Beaching Airlie
Beautiful Airlie Beach... the town itself rather unexciting, its location so close to Whitehaven Beach and the Great Barrier Reef therefore ideal. I have seen a lot of beaches. I had never been in a helicopter before. Both took my breath away. Everything just felt unreal.
It is one thing seeing these impressions beforehand on social media, it is a totally different thing being there. I sat with the pilot in his 'cabin' on Whitehaven Beach – a hammock and a blanket in the shrubs. In spite of having drastically reduced my alcohol consumption (life is my drug right now), i took him up on the free champagne bottle. Obviously I had to enjoy that on my own since he flew us back...
I went back to Whitehaven Beach, but a different spot, with the Thundercat speedboat for some snorkelling. We swam with bigass fish and over the inner reef. I heard a clicking, which I found to be a group of parrot fish cleaning the reef. Apparently their poop is the white sand. The male fish was incredibly colourful. A pair of yellow beak fish caught my eye, as well as just being astonished by the reef itself and how even fish interact with each other. 🐟
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Photos taken March 2018.