Long Island, Whitsundays, December 2014

View from the balcony of our room to Happy Bay

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions for 2015 is more regular updates to the blog (or to get it up to date). For those of you keeping track it hasn't been updated in over two years, yikes! It isn't that we haven't been on any adventures (quite the opposite) but have been busy and behind in sharing it with our friends and family. There have been requests for updates, especially from my Grandma in Oregon who enjoys reading this. I've decided to start with the most recent trip and work backwards. I hope you enjoy and well wishes to you and your family for 2015.

Agile Wallaby

A view to  resort and Happy Bay

Between Christmas and New Year we had a three night vacation on Long Island in the Whitsundays in Tropical Central Queensland. It is high season because of the Christmas and New Year holidays and summer break from schools in Australia. Luckily I found an airfare special several months ago and decided to go for it a book the trip.

We flew into Hamilton Island airport and then took a 30 minute boat ride to our destination of Long Island. Tropical temperatures (30C/ 86F), nice sea breezes, and an amazing blue and turquoise colored waters were there to great us. There were also some local wildlife (wallaby, many birds, and geckos). In the water we were lucky to see some turtles, dolphins, and various fish (from the dock or when snorkeling). For us the main purpose of the trip was to relax and spend time together.

The water in Happy Bay was very calm (a few additional waves with an oncoming boat or jet ski) and quite warm (29C/ 84F) and even hot if you were swimming or standing the shallow water at low tide. So warm when I was swimming in from snorkeling into shore that I had to stop swimming it was to hot for me to stand it anymore!

The tide was quite dramatic varying by as much as 3 meters (9.8 feet) and the water would recede leaving a large section of beach exposed. We enjoyed watching the crabs digging away at the sand at low tide and did some snorkeling one morning at low tide as well.


Happy Bay at low tide

Happy Bay at low tide

Most of the island is a national park (there are two resorts) and there are some trails for hiking. Though most of the trails are within the forest and shaded, hiking anytime during the day was quite hot.


Sandy Bay beach


We did a few hikes including one afternoon out to Sandy Bay which was just over 4km (~2.5 miles) away. Once we arrived at the bay we were rewarded with a beach all to ourselves for the afternoon! The water felt great to cool off in after the hike. A boat or two passed by and a group on jet skis but otherwise it was very quiet and peaceful. 


Mudskipper

We also enjoyed "discovering" a new animal we hadn't seen before, mudskippers. These are fish that are able to walk and skip using their fins on land and breathe out of water through their skin. We were luckily enough to observe three of them playing where the waves lapped the beach or just above the waves on the wet sand.


Batfish

There were plenty of options for other free activities that we participated in including mini-golf, swimming or playing in the water, snorkeling, kayaking, peddling a paddle boat, lazing about in a hammock or sitting on the beach. We could have ventured off the island to Whitehaven Beach or to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef (both which we had visited a few years back with some friends on our first trip to the Whitsundays). We decided to just stay on the island and do a bit of exploring on our own.  Every afternoon the staff at the resort feed the Batfish (and a couple other fish and seagulls join in the action) at the end of the dock. There were close to a dozen when we watched and they are quite quick, even jumping out of the water!
 

Pandanus trees

Pandanus Bay

One night we ventured onto the hiking trails to go star gazing away from the lights of the resort. The main wildlife we spotted on the trail was cane toads. We ended up at Pandanus Bay and despite some clouds were able to do a bit of viewing with our binoculars or just with our eyes. Wandering around the rocky beach at low tide (with our flashlight and headlamp) we encountered "drop snails" as we referred to them. As we walked across the rocks covered in these snails they would detach and drop off the rocks in large numbers. We could hear them dropping all around us (likely from the light) to hide. The next day on our longer hike we stopped back to check out the beach during daylight at high tide.

It was just the right amount of time for us on the island and a great relaxing trip!



 

Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef (trip #3)

Hi friends an family, we apologize for the greater than six month delay in our blog. We will start by catching up from our most recent trip last week (June 3rd- 6th) and then try to fill in the intervening months.

