filling in the blanks. lady elliot.
hello there from byron bay.
let me first take us back to lady elliot island, filling in the blanks. we flew over on that tiny 14-seater plane and the island from the air was beautiful (it's tiny and completely surrounded by that turquoise color that means "this is good reef!") except that there was a shaven strip across the entire center of it. the airstrip. not paved, thank goodness, but it really looked like an injury amongst the trees covering most of the rest of the cay. There were also birds. lots and lots of birds. thousands. tens of thousands. most of them were black noddys. also known as white-capped noddys. they're this graceful black bird with a thin beak and the striking aspect of them is it looks like someone took a thumbful of white charcoal and just smeared it back over the top of their heads. it blends perfectly back into their jet black feathers at the neck. really pretty birds. but lots of them. so many that much of what was on the island (trees, rocks, chairs, tents, buildings, me) got stained with poo falling like rain from above. it pays to stay sheltered.
The resort was not quite as shmancy as i had hoped, given the amount of dough we'd laid out for the trip, but it all ends well. we stayed in a "tent cabin" which was a permanent tent - wood structure with canvas over it - with 4 bunk beds in it - all to ourselves. after arriving, adjusting to the lack of shmance, we joined a beachcombing tour. Nabia spotted both the deathly cone-shaped shell of a snail that has a tentacle that shoots poison strong enough to drop 10 people like so much bird poo and a dried specimen of a bluebottle jellyfish. better known to most of us non-australians as a portugese man-o-war. not something you want to muck around with. but aside from these horribly dangerous creatures, there was nothing around that wanted to kill us. even the bluebottles were few and far between, assured nadine the tour lady. little did she know the danger that we were yet to uncover...
so. we had some lunch. when we booked the tour out in childers, we looked at the brochure and saw that the day trip included a buffet lunch. then the overnight tariff included dinner and breakfast. we double checked: so everything's included? all our meals?" "yep. all included." great. when we got there, we found that if in fact you stay overnight, they take your frickin free lunch away! rude. so we went into reception and complained that it was confusing and it just seems from the brochure that whine whine whinge (that's what they say here: whinge), and so they just gave in and handed over the meal ticket. satisfied with ourselves, we heaped our plates at the buffet. nothing so spectacular as to deserve mention here, but food nonetheless.
next up was the glass bottom boat tour. included in the overnight tariff, this one was. funny how they made it right after lunch. it's as though they almost WANT people to spew. but we survived, and in the process saw lots of fishes - some big, some small, a shovelhead ray, and a sea turtle! there's also a shipwreck out there. apparently a big 6 meter moray eel lives in there. apparently. i did not investigate further.
after the tour, we read a while on shore (completely covered in dead white coral pieces - tough on the feet, but pretty) until we stopped swaying, then headed in at high tide, armed with mask, fins, and snorkels. as soon as our faces were in the water, we saw tons and tons of fish. all different kinds. and THEN we swam around. it was really shallow at first - sometimes i felt like i had to suck in or scrape the tips of the staghorn coral - but soon it deepened out a fair bit. we had beautiful weather and the visibility was fantastic. we could see probably at least 30 meters in any direction. the coral there is just about pristine. apparently a cyclone came through about 3 years ago and damaged it severely- so most of what's grown in is very young - plate coral, cabbage coral, honeycomb coral in mint green and brown, brain coral, staghorn coral with little blue tips showing where the new polyps are growing... and fish. so many fish. seargent majors (6 striped), damselfish, triggerfish, TONS of sea cucumbers (spiny and otherwise), little baby fish, big momma fish, even a couple of big daddy fish.
i won't bore you with MORE of the details, but major highlights included: drifting above a lagoon ray as it flew along the sandy bottom of the reef. getting accidentally enveloped in a school of thousands of silvery fish - they were actually swimming in circles completely around us. i felt very accepted. and the big topper of all: na and i were out pretty far - it was fairly deep. a couple of other snorkellers headed in towards the beach past us and then i spied some shadowy figure just past Nabia, who was only a couple meters away from me. i thought it must be another snorkeller, but as the current moved me to a slightly different vantage point, i noted that the being was somehow thicker than a person would be. it was a huge old loggerhead sea turtle, grabbing some breaths at the surface RIGHT behind nabia. we swam over. it was big. probably 5 feet from head to tail. we were on either side of it. we touched its shell. covered in algae and slippery from it. we stared, mouths as agape as possible without drowning us, as it tipped its neck up and gobbled some more air, and then again, before diving - excuse me - flying (flapping of front fins - really looks like flying) - back down to the bottom. there it stayed, looking for all intents and purposes like a big rock. except for the head and the legs. we were so excited. we snorkelled for a bit longer, and i was in a bit of a daze from our close encounter. we finally beached ourselves, reading more (i read the book Down Under by Bill Bryson, graciously lent to me by Barbara and Don), which is tremendously entertaining. After a while we headed back to our tent cabin, took a nice rinse-off in the showers, and then went back out to the western side of the island to watch a beautiful golden sunset with that one perfect cloud just above the horizon - so you can see the sun above and below it before it drops out of view. lovely. and then the dinner buffet. slightly more involved than the lunch buffet, but again nothing to comment on. except that i was really excited for what looked like warm brownies, but turned out to be chocolate goo from a box - and not any good kind, either. and we stole some cheese and crackers for lunch the next day. we didn't want to push the issue with any continued whinging.
