Paradise on the Reef
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
22
44
Trip End
Dec 22, 2004
Fitzroy Island,
Australia
Monday, October 25, 2004
The morning after our first night in Cairns, we made our way down to the marina to catch the Fitzroy Flyer, sounds like something dodgy you'd pick up in Belfast's university area, to Fitzroy Island for the start of our trip to tropical northern Queensland. The ferry only took half an hour, and when we arrived we were taken aback at how beautiful the place was, it really was how you'd imagine a tropical paradise, actually quite similar to Parati in Brazil, which seems so long ago now. The beaches were white, a mixture of sand and coral, and the sea was a gorgeous shade of blue. We did nothing much really for the rest of that day apart from just relax - how nice! We took a walk to the strangely named Nudey Beach, there were no nudeys there thankfully. It took a 15 minute walk to get to it through part of the rainforest.
The Rainforest:
There were massive lizards everywhere, but not scary, and strange big birds would appear every so often from behind a bush
"Nudey" Beach
. The "spider" thought, though was still at the forefront of our minds. Then, low and behold, fate showed itself in the form of a spider's web which would fit even big Shelob, the monster spider from Lord of The Rings. Jillian just uttered the words "look at the size of that..." then abruptly stopped when even her spectacle-needing eyes saw the gigantic spider right in the middle of the web. "Look at the size of that..." and she stopped again, frozen with fear and excitement as she got out her camcorder to capture the beast as proof! It was really massive! About the size of a big man's big hand, really. It had bits of blue on it too, and just looked like it was dying to bite and poison and kill us right there and then! It had massive big eyes that were staring right at us, we swear, it's all captured on tape! Less of the drama now, and back to beautiful Fitzroy Island..."Nudey" Beach:
We arrived at the postcard perfect "Nudey" Beach traumatised, and stayed there til sunset, watching the beautiful Australian sky change from magnificent colour to colour. The water was surprisingly warm, although we didn't venture too far past our ankles with the all too familiar "du du, du du, du du du du du du du du..." tune in our minds
Deep colours of the Australian Sky
! At the beach we had our third encounter with the resident plague - a Kiwi called Glen who followed us to the beach and then insisted on pulling up a chair and staring down our throats while we ate our dinner later that night - another freak from Wellington, no doubt! That night we lay in awe at the sounds of Fitzroy Island which included crickets, birds, trees rustling, a fan going full whammy and bangs on the corrugated iron roof of our beach bunkhouse which was fruit the fruit bats were dropping while having their midnight feast!Mother Nature's Alarm Clock:
The next morning it was up bright and early - not because we had to get up, but because the sounds of Fitzroy Island were once again music to our ears - this time it was cuckatoos, parrots and lorikeets chirping away to tell us what a beautiful day it was - indeed! The sun was out in all its glory and the sky was a beautiful blue. (Fitzroy Island has to be described in this way - it is very deserving of a fairy tale!) As we ate breakfast by the pool, white parrots flew above our heads and the sound of the waves bringing more coral to shore was like windchimes. Some things you will never forget.
Kayaking:
Today was our sea kayaking trip
Fitzroy Island
. We got kitted out in all the gear and learnt, or tried to pretend we understood how to steer and row the kayaks, which were made of fibre glass - which meant it was quite awkward to get out to say the least! We got in the kayak after a few giggles and began the paddling. Jillian went at the back to steer and Andy was at the front to control the paddling. Can you imagine the hack of us?? "You're not paddling right!" "You need to steer it!" "Why are you paddling so fast, stop holding your paddle like that, you've no rhythm!" "Watch the rock you're steering us over to!" "I should have went at the back" "I should have went at the front!" What fun we had! We do understand each other immensely, though, and so after a few hiccups we were cruising around Fitzroy Island. We stopped off at "Nudey Beach" (where once again there were no nudeys, just Glen desperately waving to get our attention - Help!) for about half an hour, got the snorkelling gear on and into the Reef. We were both so amazed at the amount of fish there were so close to the shore line, and the size of them too. It was such a beautiful experience, so many brightly coloured fish all congregated round the corals - neons, zebra fish, bright green ones, pure white ones - we were hooked! Another hour or so of kayaking and we'd be back in the reef again!As we were getting back into the kayaks, Jillian's trousers were somehow soaked, so she stupidly decided not to wear any..
Lionfish
. 3 times she put factor 30 for kids on and still, the Australian sun frazzled her! Although the real pain didn't kick in 'til later that night... Anyway, we kayaked right round Fitzroy Island and over to Little Fitzroy Island where the guides unveiled our picnic - hard to eat in that heat, though! Andy spied a massive eel in the water and we both watched the most beautiful emerald green crabs with swirls on their backs hide for shelter from the scorching sun, or us. After lunch we walked, sorry, rock-climbed to the top of Little Fitzroy for a spectacular view, then back down through a cave. Flippers on again and it was back into the Great Barrier Reef where we were promised we'd see even biggerfish - we did! We've got some amazing photos we took with an underwater camera. The fish were much bigger this time and we'd more time to go exploring. What was strange is that the fish didn't actually seem scared of us and were even at times quite inquisitive, swimming up to us for a good look - probably never seen legs as pink before! We saw so many different fish but our favourite was a big rainbow coloured one that seemed to dominate the others - its colours were amazing. Even just swimming over the coral was an adventure in itself. The most exciting part, though was when we noticed quite a big ray camouflaged in the sand, then he moved and swam away. Being under water there was so satisfying, you're in a totally different world where fish in the wild are allowing you to swim with them, to get close enough to take a photo
Little Fitzroy Island
. All you can hear is the soothing sound of the coral being swept by the current, just like windchimes. Swimming around, just the two of us, pointing and discovering, it was just brilliant! Andy actually got out first and Jillian, usually nervousof the water, ventured away on by herself with 3 photos left on the film. Andy just watched in amazement at his girlfriend who was enjoying the beauty of the world, all alone in waterswhereyoucould easily have bumped into a shark. How this trip is changing us!Romance:
After kayaking back to Fitzroy Island, we took a siesta and then got ready for our last meal on the island, where Glen attacked us again!!! After politely, but abruptly declining all his invitations, we found the most perfect table right beside the ocean to have our last meal on Fitzroy Island. We had the most beautiful, romantic night. After dinner we walked down to the pier and to our surprise the reef was alive! Whatever way the lights were shining on it, you could see everything! There were neons all jumping out of the water, trying to escape the mouths of the bigger fish, big long black fish, flying fish, sea snakes, giant clams and the most beautiful sight of four Lionfish, close relatives of Scorpionfish for those in the know, probably just Andy's uncle Brendan, gracefully swimming with their fan-like fins and spikes
Paradise Sunset
. These fish can be really poisonous if you get stung by the spikes on their fins, but watching them from a safe distance was beautiful.Relaxation:
The next day we lounged around the pool, explored exposed coral while the tide was out and enjoyed our last sights and sounds of the beautiful Fitzroy Island paradise on the Great Barrier Reef. Just as we were leaving, though, was another wonderful surprise... we were sitting on the boat, ready to go when neons started jumping out of the water again, which caught our eye, then a gorgeous turtle just swam right past us!
Oh what a perfect few days!
