Lady Elliot Island
The next morning Max drove us to the airport to catch our charter flight
to Lady Elliot Island.
This was a tour we saw on the internet back at home, and again in the
information kiosk at the Hervey Bay airport. I thought the trip was a
bit pricey, but was easily convinced that it was worthwhile. It was.
The 35-minute flight in the puddle jumper went smoothly and we had a
great view of the island on the clear, sunny day. It's the southern tip
of the Great Barrier Reef, and you could see all the coral surrounding it.
The airstrip runs east-west through the center of the island. It's not
paved, just grass over stones which made for a bumpy landing. There's
a resort just south of the airstrip and a lighthouse on the north side
of the island. You could probably leisurely walk around the whole island
in a half hour. We didn't see any piers or inlets through the coral that
would allow boats, so we presumed the only way to get to the island was
to fly.
When we exited the plane, we immediately noticed all of the common
(white-capped) noddies nesting absolutely everywhere. The whole island
was a rookery, and most of the tree-areas were off-limits to humans. We
were instructed on how to cross the runway (at the ends or in the center
as long as the warning lights weren't flashing) and given a brief tour of
the resort. When asked how many people were there for more than just the
day, one couple raised their hands. They said they were there to just
do nothing. I couldn't believe they spent all that money to just hang
out by a pool, but that's where we saw them the rest of the day. I should
open a do-nothing resort.
The tour included snorkeling gear, so we got outfitted with that. We
were glad we paid extra for wetsuits since the water was cold. The
recommended snorkeling area was on the east side of the island just
north of the runway. But we had to be back at the snorkel shack at 11:00a
for the guided snorkel boat tour. We had a great time swimming out there
- lots of parrotfish, wrasse, and coral - we even saw a few giant clams
and a pair of eels. There were plenty of all other varieties of fish, too.
We had no wristwatch, but we guessed correctly as to when we needed to
get out to catch the snorkel boat. We got to the shack with a few minutes
to spare, we all traipsed across the runway towards the lighthouse, and
piled into the snorkel boat. The boat then proceeded to motor east,
about 100 yards away from where we were snorkeling in the first place!
The boat trip wasn't a total boondoggle because we saw 2 manta rays
swimming high enough to break the surface. We also spotted a sea turtle
and actually briefly caught up to him underwater.
The waves were getting rougher, and when everyone was back aboard the
boat, Kelly started to get nauseous. She didn't barf, luckily, and we
made it back to the beach. We went to the resort to eat a
less-than-mediocre lunch.
After lunch we tried to hit the ocean again, but the tide was on its way
out. We would have had to walk across the coral before we could get into
deep enough water to swim. So we surrendered our gear and got our cameras
for a walk around the island.
The reef looked pretty neat just barely covered by the outgoing tide.
It was easy to wade out a little and point the camera down to get a
great picture of a starfish or brain coral.
We spotted a pair of pied oystercatchers on the ground, cute little birds
with red beaks and red eyes. There were obviously plenty of noddies
around making plenty of noise. Every once in a while a larger predator
bird would fly above, such as a frigate bird. More frigate bird pictures
can be found at the
Galapagos trip.
We walked to the snack bar to have an ice cream and found a railbird.
We learned that even though they didn't appear to fly, they arrived at
the island through the air and just decided that with the lack of snakes
and plentiful food that it was a nice place to live.
We paid a visit to the gift shop and got ourselves some hats and shirts.
We got on the plane for the quick and scenic ride home. We had an equally
clear view of Hervey Bay and Fraser Island on the approach. Pauline met
us at the airport and we convinced her to stop in town at the souvenir
shops where we picked up a few gifts and a few more shirts.
That evening we ate leftovers in the house. Max and Pauline went on
about how they were trying to learn how to use the computer and internet,
and how they were going to hire a 3rd grader to teach them. We did our
laundry, too, which meant putting it all in the washing machine and then
hanging it up to dry overnight.
