Day 5 – The Most Morbidly Interesting Island You Could Imagine

Thankfully, we went to sleep pretty early last night which helped immensely at 5.40 when our alarms went off this morning. Today was another opportunity for us to tick off another UNESCO World Heritage Site – The Great Barrier Reef! We did this with a day tour with Lady Musgrave Experience out to a pontoon just off the coast of Lady Musgrave Island, with close access to the Great Barrier Reef. To get there, it was a 20 minute drive from our accommodation to Bundaberg Port Marina, where we got into a huge catamaran to travel for 2.5 hours out in open ocean. I had never travelled open ocean before now, so I was slightly anxious, but also very keen to experience something new. Before boarding, they divided the 150 people on the day tour into 5 groups. You were either clownfish, seahorses, turtles, sharks or dolphins. We were part of the seahorse team, which meant we were getting in the water first to see the Reef. Having only snorkelled once before and in very calm waters, this was a little intimidating. I managed to work myself up into quite an anxious state during the sail there.

When we finally arrived at the pontoon, you could see nothing but bright blue waters surrounding you, with slightly darker patches where the Reef was growing to the right, and the Island out a few hundred metres ahead of you. It was a magical site, and I was a little distracted by it while trying to listen to the briefing we were receiving before hopping in the water. The crew member giving us the run down explained that there were a few different areas we could visit on the reef – a turtle cleaning station where turtles regularly come to power down and get a clean off by the surrounding small fish, who will eat any algae and crud off the skin and shell of the turtle, and the aquarium, which was an opening amongst the coral where many fish accumulate, along with some reef sharks and larger schooling fish. I had gotten in control of my nerves for a bit – until I got the snorkel mask on, and in the water. It is so difficult to go against your survival instincts and put your head underwater and breathe! I tried to use the snorkel for awhile, but decided to grab a pool noodle and float around enjoying the scenery and taking some blind underwater photos to sneak a peek at the Reef. I do feel like I let myself down here, and it’s something that’ll probably nag at me when remembering the experience, but I am so glad I went out there and gave it a crack. I got to witness the pure joy of people around me seeing their first turtle in their natural habitat, and the schools of fish and huge heads of coral. I was happy just sharing in their happiness.

Time goes quickly when you’re having fun, so before we knew it, it was the seahorse team being called out for some lunch. We got our plates and headed upstairs to get the best views, but with nothing stopping the wind in the open seas, it was difficult keeping your food on your utensils while on the trip from your plate to your mouth. The seahorses next activity was a glass boat tour over the reef and heading to the island itself. We were taken on the glass boat by our guide Alex (who is an absolute legend, and needs all the praise in the world for the job he’s doing, you’ll learn a bit more about why soon). This is where we got to see the reef up close and learn about some of the creatures we saw and how the coral protects itself from the UV rays when the tide goes out and the reef sticks out of the water, by excreting its own sunscreen which is SPF 80+! Why they don’t bottle that and sell it i’ll never know. It was during this tour that we got to see a green sea turtle having its spa day at the reef, with loads of little fish doing their duties and cleaning off all the algae.

It felt like a short trip over, and I could have watched the coral and fish all day, but we were coming up to the shore of Lady Musgrave island already and it was time to disembark. I very quickly found that there is so much I didn’t know about Lady Musgrave Island. Like the fact that it’s completely made up of dead coral and corpses of Black Noddy Terns, which one of the main bird residents on the island. This is actually how the island sustains the large trees that grow on the island, as they would not be able to get any nutrients from the coral sand alone. Now this actually happens because when the Terns pair up to breed, it’s the males job to collect leaved from the forrest floor to make a nest, but the female is very picky, so sends the male away if he tries to bring any subpar leaves. When the male is on the forrest floor looking for leaves, he picks up sticky pisonia seeds in his feathers, which unfortunately over time weighs him down to the point where he will perish on the forrest floor, adding to the environmental circle that sustains the island. So when you think about it, this island is a graveyard, made of the skeletons of the reef and the residents of the island – kind of badass?

We were toured through the trees and then back to the shore, where we were able to walk along the beach with the remnants of dead coral. Picking up and inspecting all the different types of coral was fascinating, and hearing the sounds that they make when they hit each other was incredible – I want to make a wind chime out of it, just to take that amazing sounds home! It would be nice to do that, but the whole island, its residents and its sand are all protected, meaning that we can thoroughly enjoy the treasures along the beach, but cannot take them home with us.

Before too long, we were back on board the glass bottom boat, heading back to the pontoon to either swim for a little bit more, or wait for the last tour to come back from the island before we all board the boat to start the journey back home. As we had all just dried off, we opted to just enjoy the views for a little longer. But unfortunately, it was the time of day where we had to leave this beautiful place and start the journey home. As someone who has no experience with open ocean travel, with the only measure of normal being the trip out to reef, this was about to be an eye opening experience. The crew mentioned that it was a little bit more choppy than usual, but I don’t think we were really prepared for the conditions. I wont go too into it because frankly, i’m still a bit traumatised, but the shining light was definitely the crew. The respect, compassion and care I was able to witness towards the ill passengers was heartwarming. Alex was a super star, helping every person he possibly could.

Turns out, I have a deep love for oceanic creatures and environments, but I’m terrified of the ocean. Go figure?

2.5 hours of hell behind us, we were back on solid ground. While we were on Lady Musgrave island, our guide mentioned that there was still a chance that we would be able to see the turtle hatchlings make their journey to the ocean in a couple of key areas that were nearby our accommodation. So we decided that we would go back to the room for a comfort stop, before heading back to a beach to see if we can tick off one more of those bucket list experiences. We tried two different beaches, and was unsuccessful in finding any turtles. But we did get to enjoy a magnificent mood rising, highlighting the waves – that was pretty special. Plus Amy kicked a cane toad (he was fine), so we got to see a few of those and a cute little tree frog on our adventure.

We’ve all had such a long day and were feeling pretty tired. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed home for another early night. We are moving on tomorrow to Mooloolaba. We will have a few stops along the 3 hour drive, but it will be a pretty quiet day.