after dinner we took a little stroll on the beach, hoping to find a hatching nest of sea turtles (lady elliot is a popular nesting site), but gave up soon after - we'd had our turtle experience for the day. we were pretty exhausted, and so turned in, amidst the sounds of squawking birds and falling poo, but happy.
next morning we shook ourselves awoke for sunrise. i was really tired - bunk beds, no matter the location, do not afford the most restful sleep - but if given a chance to watch a sunrise from a coral cay in the middle of the pacific ocean, you take it. so we went and watched - golden and beautiful again. and the birds went mad. and we actually saw one brave soul of a snorkeller get in the cold-from-the-lack-of-sun water. good for him. we went back to sleep for an hour or so. but on the way, Nabia spied a hatchling that had been distracted up into the resort by the bright lights. it thought they were the moon and headed dutifully in that direction. they should be much more vigilant. these animals are endangered, and they wander up into the resort all the time, most of them probably get devoured by birds once the sun comes up and before anyone can save them. we put him in the drawer of our night table while we napped and until the office was open. we returned him to be released that evening. and made our way to another uneventful buffet. then back to the yesterday's beach for more snorkelling.
Twas good yet again. so many fish - you can watch them for hours. it's like reality TV, i guess. you can see their relationships and fights - they do it too. so cool. highlights of THIS snorkel include: a black tipped reef shark. freaked me out at first, but it didn't want to eat me, so i calmed myself down and it was gone anyway. another turtle - green this time, and relatively young. i proudly spotted it (i don't know how - they really just look like rocks) on the ocean floor, and we waited around until it came up for air. it was probably about a foot and half or two feet - a virtual baby in turtle scale - probably only 40 years old or so. we stared until he went back to his spot on the ocean floor, and then saw a spotted octopus blurbling along the coral right nearby. it seemed to change color as it went. (i understand that blurbling isn't actually a word, but it's the best i can do to describe how it moved). awesome. by the time we made our way back towards the shore, as my fingers and lips were quite pruny. we got into the shallower water and this little fish (later found out it was a triggerfish) swam menacingly straight at my mask and then out in a wide circle and bag to wiggle towards me again. it was kind of funny, so i backed off each time, but it kept doing it. nabia came over to see what i was staring at and it swam harder at her and actually nipped her on the finger! Nabia was bitten by a fish. nadine had not warned us about these vicious little buggers. they look like they were made by a wallpaper designer from the 80s. that kind of a color combination and rounded edges. she came away all digits intact, but somewhat traumatized.
we read a bit on the shore, got pooped on a little, and then i just had to go in one last time. no matter that it was low tide. no matter it was the height of the sunny day. i had to go. we were scheduled to depart the island in 2 hours and i wasn't ready to say goodbye. well, not every idea of mine is a great one, as hard as that is to grasp. the shallow parts were extreme now - and i had to choose a path - felt kind of like a big maze. you might pick a route that had a dead end - one you couldn't swim over, then you'd have to turn back. it was tough going and the waves got pretty big and tried to knock us off course, but i don't think i killed too much coral and we made it out to the deeper area. the only exciting thing we saw out there that we hadn't seen before was bright blue starfish. a few of them. but our underwater camera had run out of film by that time, so sadly we couldn't snap any more photos. after a little more floating about, we struggled and negotiated our way back to the shore, searching for the sandy channels. most of the way in, i encountered our foe the triggerfish, who started wriggling towards me again, and even as i backed off and tried to go around, she chased me. so i high-finned it out of there and back to the relative safety of the shore. apparently it's the triggerfish's nesting season and they can be somewhat aggressive when snorkellers get too close to their stashes of eggs. i'll say.
