Australia’s Whitsunday Islands
Malcolm Herdman revels in the intoxicating beauty of Australia’s Whitsunday Islands – and meets some very colourful local characters
GOOD on ya, mite!’ said the man in the airport security queue at Sydney, as I handed him the passport he had dropped without noticing. ‘Where ya headed for?’ When I told him I was going to the Queensland coast and the fabulous Whitsundays, he replied: ‘Ah, beaut. You’ll lav it. Wish I was. I’m headed for the cold south. Be even colder than here.’
Arriving Down Under in winter from the northern hemisphere, you have to make a few mental adjustments. The further south you go, of course, the cooler it gets.
There’s nothing cold about the welcome in Australia, though. You’ll instantly feel at home.
I’d caught a glimpse of Sydney’s famous Harbour Bridge as we came in to land. Now, though, we were heading to Brisbane (or Brizzie as the man at the airport called it), then further north to the airfield at Proserpine.
It has recently been renamed Whitsunday Coast airport, to acknowledge the reason why most people use it.
Even though it was winter, the temperature was a pleasantly warm 20C when we reached Airlie Beach, a town on the mainland that is the usual starting point for trips out to the Whitsundays.
We were staying at the Mirage Whitsundays, a stunning collection of new self-catering apartments and houses overlooking Pioneer Bay.
Wealthier visitors to the Whitsundays used to fly to Hamilton Island, which has its own small airport, bypassing Airlie Beach altogether. Now the town is becoming more popular, thanks in part to the recent upgrade of the Proserpine airport.
Although this region was hit by Cyclone Debbie earlier this year, Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays escaped relatively lightly compared with other places along the Queensland coast. Holidaymakers have been urged by officials not to cancel their plans.
Those who do come here would be well advised to book one of Dan Moreira’s Segway tours. After a few minutes of instruction, our group took off on these battery-powered scooters along the Bicentennial Walkway towards lovely Cannonvale Beach.
On the way, Dan regaled us with anecdotes about the area, such as how he built part of his kitchen out of teak salvaged from a local shipwreck and how Angelina Jolie, who once filmed here, ordered chocolate brownies