Heron land paradise
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
4
6
Trip End
Dec 18, 2006
Heron Island,
Australia
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
We want to thank each and every one of you who gave us money towards an experience for our wedding. We decided to splurge and use it towards a week on the Great Barrier Reef. First, we took a helicopter out to the island which was absolutely amazing!!! We saw turtles, rays and sharks from above. Plus the day we flew out was very calm so the pilot was able to fly us very close to the water, it was an amazing experience!!!
We are currently on Heron Island which is about 3 hours off the Coast of Brisbane Australia. The Island itself is small we can walk the perimeter in under an hour but it has lots to offer. The island is part of the reef so you can just walk onto the beach and have a snorkel. Heron island is also home to many types of birds species and there are currently over 100,000 birds nesting on the island! We have birds outside our window and they sing, fight and talk all day and all night long. My favorites are the mutton birds, which are sea birds that make their nests in the ground and stay up all night singing a very unique song much like a baby crying!!! Thank goodness for the complimentary ear plugs in our rooms. The hotel is an eco friendly hotel with 110 rooms. We were fortunate enough to get a ocean front room and we can see the reef and beach from our balcony.
The snorkeling is the best we have ever seen. On the first day, I counted 15 black tip and white tip reef sharks around us at one time. There are dozens of big majestic turtles not at all afraid and just going about their business. Yesterday we snorkeled a wreck and saw some amazing tropical fish. The reef is so alive an vibrant!! During snorkeling we also a saw clown fish so yes, we found Nemo. We also saw a sea hare which is a huge snail like creature that is looks like a giant piece of romaine lettuce. One big plus is that it is green turtle nesting season and we got up one morning at the of dawn to view the turtles coming up on the beach to lay their eggs. It was a much better experience than Toreguero ( our volunteer experience in Costa Rica)Withing 30 feet of our room, we saw over 15 turtles surface lay their eggs and then return to the ocean. It was a spectacular experience. I would highly recommend this Island to all who love both marine animals and birds. We did dive but found the snorkeling at this particular spot had more fish and critters than the dive so we opted for more snorkeling than diving. Justin did do a night dive and saw turtles but did not see any sharks Of all our experiences so far this was the coolest! Being so up close with both marine life and birds (We had two birds visit us every morning and hang out with us on the porch) is such a wonderful we would definitely come back here! We are leaving today heading back to the main land and driving to Brisbane, hopefully our driving skills will improve. We will be meeting up with our friends. Will write more later
Cheers,
C and J