Some clothes didn't quite dry by morning. Max gave us a ride to the
airport and we said goodbye to a wonderful stay at Hervey Bay.
note that more Great Barrier Reef stories follow here,
but they happened later in the trip. If you want to keep reading
chronologically, go to the next stop...
We arrived at Port Douglas in about an hour and a half through the driving
rain. Port Douglas was an excellent place to catch excursions to the
Great Barrier Reef. The marina was easy to find and we talked to the
nice people at
Quicksilver Tours.
We were worried about the weather,
and finding an efficient way to return our rental car to Cairns without
getting charged for an extra day - it was due in an hour at about 12:30p.
They booked our reservations on their tour for the next day and said we
could pay for them after we were satisfied with the weather forecasts.
They also pointed us to the Avis rental office just down the road - we
should be able to just leave the car there and Quicksilver could bus us
to Cairns with our luggage. No problem, they do it all the time.
Cool. Since we had the car more than 3 days, Avis didn't charge a
drop-off fee. Plus we had until 1:30, not 12:30 as I thought. We used
the car to get lunch and get a hotel. I pulled back into their small
parking lot at 1:20 and realized I forgot to fill up with gas. Shoot!!
Off we went and we made it back just in time.
We walked the 2 blocks to our hotel and unpacked. Kelly was getting a
big headache, so I went out on my own to find some birds since the rain
had finally subsided. I finally got a halfway-decent picture of an
Australian magpie-lark and was surprised to find a forest kingfisher on a low
fence near an empty field.
I walked into the field and found a sunbird flitting around in a tree.
I also spotted a kookaburra who let me get quite close to him. I returned
to the hotel to see how Kelly was doing - a lot better, so we walked
over a block to the main strip and did some more souvenir shopping. I
also talked with our hotel lobby staff about finding a place to stay in
Cairns for the next 3 days. They set me up with a pretty good deal.
That night I tried exploring in the same field again, but all I found
was a cane toad. The northern part of Queensland has a number of sugar
cane farms and a while ago the cane beetle was ravaging them. They
introduced the non-native cane toad to kill all the cane beetles. That
worked, but then nothing would eat the cane toads, not even the pythons.
So Queensland is slowly being inundated with cane toads that are multiplying
unchecked.
The next day was still cloudy. We called the Quicksilver weather hotline
and they said it was clear over the outer reef. Cool, we're going. A
shuttle bus picked us (and our luggage) up from the front of the hotel.
We paid for our tickets and boarded the massive catamaran waiting by the
pier. My word, it was huge and packed with hundreds of tourists. I was
worried - if it was this crowded on the boat, it was gonna be a madhouse
out on the floating sea platform. We'll be lucky to get any snorkeling
in at all.
The cat ride out to the reef was smooth and we were excited that as we
traveled further east the clouds were breaking up. Less than 2 hours
later we could spot our destination platform. It was a 2-story floating
sea station complete with cafeteria, restrooms, freshwater showers, and
all snorkeling/diving equipment. Entirely made out of metal, it was
anchored to the ocean floor near a marine reserve park. A separate
pontoon a couple hundred yards off the north side served as a helicopter
landing pad for those who wanted to pay extra for a 10-minute tour of
the outer reef area.
The crowd disembarked in an orderly fashion onto the platform. We headed
immediately to the snorkel area and were surprisingly the first ones to
get our equipment (included in the tour price). We found a place for
our stuff on a cafeteria table and headed to the snorkel launch area.
It was really nice - a long metal bench had you sitting safely and
comfortably with your feet on a ledge in the water. Quicksilver personnel
were on hand to help you with your equipment if you needed it. When you
had all your equipment fastened and operating, you just stepped into the
water. Very easy, no crowds (where did everyone go anyway?), and instant
access. I was very impressed.
Kelly and I wore t-shirts to keep the sun off, and they also helped a
little to keep us warm. The water was nice, with only a few mysterious
pockets of chill. The view was great - fish and coral everywhere of
all shapes, colors, and sizes. We found a few giant clams that were
about the size of a dishwasher. And I didn't get cold.
