Graham and Edith 2012 Trip: Day 138 Aug 29

Up very early this morning - we were picked up at the caravan park at 6-15 am (seriously we are supposed to be on holiday) to do our trip to Whitehaven Beach, Hamilton and Daydream Islands. We left Abel Point Jetty at 7 am and cruised firstly to Daydream Island where we picked up some more passengers. Then we went to Whitehaven Beach - cruising around the Whitesunday Islands on the way. We had about 2 hours on Whitehaven Beach - the sand is pure silica it squeaked when you walked on it. It also cleaned gold jewelery. A game of beach cricket was enjoyed by some of the passengers. We watched a few seaplanes taking off and landing. After Whitehaven we got back on the catamaran and then went to Hamilton Island - we only had about 30 minutes here it was just for a boat change. In the marina there were quite a few very expensive yachts - the Whitsunday Classic had been raced recently. Wild Oats XI was one of them. We then went back to Daydream Island where we had about 3 hours. Lunch was at the Boathouse Bakery, which we ate looking over the Whitsunday Passage. The facilities were incredible - a beautiful pool looking straight out on the water. There is a mini golf course - this is a 19 hole course and is called Around Australia - the sculptures are really good and aptly named. We didn't play golf but had a walk around the course. There was a fish pool with some incredible species of fish in it - small sharks, rays, remoras, emperors just to name a few. We had an hour around the pool before we had to get the ferry back to Shute Harbour. All in all a really good day. We saw our first whales of the trip today going over and coming back. It doesn't seem to matter how many times you see whales it is still exciting each time.