we rinsed off again and ate our stolen cheese and crackers before taking off back towards the mainland in an EVEN SMALLER plane - 10 seater this time. no aisle at all. our sole lady pilot did a lovely job though.
back in hervey bay, don was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. as i mentioned in my previous blog, we did an unsuccessful kangaroo search, then yum dinner (wombok salad, tuna msomething, and green beans) and chatting, and looking at pictures of don's bushwalking adventures he goes on every other friday. and i broke a chair.
moving on, i did indeed board the bus to brisbane early the next morning, waved farewell to don and barbara, and spent the next 4 hours coming in and out of consciousness and getting reaquainted with my iRiver and mp3 collection, which i have sorely missed.
ok. short versions now, my wrists are getting tired, and i'm sure your eyes are too: arrived in brisbane and spent our 3 hour lay-over with rhode islander brook(e), a 25 year old who was living in NY after attending NYU - he worked for HBO Sports covering boxing and such things and was on his way that evening to glorious New Zealand. we were more than happy to gab, and so we did. then onto the express bus down here to byron bay, in New South Wales, which is an hour behind Queensland because they do daylight savings down here but not up there. it's more commercial than i wanted it to be. more rave than chill. more loud than quiet. the hostel we've been looking for is bigger and more expensive than i'd prefer, but after a really nice yoga class and some daylight, it's looking much better. it's got a movie theater which we plan on taking advantage of at least once - apparently it's "fully sick" - stocked with bean bag chairs and lounges instead of theater seats. i look forward to it.
so yeah. things are good. i can't believe we leave here for singapore in less than 2 weeks.
and y'all stopped commenting! that's not fair! mom, i appreciate that you're still reading. but where'd the rest of you go? come back! if i'm boring you, just tell me what you want me to write about and i'll try and do that. yeah.
love!
amy
email me
let me first take us back to lady elliot island, filling in the blanks. we flew over on that tiny 14-seater plane and the island from the air was beautiful (it's tiny and completely surrounded by that turquoise color that means "this is good reef!") except that there was a shaven strip across the entire center of it. the airstrip. not paved, thank goodness, but it really looked like an injury amongst the trees covering most of the rest of the cay. There were also birds. lots and lots of birds. thousands. tens of thousands. most of them were black noddys. also known as white-capped noddys. they're this graceful black bird with a thin beak and the striking aspect of them is it looks like someone took a thumbful of white charcoal and just smeared it back over the top of their heads. it blends perfectly back into their jet black feathers at the neck. really pretty birds. but lots of them. so many that much of what was on the island (trees, rocks, chairs, tents, buildings, me) got stained with poo falling like rain from above. it pays to stay sheltered.
The resort was not quite as shmancy as i had hoped, given the amount of dough we'd laid out for the trip, but it all ends well. we stayed in a "tent cabin" which was a permanent tent - wood structure with canvas over it - with 4 bunk beds in it - all to ourselves. after arriving, adjusting to the lack of shmance, we joined a beachcombing tour. Nabia spotted both the deathly cone-shaped shell of a snail that has a tentacle that shoots poison strong enough to drop 10 people like so much bird poo and a dried specimen of a bluebottle jellyfish. better known to most of us non-australians as a portugese man-o-war. not something you want to muck around with. but aside from these horribly dangerous creatures, there was nothing around that wanted to kill us. even the bluebottles were few and far between, assured nadine the tour lady. little did she know the danger that we were yet to uncover...
so. we had some lunch. when we booked the tour out in childers, we looked at the brochure and saw that the day trip included a buffet lunch. then the overnight tariff included dinner and breakfast. we double checked: so everything's included? all our meals?" "yep. all included." great. when we got there, we found that if in fact you stay overnight, they take your frickin free lunch away! rude. so we went into reception and complained that it was confusing and it just seems from the brochure that whine whine whinge (that's what they say here: whinge), and so they just gave in and handed over the meal ticket. satisfied with ourselves, we heaped our plates at the buffet. nothing so spectacular as to deserve mention here, but food nonetheless.
next up was the glass bottom boat tour. included in the overnight tariff, this one was. funny how they made it right after lunch. it's as though they almost WANT people to spew. but we survived, and in the process saw lots of fishes - some big, some small, a shovelhead ray, and a sea turtle! there's also a shipwreck out there. apparently a big 6 meter moray eel lives in there. apparently. i did not investigate further.
