Day Trip to Fitzroy Island, Queensland.

Fitzroy Island is just a 30minute boat ride from Cairns in Tropical North Queensland, and it is complete and utter paradise. I only had two nights in Cairns as I was just there for the weekend, but I wanted to make the most of my visit and see both the Great Barrier Reef, and one of the tropical paradise islands.

After much research I chose Fitzroy Island due to it’s proximity to Cairns, the incredible photos online, and the fact you could do a day trip or a half day trip.

 

I booked online the night before with Raging Thunder, and chose the 10am departure so I could go for breakfast beforehand. I got up bright and early, and walked from the hotel along the waterfront boardwalk and through the main Cairns town area with the lagoon pool.

Breakfast at Dundee’s

From the lagoon I continued down to the reef terminal and after picking up my boarding pass decided to go back to Dundee’s – where I’d had dinner the night before – for brekky. I just loved being able to sit by the waterfront and watch the boats come in and out, and their fresh juices were so good I wanted another!

 

I decided to treat myself and went for the pancakes with strawberries and cream. They were HUGE. So huge I could only eat half of them and felt awful for leaving the rest!

 

Grab a snorkel set from the beach hut

The clear turquoise waters lapped gently at the shoreline, briefly nudging the dead coral resting on the sand before being sent away again. I stepped off the boat and walked along the sand completely mesmerized, longing to tear my clothes off and race into the ocean. I refrained and went to collect a snorkel from the beach hut first so I could dip my head under and see what was under the water.

 

The tide was already receding, so unfortunately the visibility wasn’t great and it was a little too shallow to safely swim over the fringing coral. I gave it my best effort though, and managed to see a black-tip reef shark before realizing how dangerous it was to be swimming over coral in very shallow water.

I was also very conscious that my fins kept brushing the coral, and I wanted to minimise my impact on the environment and refrain from killing any more coral after my incident the previous day.

 

Walk over to famous Nudey Beach

I swam back to shore and dried myself off, and then wandered across the island in search of the famous Nudey Beach. After twenty minutes of hiking up over rocks and boulders through the forest, I finally saw blue and gold peeking through the trees…

Nudey Beach was busy, but gradually the crowds drifted off in search of food and before long I had the majority of it to myself and just a handful of others. The beach is mainly sand with bits of crawl strewn across it, and after topping up my sunscreen I laid back with the sun beating down onto my face, and drifted off into a blissful lap while the ocean lapped at my feet.

 

Enjoy a fish and chip lunch

I awoke half an hour of so later with a rumbling belly, and decided it was time to head back to the main area for some much needed food (HA). Fish and chips was my meal of choice, and boy oh boy was it good!

I’d been on a Ketogenic diet the three weeks between Canberra and Cairns, and it felt SO good to eat carbs again while I was in Cairns….until the food baby appeared later that day (my body doesn’t really respond well to carbs, it never has done, hence the keto diet switch).

 

The view from my lunch spot was incredible, and I sat there mulling over life and how two years ago I thought this whole life-change wasn’t even possible. Isn’t it just amazing how you can make your dreams come true when you actually believe in yourself and do everything you can to make them happen? I think so.

 

After lunch I slowly ambled down to the coral beach and spent another hour or so there, before dropping off my snorkel and fins and making my way back to the Raging Thunder speed boat.

Get the Raging Thunder boat back to Cairns

My Fitzroy Island day trip was over – I had a flight to catch! 30minutes later we were back in Cairns, and I walked back to my hotel to shower and change and collect my bags. I had the loveliest Uber driver on the way to the airport who was from Croydon in England!

My flight back to Sydney was a little delayed, but pretty soon we were in the air and it was hard to believe that I’d succeeded in jetting off to paradise for a two-night weekend from Sydney. I still can’t get over the fact it’s only a two and a half hour flight!

Great Barrier Reef, I hope I will be back again one day. You were just magical.

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