The next morning we wake up and we wait at a neighborhood sign as instructed by the boat company. A van eventually shows up and picks us up to drive us to the local port.
We get on a boat that is ran by Scottish men, it is a supposedly a pirate boat. At first the boat ride is nice, a little wavy, with some splashes of water hitting us, Australia quickly disappears behind us. Then the waves start getting choppier and the water starts hitting us faster. Luckily, we were sitting at the back of the boat, but the people at the front of the boat were soaked. It was cold, windy, and you could barely hold on as the boat was rocking so bad. Not to mention, because the sails were up, we were actually going slower than a lot of the other boats that were heading in the same direction as we were. They passed us with a breeze, and they were covered, so the people inside weren’t getting wet.
We finally make it to the island. It’s nothing too spectacular at first, but after a short hike up the island, we learn why it is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The water is a perfect ocean blue, with different sand banks just hanging out. The sand is all silica, it makes it super soft, and not capable of getting unbearably hot. NASA is also after this sand to create their space craft’s glass, but since it is protected by the Australian government, they can not. It is also where scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean is shot. Disney paid several million dollars because the beach naturally does not have palm trees, so they had to bring in and remove each palm tree from that 14 minute scene. Each palm tree cost about 10,000 dollars.
After taking some pictures, we head down to the beach. We go past where everyone else is, go through the water, see some sting rays and small sharks, and head to a more remote beach. We put all our stuff down and head further into the water with some goggles. There truly were so many sting rays, just chilling. We then proceeded to take many many pictures.
Our time was up and we had to head back to the pirate boat to boat to somewhere we can snorkel. But first, they gave us some fresh fruit. They had to go to a few different spots as the current was just too strong. Finally, they picked a spot and we went into the water. Antoine immediately stepped on a coral because he’s dumb.
The boat crew call us back as it is time to go, we go back on the boat, dry off, and eat some lunch. It was just a wrap and some type of quiche thing. Everyone took a nap or just chilled on the boat and we made it back on land.
As the boat was docking, I realized that I had lost my shirt. So I had to walk around without a shirt for a hot minute until we found a Cotton On, one of my favorite shops in the states, but is an Australian company. We also found more boba and got dinner.