Lady Musgrave Island and Turtles
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2007
1
9
23
Trip End
Jul 05, 2007
Lady Musgrave Island, Queensland,
Australia
Monday, June 18, 2007
Lady Musgrave is a small uninhabited protected island at the southern end of the barrier reef which promised to give us an opportunity to snorkle. The 90 minute crossing was pretty smooth and gave us time to catch up on a bit of sleep and for the temperature to warm up a little. The mornings and evenings in Oz at this time of year are bloody cold!
Sightings of whales and dolphins during the crossing excited the largely Japanese/Chinese clientelle and they all moved excitedly to one end of the boat. Nooooo!!! It looked like a "Marchioness" type incident was afoot but they calmed and returned to their seats.
The skies cleared and we anchored at a man-made pontoon just off shore. Within minutes we were stripped down to trunks and snorkling on the reef. What an amazing experience. The hundreds of species of fish and coral in the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea were well worth the 60 quid alone. Just before lunch we boarded a glass bottom boat and took the trip onto the island itself for a guided walk. This again was a fantastic experience and also (against the rules of visiting the island) gave us the opportunity to pick up some coral and shells to bring back for the office fish tank!
More snorkling later in the afternoon on the reef, swimming with a turtle and sightings of stingrays (luckily no sharks though!)
A long journey down to our next destination followed our trip off the Island pitching up late doors at Rainbow Beach staying at the Double Iisland Drive appartments which Angela had very kindly recommended and booked for us during our journey. The peasants started to revolt at this stage and we all insisted that we couldnt possibly do another early morning after such a long drive. However, tide times for the trip across to Fraser Island meant we were largely overruled and unfortunately , had to set our alarms for 6.00am yet again!
