Sea Kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands in Australia

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Sea Kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands

Among the many ways to visit the Whitsunday Islands, sea kayaking in the impossibly blue water and camping at different island coves has to be the best for the adventurous traveler. You will experience world-class sea kayaking plus snorkeling along the stunning fringe reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. Campsites are tucked into tropical forest-lined beaches of sand or coral. Many campsites have hiking trails up to panoramic vistas. There are breathtaking views over the 74 islands of the archipelago.

When I researched kayaking on the Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsundays offered the most remoteness and snorkeling opportunities. I didn’t find the kind of information needed to prepare for a multi-day sea kayaking trip in the Whitsundays, so I hope this post will provide you with some of the information I was searching for in pre-trip planning.

Overview of the Whitsunday Islands

The Whitsunday Islands are located near Airlie Beach in mid-coast Queensland, Australia. It’s a 12-hour drive north of Brisbane. However, it’s a short 1.5-hour flight to Proserpine, 30 minutes outside Airlie Beach, the gateway city to the Whitsundays.

There are 74 islands with over 70% of them protected as National or Marine parks. Only five islands have current resort structures so there is a lot of uninhabited islands for the nature lover to explore. Campsites are located on the bigger islands –Hook, Whitsunday, and North and South Molle Islands, plus some smaller one group-sized islands such as Denman, Planton, and Henning Islands. Many of the island campsites are best accessed by water taxi.

Campsites can be reserved at the Queensland National Park website. It’s easy to make reservations for island camping or cancel reservations if plans change. Campsite availability, especially for popular camps such as Whitehaven Beach, is limited so book at least a month out.

These islands are the ancestral home of the Ngaro people. They have a deep spiritual connection to the islands and the ocean and have lived in the Whitsundays for 9000 years. Officials of Great Barrier Reef National Marine Park consult the Ngaro elders on important decisions.

Whitsunday Islands Sea Kayaking Outfitter

The most experienced paddling company in the Whitsunday Islands is Salty Dog Sea Kayaking. Run by husband/wife couple, Neill and Haley, Salty Dog has you covered for any type of sea kayaking trip in the Whitsunday Islands. For experienced paddlers, they provide gear rentals and advice on the best routes. Their knowledge is impeccable based on their 25 years of experience running the company.

Salty Dog also runs day and expedition-style trips. We camped for a night at Steen’s beach adjacent to a group doing one of Salty Dog’s signature 6-day trips. They had started at Whitehaven beach and paddled and snorkeled their way north. While many of the group hadn’t been on a sea kayaking expedition, they were having the time of their lives. I recommend the 6-day expeditions to paddlers who don’t yet have the expedition skills to be out without a guide. The guide was very knowledgeable and knew where all the good snorkeling sites were. For the expeditions, you paddle lightweight kevlar double boats that make paddling a breeze.

Salty Dog also has half-day and full-day paddling trips. On these trips, you explore tropical islands and fringe reefs near the Salty Dog base in Shute Harbor. With good weather conditions, the full-day trip group crosses over to South Molle Island. The hike to Mount Jeffreys or Spion Kop on South Molle is spectacular. The views of the Whitsunday chain of islands are fabulous from these high points.

Sea Kayaking Gear

Salty Dog staff do a safety and route briefing to get you oriented. We were able to get fuel canisters for our MSR stove from them. They sell them new or will give you partly used ones from previous trips.

When you rent from Salty Dog, you get high-quality sea kayaking gear and charts. Rental kayaks are durable rotomolded polyethylene. Both singles and doubles are available. The rental includes PFD, neoprene spray skirt, paddle and extra, bilge pump, sponge, and safety kit with flares. In retrospect, the only thing I wished they provided was a towing/rescue line. We brought all our sea kayak camping gear but if you don’t want to shlep it to Australia, Scamper, the water taxi company next door rents suitable camping kits. If Scamper is landing on your camping beach, they will also resupply your water. Leave the marked dromedaries with them.

Whitsunday Islands Sea Kayaking Gear List

This is the packing list I used for the Whitsunday Islands sea kayaking trip.

Planning Your Sea Kayaking Trip in the Whitsunday Islands

Planning an independent sea kayaking trip in the Whitsunday Islands involves juggling three different websites to coordinate your timing and route. You will need to get route suggestions and gear from Salty Dog. I found the most efficient way to manage the planning stage was to get a suggested route from Salty Dog, then check on the Queensland National Park website to see if the campsites were available. Next, I checked the Scamper calendar to see if they had availability on their water taxi for people and kayaks. Reserve early to get the logistics of your choice.

Adventurous Sea Kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands

My daughter, her friend, and I did a 4-day/3-night sea kayaking adventure in the Whitsunday Islands. We were in search of the best snorkeling sites and more remote camping in the Whitsundays. All paddlers were experienced kayakers and campers.

On the first day, we had a 2 pm water taxi transport to Maureen Cove on the north side of Hook Island. The boat stopped at South Molle, Henning, and Whitsunday Islands to let off kayakers and gear, so it was late afternoon before we arrived to Maureen Cove. The departure times are dependent on being able to land on a beach at high tide. I would have liked a 7:30 am transfer but we were off on the tide schedule so we settled for the afternoon.