after the tour, we read a while on shore (completely covered in dead white coral pieces - tough on the feet, but pretty) until we stopped swaying, then headed in at high tide, armed with mask, fins, and snorkels. as soon as our faces were in the water, we saw tons and tons of fish. all different kinds. and THEN we swam around. it was really shallow at first - sometimes i felt like i had to suck in or scrape the tips of the staghorn coral - but soon it deepened out a fair bit. we had beautiful weather and the visibility was fantastic. we could see probably at least 30 meters in any direction. the coral there is just about pristine. apparently a cyclone came through about 3 years ago and damaged it severely- so most of what's grown in is very young - plate coral, cabbage coral, honeycomb coral in mint green and brown, brain coral, staghorn coral with little blue tips showing where the new polyps are growing... and fish. so many fish. seargent majors (6 striped), damselfish, triggerfish, TONS of sea cucumbers (spiny and otherwise), little baby fish, big momma fish, even a couple of big daddy fish.
i won't bore you with MORE of the details, but major highlights included: drifting above a lagoon ray as it flew along the sandy bottom of the reef. getting accidentally enveloped in a school of thousands of silvery fish - they were actually swimming in circles completely around us. i felt very accepted. and the big topper of all: na and i were out pretty far - it was fairly deep. a couple of other snorkellers headed in towards the beach past us and then i spied some shadowy figure just past Nabia, who was only a couple meters away from me. i thought it must be another snorkeller, but as the current moved me to a slightly different vantage point, i noted that the being was somehow thicker than a person would be. it was a huge old loggerhead sea turtle, grabbing some breaths at the surface RIGHT behind nabia. we swam over. it was big. probably 5 feet from head to tail. we were on either side of it. we touched its shell. covered in algae and slippery from it. we stared, mouths as agape as possible without drowning us, as it tipped its neck up and gobbled some more air, and then again, before diving - excuse me - flying (flapping of front fins - really looks like flying) - back down to the bottom. there it stayed, looking for all intents and purposes like a big rock. except for the head and the legs. we were so excited. we snorkelled for a bit longer, and i was in a bit of a daze from our close encounter. we finally beached ourselves, reading more (i read the book Down Under by Bill Bryson, graciously lent to me by Barbara and Don), which is tremendously entertaining. After a while we headed back to our tent cabin, took a nice rinse-off in the showers, and then went back out to the western side of the island to watch a beautiful golden sunset with that one perfect cloud just above the horizon - so you can see the sun above and below it before it drops out of view. lovely. and then the dinner buffet. slightly more involved than the lunch buffet, but again nothing to comment on. except that i was really excited for what looked like warm brownies, but turned out to be chocolate goo from a box - and not any good kind, either. and we stole some cheese and crackers for lunch the next day. we didn't want to push the issue with any continued whinging.
after dinner we took a little stroll on the beach, hoping to find a hatching nest of sea turtles (lady elliot is a popular nesting site), but gave up soon after - we'd had our turtle experience for the day. we were pretty exhausted, and so turned in, amidst the sounds of squawking birds and falling poo, but happy.
next morning we shook ourselves awoke for sunrise. i was really tired - bunk beds, no matter the location, do not afford the most restful sleep - but if given a chance to watch a sunrise from a coral cay in the middle of the pacific ocean, you take it. so we went and watched - golden and beautiful again. and the birds went mad. and we actually saw one brave soul of a snorkeller get in the cold-from-the-lack-of-sun water. good for him. we went back to sleep for an hour or so. but on the way, Nabia spied a hatchling that had been distracted up into the resort by the bright lights. it thought they were the moon and headed dutifully in that direction. they should be much more vigilant. these animals are endangered, and they wander up into the resort all the time, most of them probably get devoured by birds once the sun comes up and before anyone can save them. we put him in the drawer of our night table while we napped and until the office was open. we returned him to be released that evening. and made our way to another uneventful buffet. then back to the yesterday's beach for more snorkelling.
Twas good yet again. so many fish - you can watch them for hours. it's like reality TV, i guess. you can see their relationships and fights - they do it too. so cool. highlights of THIS snorkel include: a black tipped reef shark. freaked me out at first, but it didn't want to eat me, so i calmed myself down and it was gone anyway. another turtle - green this time, and relatively young. i proudly spotted it (i don't know how - they really just look like rocks) on the ocean floor, and we waited around until it came up for air. it was probably about a foot and half or two feet - a virtual baby in turtle scale - probably only 40 years old or so. we stared until he went back to his spot on the ocean floor, and then saw a spotted octopus blurbling along the coral right nearby. it seemed to change color as it went. (i understand that blurbling isn't actually a word, but it's the best i can do to describe how it moved). awesome. by the time we made our way back towards the shore, as my fingers and lips were quite pruny. we got into the shallower water and this little fish (later found out it was a triggerfish) swam menacingly straight at my mask and then out in a wide circle and bag to wiggle towards me again. it was kind of funny, so i backed off each time, but it kept doing it. nabia came over to see what i was staring at and it swam harder at her and actually nipped her on the finger! Nabia was bitten by a fish. nadine had not warned us about these vicious little buggers. they look like they were made by a wallpaper designer from the 80s. that kind of a color combination and rounded edges. she came away all digits intact, but somewhat traumatized.
