Wednesday - On the Great Barrier Reef

We are quite getting into the rising at first light routine and today we were on the beach with our snorkels and flippers (plus cossies of course) getting in a bit of beach snorkelling. Once Rosena stopped breathing through her nose while under water things went quite well and we saw a few creatures on the sea bottom. It was soon time for a shower then breakfast.


Because of the fairly strong winds the trip that we had booked in a semi-submersible had been cancelled so we went back to the beach for a bit more snorkelling. This was followed by a bird walk where one of the resort staff showed us the different species on the island and told us a bit about them. These are white capped noddies.



Lunch was sandwiches ordered the previous evening, you can eat lots here if you want to, but it costs. After lunch we went on a guided reef walk which was a bit of a bun fight but we saw some amazing sights. Between the rain showers and the risk of falling in the sea we didn't take a camera but one of the other guests did and we were able to scrounge a few photos. Nobody was fast enough to get a picture of the 3 foot long Moray Eel which glided past us in knee deep water - even the resident guide was rather surprised as she had never seen one in the lagoon before.

Later we decided to do our own little walk in the shallows to see if we could photograph some interesting wildlife and were able to get a few of them.Then it was time for sundowners on the verandah before a sunset walk on the beach to see if we could spot any hatching turtles but we were out of luck. We had a proper Aussie supper of Barramundi (the fish, not the wine) and then retired to listen to the mutton birds howling.