Jasmine's cut looks good and clean, which is great news. Jasmine and Mummy will relax on the boat today and Nicholas and Daddy will attempt to climb the mountain and take in the views.
With sunscreen, hats, water, a couple of bannanas, phone and radio Daddy and Nicholas were off in the tender. Leaving the tender 1m off the beach with two anchors on a rising tide, for safety Daddy and Nicholas were off.
We passed through thick jungle on a sippery narrow, wet, muddy with loose stones and trail which was sometimes hard to find. It was beautiful but tough going. We found near the bottom of the trail (about 500m from the beach) a beautiful fresh water waterfall. This went down the valley and exited at the end of the beach we had just left. There was also the remains of a very small concrete dam wall (about 20m wide and 10m high). The dam behind it was now filled with debris and mud so it didn't hold much water anymore, but it would have been once a beautiful small swimming hole before filling over time with debris and dirt. It was now only about 30cm deep and overgrown with jungle.
We continued up the steep airless trail surrounded by the jungle. Daddy and Nicholas were saturated from the moisture from the dripping jungle and sweat.
This climb went on for about 2.5hours and near the end we had a several stops for cool water. Daddy admitted his legs were really hurting, the best comparison was walking up stairs for just under 3 hours. Nicholas was fitter and struggling far less. Sitting in on office all day is not the best training for this type of exercise.
Looking up through the trees, we kept thinking the end was close but each small plateau showed another hill further ahead.
The effort was worth it, the views from the top of the mountain were stunning. We were above all the hills on all the surrounding islands and could see to Hamilton Island, Whitehaven beach and all the way in the distance to the mainland and Airlie Beach. The boats and our beach were far far below anchored in the shelter of Cid Harbour. Whitsunday Island is far larger than we had imagined.
The trip down was far quicker, we had to be very careful not to slip over or fall off the trail down the almost cliff like drop into the surrounding jungle. Passing the waterfall, we took a detour through 20m of jungle and were able to lean over and place our hands into the falling cool water. Awesome!
We arrived back on the beach about 4hours after leaving. The tide had risen 2m and we waded out to the tender and then motored back to yacht. Once we were on the yacht, Daddy and Nicholas didn't bother changing, they jumped off the stern of the yacht fully clothed into the water for a nice cool swim.
We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon swimming and relaxing on the yacht in beautiful Cid Harbour.
Tomorrow we will try for Whitehaven Beach on the eastern side of Whitsunday Island.