Sunset overlooking Airlie Beach Marina (Courtesy of Casey)

Whitehaven Beach

We were fortunate to have our third group of visitors from the USA this past week. Casey and Josh are friends of ours from university. As we have been to the Great Barrier Reef twice in the past year with different groups, first to the outer reef outside Cairns in July 2011 and then to the reef outside 1770/Agnes Waters in March 2012 we decided to pick a new location in the middle. As the Great Barrier Reef is 2600 kilometers (1600 miles) long with over 2900 separate reefs so there is a lot of reef to explore.

On Sunday we flew to Proserpine airport and took a shuttle bus into the town of Airlie Beach. We spent three nights at Marina Shores in one of their two bedroom apartments overlooking the marina. We had picture perfect weather the entire time.

In the clear water of Whitehaven Beach

On Monday we sailed out to Whitehaven Beach on the catamaran Camira with Cruise Whitsundays. The 7km (4.3 mile) beach stretches in a long crescent. The sand is very pure silica (98% pure) and white like snow. Unfortunately due to the full moon and extra high tides there were large quantities of leaves left as the tide receded taking away from how white the sand actually is. The water was very clear and calm and we could see fish swimming around us as well. We had a nice time playing in the water, swimming, and strolling along the beach.

The group on Camira return trip to Airlie at sunset

We also stopped for some snorkeling in Hook Passage which is a fringing reef off Hook Island on the way back to Airlie Beach. The water visibility wasn't very good but there was a variety of corals (including soft corals) and fish present. There was also a sea turtle hanging out on the reef which we were able to visit as well.

At Reefworld on the Great Barrier Reef

On Tuesday we headed out to the Great Barrier Reef with tour operator Fantasea out to their Reefworld pontoon. This pontoon has been anchored for the past 30 years near the edge of Hardy Reef.

First we did a glass bottomed boat tour on their "semi-submersible" to get a good look at the fish and corals present on the reef (while staying dry). A staff member was present to explain what fish and coral species were were seeing and to answer our questions.


Next we suited up in our aqua stinger suits (except David) and wetsuits. As it is winter here in Australia it isn't stinger season but there is a remote chance of encountering a stinger (jellyfish) and we thought they would keep us a bit warmer as well. The water temperature was 23C (73F) but you did get cool after a bit.

We started off with a guided snorkel tour where the four of us were with a marine biologist. We got to see a variety of fish including Pink Anemone Fish (relatives of Nemo), Christmas Tree Worms, and a Pink-Faced Devil Fish (if I recall correctly) that was very protective of its territory of algae on the reef. Our guide tossed a shell in the Devil Fish's area and it promptly picked it up and removed it out of the way which was very cool to watch.

Barrier Reef Anemone Fish and Anemones

We continued snorkeling on our own for a while and saw a variety of fish, corals (mostly hard corals) and anemones. David was successful in capturing some excellent photos with our underwater camera (see left and below).

Most of the fish were found along the edge/shelf of the reef as this is the growing edge of the reef. However, some like the Devil Fish and Parrotfish were present in the shallow water on top of the reef.

Parrotfish (males are brightly colored)

While we were snorkeling along the edge of the reef  a large school of Parrotfish were heading in the same direction so we were able to observe them for quite some time. Parrotfish nibble on the hard coral with their parrot-shaped beak (mouth) to get to the algae. You can actually hear the fish chomping on the coral underwater. They grind the coral and when the poop generate sand. One fish can generate up to 90kg (198lbs) of sand per year. We were told on our tour that parrot fish may be responsible for generating 15% of the sand in the ocean. 

Crocea (Boring) Clam (species)

The pontoon also had an underwater viewing area where you could observe fish that were swimming by as well. By the time our boat left many areas of the reef were beginning to become exposed during the low tide.

We had a great day out on the reef and this was the most fish we had observed in the three trips we have taken. Each area of the reef we have visited have been different with the types of coral and fish present.