We went to paradise and back.

After a couple of days in Airlie Beach, we took a trip to the Whitsunday, a group of islands sitting on the Great Barrier Reef. After an hour boat trip, we reached Whitsunday Island, home of the famous Whiteheaven Beach, a seven-kilometer long beach of pure-white silicon sand. The sand was so thin it looked like flour or clear dust and the light was blinding us.

We put our stinger suits on (even paradise has predators) and went for a swim in crystal clear water. Close to the shore, fishes were swimming in the shallow waves with us.

We had lunch on the beach, observed by a bunch of curious iguanas—I had never seen iguanas that big, even in Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica.

After rinsing off the sand, we jumped on the boat again to go snorkelling on coral reefs off the island. It was like entering a new world under water. The sea had seemed muddy from the boat but once in the water, with our mask on, everything was crystal clear. Corals were everywhere, just a meter below us. Some looked like mouths breathing, some were like lungs, others looked like little white bones lost at the bottom of the sea. As for fishes… it was like being in an aquarium! Colourful clown fishes and a bunch or other little creatures were staring at us, probably as fascinated by humans as we were by marine life.

We eventually surfaced again and swam back to the boat as thunder was roaring in the sky. Suddenly, the world at sea turned black and white and huge drops of water rippled in dark green water. We were already wet from the swim and it wasn’t cold, yet the thunderstorm that followed us to mainland was impressive. When it rains in the tropics, it pours!

Merry Christmas guys, we are somewhere “in a walkabout”!