This Whitsundays Pictorial shows photos taken while staying in Airlie Beach between January and March 2022. These were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S10+ phone and compressed using Adobe Photoshop. We’ve explored a lot of the Airlie Beach region, but often I like to enjoy the scenery without always stopping to take photos, especially when I’m on my bike.
If you want to read about our passage from Townsville to Airlie Beach, take a look at my blog Townsville to Airlie Beach (or, how slow can we go?).
The accompanying map shows the areas we visited. I have photos of some of the other islands we’ve been to in my blog, Too many islands, too little time!
You can scroll through this blog or use a link below to view photos of a particular area.
1. Port of Airlie Marina
2. Hayman Island
3. Butterfly Bay
4. The Cairn
5. Tongue Bay
6. South Molle Island (north)
7. South Molle Island (south)
8. Laguna Quays and Cape Gloucester (not shown on map)
2. Hayman Island
Hayman Island is the northerly of the Whitsunday Islands. These photos show our trip to the island and the scenery around. What is amazing is the colour and clarity of the water, and those monstrous Lion’s mane jellyfish.
3. Butterfly Bay
These photos show our journey from Hayman Island around to Butterfly Bay. Butterfly Bay is at the northern end of Hook Island and a popular spot for tourists. There are a number of moorings available for 2 or 24 hours. I explored the bay by kayak and scraped a few barnacles off the hull.
4. The Cairn
These are photos of our trip from Butterfly Bay to The Cairn, an anchorage and camping site on the north-west side of Whitsunday Island. We took the tender across the bay to the east side of Hook Island, where there used to be a wilderness resort (another resort closed after damage from cyclones). And might I add, what a great place to do some painting!
5. Tongue Bay
These photos show our trip from Port of Airlie Marina to Tongue Bay, and it’s one of my favourite moorings. You can also take a short bushwalk (about 700m) to the Hill Inlet Lookout, which is incredibly well-maintained and probably speaks to the number of tourists the area attracts. But make sure you go around an hour either side of high tide, since the beach is very difficult to access at other times. The views from Hill Inlet Lookout are spectacular and the water colours simply amazing. (The only negative were the sandflies, which seem to love me!)
6. South Molle Island (north)
We visited South Molle Island during our honeymoon in 1996, and at that time the resort was operating, but once again, it’s another resort closed after damage from cyclones. However, the jetty has been rebuilt, it’s very impressive, and at in the future it looks like there’ll also be power and water available. There are also some walks you can do, and we ventured to Mid Molle Island on the high tide.
7. South Molle Island (south)
These photos show our trip from The Cairn to the southern side of South Molle Island, passing by Daydream Island. We successfully went through “Unsafe Passage” but unfortunately fouled the mooring line, by accidentally wrapping it around our starboard prop. Robert managed to get some of it unwrapped, but with only a mask (and no other diving apparatus) we ended up calling a diver for assistance. It was an expensive exercise, but we have learnt a technique if this happens again. And we decided to both do a basic diving course when we’re in Hervey Bay.
8. Laguna Quays and Cape Gloucester
During our stay at Airlie Beach, we hired a car so we could explore a little further afield. Laguna Quays (another resort left abandoned) and the associated marina was on my list of places to visit. Perhaps I have a morbid fascination with these old resorts! To get to Laguna Quays, we went via Proserpine so took the opportunity to see the historic museum and have lunch there. But when we got to Laguna Quays, we couldn’t get through to the disused marina due to fencing (and signage) around the area, however we visited the nearby Midge Point, which has a sandy beach, especially at low tide. You can search the web on Laguna Quays, if you want to see some photos.
We also wanted to take a look at Cape Gloucester, that we’d previously visited when we were heading north. We went there with a short stop at Dingo Beach, then enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Cape Gloucester resort.
Where to next?
It’s hard to believe our 2-month stay is nearly at an end. We’ll be spending time at a couple more islands as we head south to Mackay.
6 Responses
Great photos. It was interesting to read about the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish – what amazing creatures they are. x
Try agai! Lost my previous message as the site deleted it when I posted it but was naughty enough to not include all our personal details! Grrrr!
Aside from that, thanks for sharing! Great record. Wishing you and Robert safe and enjoyable adventures on your way down South. Lovely to have met you both. Catch you on your next trip North?
Fair winds and a following sea, as they say!
Fantastic adventure you both are enjoying. What a beautiful country we live in, always knew that but these photos just clarify just how lucky we are. Thanks for sharing xx
Enjoyed your photos Pam.
Fabulous photos, Pam. I’m vicariously holidaying through you. ❤️
What wonderful photos. Looks like you are having a great trip! Spectular scenery Cheers Gerry & Sonja x