Onward we brave adventurers went. Mile after mile of long straight road, avoiding the carcasses of hundreds of poor kangaroos who had met rather messy endings. Finally we arrived at Airlie Beach, looking forward to a night in a semi-permanent camping ‘pod’ – pretty flashy!

Unfortunately it turned out to be more of a port-a-loo type affair with no windows, a funny stench and a plastic mattress. Still, at least we didn’t have to spend our whole evening in it – wrong! The heavens opened and a thunderstorm ensued so we had to spend the rest of the day trapped in our loo looking out at the torrential downpour. We cheered ourselves up by cooking far too much food and nailing a bottle of fine Australian plonk and then off to bed – tomorrow was the real adventure. We were going to be marooned… How dramatic!

An early start and before we knew it we were bouncing across enormous waves in the waters of the Whitsunday Islands. Our boat was a flat bottomed aluminium can, built for landing on beaches and not for coping with rough seas. The bow would rise up at a 45 degree angle before gravity would give up and we would be left weightless for a split second before crashing down into the water with bone shattering impacts. That along with the roar of the engine and the stench of diesel made it all pretty exciting. It was great but after an hour both of us were wondering how much more we could take and a healthy dose of sea sickness was about to arrive on deck. Finally we rounded a headland and there was our beach – Whitehaven beach!

We had to be completely self-sufficient with enough food and water to keep us going for at least five days in case the boat couldn’t get back to us due to bad weather. We were cast away and we loved it!

Whitehaven beach is always ranked in the world’s top 10 and for good reason. It is absolutely stunning with 7 km of pure white sand and turquoise waters lapping at the shore.

The local inhabitants quickly made themselves known to us – white feathered Macaws did regular fly-bys and large Guana lizards patrolled our campsite. We even had a couple of visits from a little wallaby with a joey in its pouch.

We were just getting settled into our tropical island paradise when all of a sudden disaster! We discovered that Caroline had forgotten to pack the beer! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I nearly set off the rescue flare!

We wanted to get our bearings so climbed up to the highest point on the island and were treated to fantastic views of the beautiful tropical landscape and the surrounding islands which make up the Whitsundays.

In case you didn’t know – the Whitsundays are a group of islands off the east coast of Australia, all of varying sizes, all with stunning beaches and tropical plants and wildlife. Most of them are largely uninhabited.

Each morning it was such a pleasure to unzip the tent and to be greeted with views of the beach and the sound of the waves rolling in.

Our days were filled with not doing an awful lot but enjoying the great weather, our books, a bit of snorkelling and swimming, chilling out and cooking on our little stove.

We managed to cobble together some spectacular meals. Despite forgetting the beer, Caroline had remembered to pack just about everything you would need for a culinary masterpiece or two.

At night we were treated to a mesmerizing show of stars in the giant sky which seemed to go on forever (I suppose it does!). We spent hours just looking up, counting shooting stars and arguing about which planets we could see. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a nice cool beer!