Day 2: Hiking - Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven Beach might be the highlight of the area. With its white silica sand and vivid turquoise water, it’s quite a sight. We had a great view from a couple of lookout platforms over Whitehaven Beach.

We hiked down to the beach itself and explored. Guess what: we saw dozens of stingrays in shallow water! You had to watch your step — they love burying themselves in the sand, perfectly camouflaged.

And as if that wasn’t enough: we also spotted lemon sharks. Yes — sharks! Pretty cool, huh?

One of the crew, Justine, mentioned that about 5 minutes of the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie was filmed at that beach in 2015. For that, the film crew reportedly brought in hundreds of palm trees — since palm trees don’t naturally grow on silica-sand beaches there. After filming, apparently those palms were planted around Airlie Beach, making it look a lot more tropical.Read more