember that a couple more days stuck in on the northern beaches of Queensland should not be hard to live with.  Now that we’ve booked the flights to Sydney, we are just a little anxious just to get to the other side of all the flooding and get moving with new plans and getting Brittany settled into school.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  We are well, but please continue to pray for the Rockhampton & Brisbane areas.  The news is hard to watch as the urgency and devastation continues to grow.

Soon,

Kim (and Brittany)