Whitehaven Beach

The stop at Whitehaven beach mid-afternoon was crazy. Hundreds of people were beach lounging or boarding or exiting tour boats. All sizes of boats were anchored off the beach; even seaplanes. Every tour company in Airlie Beach has trips for people to visit the gorgeous silica sand beach stretching for miles on Whitsunday Island. If you decide to camp here, just know you will have a teeming herd of humanity on the beach during the day. For good reason, the beach is a gem of white sand curving as far as you can see.

The Whitehaven beach campsites are tucked into one side of the beach, away from the tour groups. There is a covered area to cook if it rains. Whitehaven campsite allows 36 campers; it’s the largest in the Whitsundays. A plus of camping at Whitehaven is being able to paddle to Hill Inlet. There is a trail up and the view from the top across the white sand and turquoise water is good reason it is the third most photographed area in Australia after Sydney Harbour and Ayres Rock.

Hook Island Camping and Sea Kayaking

Hook Island, the second largest island in the Whitsunday group, has some of the best campsites for snorkeling. It is the furthest island that Scamper brings campers and boats to on its schedule. Our first night was at Maureen Cove. When we arrived, a big reef manta ray was swimming around the boat. A steep coral beach rings the cove. Spacious campsites with picnic tables spread the use for the 24 campers allowed at the site. We shared the cove with a family with 2 sweet little girls who were camping for 4 days. A perfect life for kids!

We arrived at the campsite at 4:30 pm so had an hour to paddle the cove and snorkel. Winter sunsets by 5:30 pm and it’s pitch dark by 6 pm. We put up camp in the brilliant orange sunset over the bay. Tent sites are on coral shards so bring a good sleeping pad.

There is a scenic walk up the valley behind the campsite with butterflies and birds in abundance. Snorkeling in nearby Butterfly Bay was incredible. If you do a layover at Maureen’s Cove, a day paddle with snorkeling at Manta Ray Bay would be my choice.

The next morning we were up before dawn to get a 7 am start to Steens Beach. It took less than an hour to kayak to Steens beach on glassy water with shimmering morning light. The Whitsunday islands have the most incredible golden hours at dawn and dusk. The orange sheen lingers long and illuminates in brilliant yellow shadows, bathing everything in a golden hue.

Steens Beach Snorkeling

A Salty Dog 6-day expedition group was camped at the main campsite at Steens Beach. Not wanting to bother them, we set up our tents on a pocket beach isolated at high tide from the main campsite by a wall of rocks. It was a sweet campsite on the sand under the pines.

Due to our early start, we had a whole day to snorkel around Steens Beach. The fringing reef right off the beach is spectacular. The east point of Steens Bay has excellent snorkeling along the rocks. We smiled at the wild goats on the beach nearby before we went into the water. The diversity of hard and soft coral was amazing. Plus, all colors and sizes of tropical fish and giant clams surrounded us. Huge sea turtles checked us out while we kayaked.

The Salty Dog charts are marked with accurate snorkel sites. One site we didn’t visit because the expedition group was going there is Bali Hai. The snorkeling is wonderful off this tiny island; we’ll make it there next time.

Denman Island

On the third day, we were up again early for our 7:30 am Scamper pickup and shuttle to Denman Island. While planning I didn’t think of having a transfer mid-trip but since it was the only day Scamper visited Steens that week, we took the water taxi to Denman Island near South Molle so we could paddle back to Shute Harbor the next day.

The campsite on Denman is small and up a steep coral beach but it’s only for one group so you can have the island all to yourself. We were greeted by two bush stone curlews when we arrived. Curious little creatures.

In pursuit of hiking, after setting up camp, we kayaked over to Sandy Beach campsite on South Molle. The 8.4 km round trip hike up to Spion Kop lookout had marvelous views at every turn.

Lessons Learned Sea Kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands

The marine weather in the Whitsunday Islands is unpredictable and ever changing. We paddled on calm seas and in up to 18 knots winds. Being windbound is a distinct possibility so make sure you have contingency plans.

Our last day on the trip had a forecast for 18-knot winds. We were doing a crossing from Denman Island to Shute Harbour via White Rocks to take out. Unfortunately, I had accidentally left the charts back at the Salty Dog headquarters on the first day in the chaos of packing and loading. We were using a photo of the charts on my daughter’s phone.

While navigating I like to have the charts on my deck so I can follow along and make mid-course corrections. But the phone was packed away so I scanned the horizon for what I thought were White Rocks. And since I didn’t look at my compass, we ended up going the wrong way. After 30 years of sea kayaking all over the world, I can still make these kinds of mistakes if I’m not careful. Lesson learned.

Crossing from Denman Island to Shute Harbour

We got up in the dark again to get out on the water at first light before the wind picked up. The tide in the Whitsundays ebbs north and floods south. I tried to get the last bit of the flood tide to push us along. However, the winds picked up quickly and the tide turned so we ended up paddling against wind and tide. At times it felt as if we were making no headway. It was a slog paddle before we finally reached land 4 hours later.

As we sat on the shore having some welcome cups of hot noodles, we found out that we were on Long Island, not Shute Island. Not only we were off course, but I noticed a sign warning about crocodiles. So we were on a croc-infested island after a marathon crossing. We sure would have some stories to tell after it was all over.

The group made it to Shute Harbour to take out. A little sheepish about our errant navigational skills and being a potential crocodile meal, but in fine spirits. It had been an incredible sea kayaking trip in the Whitsunday Islands.

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Part of the sea kayaking trip in the Whitsundays was sponsored by Salty Dog Sea Kayaking. However, my opinions are my honest assessment of the experience.

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