Heron island (whose credo I citate above) should be called Turtle island, this was my decision after 2 days on the island:-) Right now around 120 turtle ladies come to the island after dark. Early in the morning one can view their tracks in the sand-resembling the tracks of a tractor. In total 2 kind of turtles come to nest here from late October till February every year: the green turtle and the loggerhead turtle.
Turtles come out of the water after sunset and dig a hole in the sand (usually under a tree), then they lay around 100 eggs at a depth of 80 cm (this procedure can take up to 4 hours). Once the hole is covered the turtle returns back to the sea. 2 weeks after she will come back for a new clutch of eggs. It is sad but only 1 out of 1000 eggs make it to maturity. The rest does not make it out of the egg or its eaten somewhere on the way...While walking on the beach one can find the eggs rests, eaten most of the time by the birds.
As there is a big difference between low and high tide, we were told to make a walk at 6 am to see some turtles on their way back to the sea. Between 6 and 7 am the day after we counted some 10 turtles, some looking like rocks in the water (waiting for the high tide to get out of the island reef), some stuck at the stone shore, two even still busy laying the eggs.
Its a huge aquarium down there (just finished 5 dives going down till 15m:-)...Great underwater gardens of corals in all possible shapes and in blue, green, red, yellow, pink colours. Just breathtaking!!! Plenty of tiny fishes swim around it and from time to time one can hear the parrot fishes eating on the corals. We were SOOOOOOOOO lucky to meet (twice) a couple of manta rays (pure vegetarians), really peaceful and majestic animals, around 3-4m. Even Santa Claus (from Sweden) dived today with us, see picture as a proof below:
During snorkeling from the beach of the Heron island on previous days we made some other great encounters: funny guitar rays, fast little sharks (around 1 m). The guitar ray looked friendly and opened and closed its eyes for a greeting The local sting rays (between 1 and 1,5m) were/ are soo good in hiding in the sand just after the shore line, that we almost stepped on them while going into the sea...
After a busy week in Western Australia and Perth (known also as the most remote capital in the world, being closer to Jakarta that to Sydney) the Great Barrier Reef, the longest coral reef in the world with its 2000 km length, was on schedule.
While landing in the industrial town Gladstone (around 85 km from the island and 50 km from the Reef), home of the biggest electricity power plant in Australia, still powered by coal, we were shocked by the ocean colour: so terribly grey and dirty. Then a pleasant helicopter flight (and a total of 9 hours on the way) took us to the hot, sticky and windy Heron island (located in the really southern part of the Great Barrier Reef).
"Did you see some turtles and manta rays from the heli? They look like some small dark dots from up there", was the first thing that Tracey, our welcome guide, told us once we stepped out. Unfortunately we were too busy contemplating the stunning view from up there.However, some hours later in the moonlight, around 300-400 m from our bungalow we spotted someone throwing sand in the air...It was a huge (around 1,5m long, between 150-200kg) green turtle laying eggs in a hole in the sand. From October to March every year sea turtles can be sighted in this region where they come to mate and nest. Some individuals may travel distances of over 3000km!
Heron Island is a small (43 acre) coral cay and a National Park since 1943. There are thousands of nesting birds on the island too. On the photo above is the baby one of a black noddy tern. Around 30 different bird species nest on the island and a 24-hour-live-concert is sometimes really loud...I was awaken several times in the first night by their unusual schreams.
A guided reef walk during low tide on Sunday afternoon showed some of the tiny sea/reef inhabitants.