(By the way, you'll notice the waves on the horizon of this picture.
That's the edge of the Great Barrier Reef)
We snorkeled for about an hour within the white buoyed barrier before we
decided to get out for lunch. It was just as easy to get out of the water
as it was getting in. Lunch was delicious, and afterwards we decided to
take a ride on their semi-submersible, which was also included in the
ticket price.
The semi-submersible was essentially a submarine that always kept its
top half above the water. The passenger compartment below was a long,
skinny tube. Only 2 people could sit next to each other on a retractable
bench, large inclined glass walls were on either side. The semi-submersible
launched off of the platform's dock and we were back in the reef without
getting wet. The soothing motion of the capsule rocked us gently back
and forth - I ended up falling asleep with my head against the glass and
another woman had to get back to the upper deck to keep from getting seasick.
After our half-hour ride, Kelly and I decided to go snorkeling again.
Our t-shirts weren't too cold to get back into, so we were off in a jiffy.
We stayed out for almost another hour. We came back aboard and showered
off. We collected our junk and boarded the catamaran for the coast. The
weather was starting to cloud up a bit, but there was no threat of rain.
We enjoyed another afternoon tea snack, cheese and crackers. On the way
the boat passed a small island with a lighthouse that dominated its
skyline.
From the boat we boarded a bus that took us directly to our hotel in
Cairns. We found our room and came back down to book 2 more reef
excursions with the friendly hostess. This was the first person in the
tourist industry that we had met that thought it was busy. She took
down our information and booked our trips for us while we waited.
That night we walked around the town and found a restaurant for food.
There was a Woolworth's drug and foodstore across the street from our
hotel, and we ventured in to buy some ice cream and breakfast cereal.
We came out and I finally realized what a noisy night it was. We couldn't
see any of them, but it sounded like we were smack in the middle of a
massive flock of rainbow lorikeets. They must have been hidden in the
darkness of the trees that night, but definitely not hidden from our
ears. You could barely hear the traffic over the din of those birds.
Michaelmas Cay
The next morning we awoke to board the shuttle bus that took us to the
marina. Kind of silly, since the marina was less than a half mile away,
but whatever. We were soon boarding a much nicer catamaran, the
Ocean Spirit,
bound for Michaelmas Cay. This boat had sails which they drew
as soon as we were a good distance out of the harbor. Not sure if they
did anything, but they looked nice.
We rode the whole way on the large, expansive bow of the boat beneath
the front sail. They had nice, blue mats to lie down on if you
wanted. The relaxing journey went quick, and when the boat slowed down
to anchor we took a picture of us with the desolate cay in the
background.
Michaelmas Cay was nothing more than a large sandbar. Most of it was
roped off so that the seabirds could nest there. No trees, a few
low-lying plants, and lots of terns and noddies. In fact it was explained
to us that Michaelmas was definitely not an island. You need a tree to
call it an island. Well, really you need 2 trees so that you can swing
your hammock… The cay was actually moving very slowly and geologically
across the reef. The wind would blow and move the sand a little bit
here and there. The occasional coconut might wash upon the shore and
plant itself, but the sprouting tree would always eventually fall over
because all of its sand-soil would blow away.
The Ocean Spirit anchored off the shore and a tender shuttled us out to
the beach. All snorkeling happened from the beach, but we could go back
to the boat at any time on the tender. Much less crowded than the
previous day's snorkeling adventure, we decided to snap some pictures
of the birds first.
Funny, the birds knew that humans would not go beyond the rope.
Consequently, they had no qualms about nesting right up against the border
or resting on the ropes themselves. Every once in a while a restless
tern would get up to resituate herself on her egg. One time an egg was
just a little too exposed and unguarded and it was immediately stolen
and swarmed upon by about 10 seagulls from who knows where.
The birds were constantly flying low and close, yet it was difficult to
get a good picture since they were moving fairly fast. I had to wait
for the wind to work against the birds to slow them down before I finally
snapped a decent one.