we read a bit on the shore, got pooped on a little, and then i just had to go in one last time. no matter that it was low tide. no matter it was the height of the sunny day. i had to go. we were scheduled to depart the island in 2 hours and i wasn't ready to say goodbye. well, not every idea of mine is a great one, as hard as that is to grasp. the shallow parts were extreme now - and i had to choose a path - felt kind of like a big maze. you might pick a route that had a dead end - one you couldn't swim over, then you'd have to turn back. it was tough going and the waves got pretty big and tried to knock us off course, but i don't think i killed too much coral and we made it out to the deeper area. the only exciting thing we saw out there that we hadn't seen before was bright blue starfish. a few of them. but our underwater camera had run out of film by that time, so sadly we couldn't snap any more photos. after a little more floating about, we struggled and negotiated our way back to the shore, searching for the sandy channels. most of the way in, i encountered our foe the triggerfish, who started wriggling towards me again, and even as i backed off and tried to go around, she chased me. so i high-finned it out of there and back to the relative safety of the shore. apparently it's the triggerfish's nesting season and they can be somewhat aggressive when snorkellers get too close to their stashes of eggs. i'll say.
we rinsed off again and ate our stolen cheese and crackers before taking off back towards the mainland in an EVEN SMALLER plane - 10 seater this time. no aisle at all. our sole lady pilot did a lovely job though.
back in hervey bay, don was kind enough to pick us up from the airport. as i mentioned in my previous blog, we did an unsuccessful kangaroo search, then yum dinner (wombok salad, tuna msomething, and green beans) and chatting, and looking at pictures of don's bushwalking adventures he goes on every other friday. and i broke a chair.
moving on, i did indeed board the bus to brisbane early the next morning, waved farewell to don and barbara, and spent the next 4 hours coming in and out of consciousness and getting reaquainted with my iRiver and mp3 collection, which i have sorely missed.
ok. short versions now, my wrists are getting tired, and i'm sure your eyes are too: arrived in brisbane and spent our 3 hour lay-over with rhode islander brook(e), a 25 year old who was living in NY after attending NYU - he worked for HBO Sports covering boxing and such things and was on his way that evening to glorious New Zealand. we were more than happy to gab, and so we did. then onto the express bus down here to byron bay, in New South Wales, which is an hour behind Queensland because they do daylight savings down here but not up there. it's more commercial than i wanted it to be. more rave than chill. more loud than quiet. the hostel we've been looking for is bigger and more expensive than i'd prefer, but after a really nice yoga class and some daylight, it's looking much better. it's got a movie theater which we plan on taking advantage of at least once - apparently it's "fully sick" - stocked with bean bag chairs and lounges instead of theater seats. i look forward to it.
so yeah. things are good. i can't believe we leave here for singapore in less than 2 weeks.
and y'all stopped commenting! that's not fair! mom, i appreciate that you're still reading. but where'd the rest of you go? come back! if i'm boring you, just tell me what you want me to write about and i'll try and do that. yeah.
love!
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 2/20/2005 11:54:00 PM
4 Comments:
Hello Amy,
I've just been posting a comment on Nabia's blog and I figured I should swing by yours and say hello as well. However, as is often the case, what I write to her is for both of you... next time, I'll write on your blog first :-)
I'll be in touch - love reading your updates...
Keep on enjoyin' your travels!
Hugs and kisses,
Noah.
My mother is a fish.
Whose mother is a fish??? Say what?
Sorry, Ames, it's mom again. And I do want you to know, that regardless of the number of comments you get, rest assured that MANY people have been following your chronicles. Some don't respond because they don't know how and it scares them, or they simply just want to read....but keep writing just as you have been, please. This last entry had me laughing outloud a number of times- what fun you're having. It makes me feel good.
Love, mom
you ready for this?
so, you spell Brook's name with no E...i know this because i dated Brook for four months last semester and he is still a good friend of mine...
i almost fell off my chair and called everyone we know when i found out about that...you probably even remember me telling you about him on halloween because i was going downtown TO MEET HIM!
anyway...hope all is well with you and i'd fill you in on this fun little coincidence.
have fun!
-lara
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