Whitehaven Beach

Welcome to Whitehaven Beach!

Silica at its Finest

The Finest Silica in the World!

Enjoying the View

Too Good to be True!

Beach Walk.

Walking Back into the Blue.

After hour brief trek on the Ngaro Sea Trail we hop back on board and headed to the last stop on our Triple Treat Adventure.

We headed back south towards Whitehaven beach which was a brief boat ride that lasted only about 15 minutes.

Again we dropped anchor and hopped on board our rubber dinghy was was shipped over to the pristine white sand silica beach known as Whitehaven Beach.

We were told that this is the finest and most pure Silca in the world. This pure white silca on Whitehaven Beach is 98% silica and is so fine that it squeaks when you walk on it!

Which is pretty cool. You gotta try it some day. It’s not the first Squeaky Beach I have walked on though. There are a lot of Squeaky Beaches in Western Australia that do the same thing when you walk on them.

During our Bush Walk earlier we were told how NASA came and pillaged the Aussie’s Silica. Suffice to say they weren’t to happy about it. Especially since it is illegal for anybody else to take silica from the Whitsundays.

Just incase you are curious as to what the silica that NASA took was used for. It was used for the Hubble Telescope.

When NASA discovered that the Hubble Telescope needed to be repaired they came back and pillaged more silica from the Whitsundays.

Suffice to say, the Aussies again, weren’t too happy about it.

You notice that the silica feels quite dense and heavy as you pick it up with your hands. It feels like a heavy dust. It is very, very soft and very nice to the touch.

You can do all sorts of things with it. I hear it is good for exfoliation.

Buried Treasure

Rumor has it that there is a $50,000 wedding wing buried somewhere deep on Whitehaven Beach.

Apparently the fiancé or wife took her ring off for a moment and set it in the silica.

Not the brightest thing to do. I know.

Only a moment later when she went to retrieve her ring it was gone.

The silica is so fine that the ring just sank into the sand!

Why she couldn’t just dig a little bit to get it back. I don’t know.

I am not sure if the story is true or not, it is just something that we were told by the tour guides. It’s probably just something they say to get a laugh from.

The beach itself is quite long and will take you about a half an hour or a little bit more to walk from one end of the beach to the other. So account for more then an hour walk round trip on Whitehaven Beach.

This is something that we did not have time for as we only had about an hour.

Which was a little disappointing.

More Time Please

Since we had such little time we tried to squeeze in what we could. We walked about half way down the beach. Which we thoroughly enjoyed as the silica squeaked underneath our feet.

We found a nice little spot without many other people around. Set up shop and went for a dip.

Being it was September the water was still a little bit chilly, somewhere around 22°c. It only took a couple of minutes to get used to it though. Once you were out there and swimming around, you didn’t even notice and was quite comfortable.

I loved it. I was just floating on my back and taking in the view. Simply mesmerized by the view surrounding me. I said it before and I will say it again.

This was Truly Heaven on Earth!

What about the Water?

Yes, the water is as good as you probably think it is. It is crystal clear! You can literally see straight down to the bottom. It is just beautiful.

There are lots of boats and yachts docked all around Whitehaven Beach. You will also see a few Sea Planes. They fly in from Hamilton Island for day trips offering tourists a picnic and wine.

Something I would love to do. Next time!

I just couldn’t get enough of it and did not want to leave. This was certainly a Triple Treat Indeed.

After about a 15 minute dip in the water I headed back to my beach towel. I dried off and began taking more photos. I didn’t know what to do. Swim or take photos; swim or take photos.

I knew we didn’t have much time left so I started taking more photos. Of course!

You have to be very careful with your camera(s) on Whitehaven Beach. The silica is so fine and can easily get into your gear and tear it up. I almost dropped my camera when I was pulling it out of my bag! If I would have, I am certain that it would have been toast.

I would have cried if I dropped my camera. When we were in Key West earlier this year it was very windy and blowing sand all over my camera. Luckily the sand isn’t nearly as fine as the silica and it didn’t do any damage.

After taking some more photos, it was time to start walking back to where the crew were and some of the others were playing Beach Cricket. The guys finished up and we headed back to our boat.

Most of the others on our boat decided to swim back. I would have loved to have swam back, but I had my bag with all my cameras in it and decided I’d take the rubber dinghy instead.

After only a couple of rubber dinghy trips it was time to shove off yet again.

Sadly, our Triple Tread Adventure had ended and it was time to head back to Hamilton Island.

It was time to head back to Sydney tomorrow.

If You Look Close You can see the Pilot Sleeping on the Pontoon!