A sign on the cay explained everything. Click on the picture to get a
better view of the sign. Then, you'll be able to click on the left or
right half of the enlarged picture and you'll be able to read the sign.
We took a couple pictures of ourselves on the cay and eventually donned
our snorkeling gear. We saw pretty much the same stuff, but there were
more giant clams this time. Dang, wish we had a decent underwater camera.
We peeked our heads up above the water after a while and the tender driver
called out to us if we were hungry. Yes. Well, lunch would soon be over
so we got out of the water and headed in for the meal. The pickings
were slim, but still good, and we wolfed down whatever we could find left
on the serving platters.
Soon we were back on the beach listening briefly to a small "tour" of
the island. The most interesting thing that the guide pointed out was
the small shark that was pacing back and forth against the beach. No
worries, it was quite harmless to humans being more interested in an
unsuspecting wading bird. We were soon snorkeling again until it was
pretty much time to go. We got our cameras out one last time to catch
a picture of a pair of nesting boobies that we hadn't noticed before.
Back on the boat, we got the same spot on the bow for the ride home.
I took a quick nap and was awakened by the strum of a guitar. One of
the staff came up and started to sing "Southern Cross." After that
popular CSNY song he sung a bunch of neat Australian folk songs. It was a
real pleasant way to end a great day. As we pulled into Cairns a
helicopter buzzed overhead. We spent the evening cleaning up and finding
a place for dinner.
Green Island
The next day was our last day on the reef. We went to Green Island on
another high-speed catamaran run by
Big Cat Cruises.
This one didn't seem to be in the best
shape, though. Green Island was a whole lot closer to Cairns harbor than
Michaelmas Cay, but it took just as long to get there. The outdoor
seats were stiff and obstructed, too. Of course we made it just fine
to the island and the boat docked at the tip of a long pier.
Green Island was a small island covered by rainforest. The snorkeling
area was everything to the one side of the pier and up until the boat.
It was quite shallow, perhaps we got there at low tide? The pier was
neat because you could get a great tops-down view of the parrotfish
swimming below. The picture was distorted by the water, but it was
still fun.
The snorkeling at Green Island was a little difficult because of the
shallow water. You had to wade out almost 1/3 of the way before you
were deep enough to be able to start swimming. That's where the coral
started anyway. Even as we swam further out it seemed to get shallower
and shallower until we were worried about scraping our stomachs on the
coral as we swam. The area had some picasso triggerfish (a former pet
and one of my favorites), though, underneath the pier.
Again, we finished up snorkeling in the morning and had lunch aboard the
boat. We asked one of the crew if there were any giant clams here since
we hadn't seen them yet, and he pointed us in the direction of 2 of them.
He also said sea turtles could usually be found on the other side of the
boat. When we got back in the water and tried to swim to the other side
of the boat, we were gently rebuked for getting in the boat's waterway.
We didn't need to be ground up or run over, so we retreated back to the
other side of the pier and eventually found our clams.
We got out of the water and explored the island a bit. Not much to
explore. There is a resort on the island, and we found some sort of
white crane scrounging for human food in the outdoor restaurant area.
It took no time at all to walk directly across the island on a path,
but despite all the trees we found very few birds there.
We headed back to the pier and were halfway across it ready to board
the boat for departure when I spotted a pair of loggerhead sea turtles
in the snorkeling area. Too bad they weren't there when we were snorkeling,
but the view from the pier was excellent. In between pictures we helped
guide lucky snorkelers to where they could spot the turtles themselves
in the sea. The turtles came up for air every couple of minutes and
hardly stayed together.
We boarded our boat and headed back to Cairns. On the way out of the
island, we passed a buoy with several crested terns hanging out. The
ride back was long, and the evening was a little depressing after dinner.
This was the last real night of our trip. We had one more full day to
spend in Sydney and that was it. Our flight to Sydney left dark and
early in the morning and our trip was nearing the end….
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