Moo's Mid Life Crisis: Lady Elliot Island

After the delights of Fiji, I cranked things up a bit with 5 nights on Lady Elliot Island, an Eco Resort 80 km off shore of the Australian mainland, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

A short flight out from Hervey Bay got us to the island, which as you can see is just long enough for a runway! Their website calls their accommodation 'unpretentious', which you should feel free to read as 'basic'. No air conditioning, no TV, no phone signal, no internet. But lots of birds. And fish. And some turtles. And did I mention birds?

This is my shack for the 5 nights. A tin hut with very little air and 2 wall mounted desktop fans to keep me cool in the 30 degree heat. I didn't spend very much time in here as during the day it was a total oven. Even at night it was fairly hot. I ended up sleeping on the single bed in the hut as the air from the fans didn't reach the double bed at all.

View from my door

View from the restaurant

The beach was lovely

The runway

Path to the restaurant, lined with bushes full of nesting Noddys!

As well as the noisy Noddies, there were a variety of terns, gulls and other sea birds.

As it was nesting season, the island was a little bit noisy at night, just slightly. So noisy in fact that we were given a little warning sign in our room, and complimentary earplugs! As you might imagine, this was not too much of a problem for me, and I do believe that some of the birds actually came and knocked on my door asking me to keep my snoring down. I didn't hear them.

Baby Turtles!

It was turtle nesting season while I was there and there were nightly 'Turtle watch' briefings from the staff. They told us where there might be hatching nests, and gave us instructions for what to do and what not to do, and when there was the most chance of activity.

I dutifully walked along the beach near the water looking for baby turtles. I must have been wandering up and down for an hour as it got darker and darker. I had my torch off so as not to disorient any turtles and preserve my nightsight, but it was eventually so dark I could barely see at all. Then, possibly in my imagination, a small dark shape scuttles cockroach-like down the beach and into the water. I stopped immediately and waited, just in case there were any more, as I didn't want to stand on any of the little blighters. Another 2 shadowy dark blotches scuttled past and into the waves, but I couldn't make out any details or even really be sure I'd seen anything at all. After another 5 minutes or so, someone else moves along the beach with their torch out, and I go over to them to say that I might just possibly have seen some baby turtles! Turns out to be one of the staff, and she says that there is indeed a potential loggerhead nest directly up the beach from where I am. We go and have a look at it, but there's nothing much to see. She was pretty sure from my location that I did indeed see some baby turtles, and logged them in the islands record book. I was a little bit thrilled!

The following few evenings I went and waited just down beach from the same nest in case there was any more activity. I made myself a little more comfortable though, sitting on a sun lounger in the dark with the stars coming out. Unfortunately I saw no mote turtle-lets, though others said that 10 or so did show up one night later that week.

Waiting for turtle-lets

The nest my turtle-lets came out of.

Frog encountered on my way back to the oven after turtlewatch.

The rest of my photos from LEI are all underwater ones of fish, turtles, rays, sharks and other beasties, but I won't bore you with those.

Oh, go on then, since you insist!

In addition to this lot, I also saw 2 Leopard Sharks and a number of eagle rays, but didn't manage to get photos as my underwater camera ended up going on the blink :(

I didn't see any Manta Rays at all, which was a disappointment, particularly as LEI is touted as 'home of the manta'. It was out of season for them, so they are not as common as they can be. One of the other dive groups did eventually see some on a dive I wasn't on. I wasn't jealous or upset at all.