Ever heard of it?
Neither had I, but on looking for a place to see the Great Barrier Reef, it seemed to be the place to go. Being so far south, the impact of Cyclone Debbie and bleaching has missed this spot. This is it - and yes, a large chunk is taken up by the airstrip.
We booked in for three nights in an eco-cabin before Christmas.
I'd heard it was renown for bird life so reminded myself 100 times not to forget my binoculars. It turned out I didn't need them. December is breeding time for these guys and, they're literally everywhere. Some poor unsuspecting tourist had the bacon taken off his plate and breakfast! If you don't care for birds, this isn't the time of year to visit, but apparently, they all disappear in February.
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| Bird's eye view of the birds |
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| No binoculars required!!! |
The real attraction is the snorkelling. We saw a Spotted Eagle Ray (no Mantas, unfortunately), large reef sharks (about 2 metres), a mother of a stingray - perhaps nearly 2 metres across, nestling into the sand, a huge moray eel, a row reef squid that were eye-balling Elle and me in some kind of surreal Mexican stand-off, a massive grouper, trumpet fish, batfish that look like super-sized angel fish and hundreds of others. And each time, we saw turtles! Some as small as a dinner plate but most the size of an occasional table.
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| A whole row of these guys was just.. so...weird |
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| Eagle Ray - they're big! |
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| More of these than you could point a stick at |
It was the egg-laying season for the turtles so a night walk along the beach was less about possibly seeing one and more like how many. They were very busy girls!
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| Gorgeous sunsets |
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To quote another guest;
"Turtle, crab, sunset - I don't know which way to look!!!" |
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| Hermit crabs aplenty on the beach in the evening |
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| I BYO-ed champagne. They were happy to provide glasses! |
If you like a nap when you're on holiday, be warned, the eco-cabins (in fact, I suspect all the cabins) get very hot in the afternoons. There's no aircon, but they do have a ceiling fan - which changes it from being in an oven to being in a fan-forced over. Sass tried napping on the deck out the front, but baby birds kept jumping on her!!
Anyway, if you like a bit of what nature has to offer, I'd recommend it.
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