Honestly today was just a strange day. Woke up to do some laundry early and went for an early stroll looking for baby turtles while laundry was running. Didn’t see any hatchlings but saw lots of baby turtle tracks from the sand down towards the water, a couple ending in seagull tracks …sad. But it looks like there were lots of hatchlings, maybe it being almost a full moon?! We snagged some breakfast and then went into the glass sided submarine boat where we went below deck - on a very hot day so glad I had my swimsuit on. It was nice to have one of the naturalists onboard that told us about many of the fish and the Great Barrier Reef and all that we had been looking at for the past couple of days. Here is some of what we learned. The large groups of large fish that hang under the pier are Travail fish. The large rays we have seen with the big barb are the Cow Tail Rays. The Eagle Rays that are everywhere also have a longer and thinner barb/tail. There are a few kinds of corals- hard and soft. Hard corals have a hard skelton like the plate corals and table top corals that are flat and look like a plate or a big piece of leafy lettuce. Another hard coral with a hard skeleton is the branching coral which grows 10 cm a year and what makes up the majority of the GBR. Algae grows on the coral and the kind of algae determines the color. The relationship with the algae is symbiotic and the algae provides photosyntheses which gives coral energy and allows it to grow. A Bommy(sp?) is a large growth of coral- an Aboriginal name. There is also Boulder Coral which is soft coral. The GBR is made up of 2900 reefs and it is 2000 times larger than the next big reef which is in Belize. Over 1000 varieties of fish are found on the reef. There are also in this region Green and Loggerhead turtles. Loggerhead are much more rate and are endangered.
We also learned about a few fish, the most interesting to me was the Parrot Fish. Many of us have seen Parrot fish which can be seen in the Caribbean as well. They are hermaphrodites. They start out as females and are more grey/brown and then when they mature they become males and become very colorful. They feed on the coral, literally taking bites of coral and spitting out the excess coral through their gills. They are beautiful to see swimming around.
After our guided sub ride we were warm and ready for our last big snorkle. We put wetsuits on just to protect us from the coral as it was getting to be low tide and didn’t want to get caught out on the coral and also they keep us so buoyant and protect us from jellyfish. In the morning I went for a little snorkle. There were many jelly fish bobbing around this morning- their sting feels like a quick itch and then gone. As I swam around the bay from our room to the jetty I saw a huge group of rays which we learned are called a “fever” of rays. Today I counted over 30 and there were several sharks. Sam and I went out and caught the current that took us almost a quarter of the way around the island. It was so fun to float and then have the current just literally take us for a ride and past rays, and 2 sharks and over croppings of coral and tons of fish. The only other place that has snorkeling like this is Tahiti, which we went to a few years back and the variety of marine life and colors was spectacular too. After 90 mins of snorkeling, it was hard to get out, so beautiful and relaxing.
We made our way into the hotel’s lounge and SuperBowl Sunday was happening, on Monday afternoon even on Heron Island. The game was on, which was shocking since there is barely any internet and no cell service, but somehow they had satellite tv. What an exciting game to watch down to the last minute with the huge fist fight on the field and the amazing interception by the Patriots. The guy that intercepted the ball and basically won the game for the Patriots, because otherwise the SeaHawks would have won, reminded me of the guy in Jerry McGuire- so funny.
We got packed up and had some time to relax before our flight was to take off at 3:45. At 3:15 I asked the receptionist if she had heard any word about our sea plane. We were the only ones on it and wanted to make sure all was well. When she reached the plane company they said their plane was broken, blown gasket. Their backup plane was also in the shop and apparently after I asked them to put us on a helicopter they said they were getting serviced as well and they couldn’t get us out for a couple days, since they had no ferry coming for a couple days. What?!!! Sorry, that wasn’t going to work. We are supposed to be in Bali the day after next. Very long story and 2 hours of trying to get them to make contact with someone- since they had the worst internet ever and no cell service and they would not make the calls for me- meaning call another helicopter. I finally demanded that they called one, that was actually right on their list. I said I was willing to pay for it to get off the island and catch our flight. There was so much more to the story and trying to reach Qantas, but at the end of the day sure enough someone could come get us right now and they could promise us we would make a 7 p.m. flight... which we weren’t even on yet to Brisbane. We said we would take it! I was a bit ticked because they weren’t going to pay for it, and hold us on the island and originally have us wait 2 days and miss flights and hotels etc because they didn’t want to pay for us, and they run the seaplane charter too, so they were going to literally keep us on the island!! So finally I said we will take it and I will have our travel insurance work it out.
The helicopter arrived 1 hour before we were supposed to board our flight to Brisbane and we were a four hour ferry ride from shore- a 35 min flight! We hopped in with our luggage and motored right for the airport. As we approached it looked like a storm. They guy seemed to have just started his heli business and had never flown into Gladstone before. He landed right on the runway and we hopped out, seeming to break all kinds of rules in the process and grabbed our bags and ran to the departures area. It was now 15 minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. We got to the gate and they said we weren’t on the flight and they had just closed the door. I begged and told them how we had been nearly held captive on the island and just paid big money to catch this flight and if she would please try and get us on since it wasn’t scheduled to leave for 15 more mins. The manager came out and took pity on us and opened the aircraft, loaded our bags and we boarded to find that this plane that seats at least 80 people only had 3 people on it. 2 girls who described themselves as here to work a job at a bar/club, dancers…not trying to be rude since they were really funny and quite entertaining, but I am pretty sure they were strippers or doing some other kind of entertainment. Those two girls, an very nice engineer- who comes to work regularly in this industrial town of Gladstone, and us were the ones on the flight The whole thing was honestly comedic. Told them thanks for holding the flight.
We seated ourselves on the flight we all joked that since the plane was all to ourselves, let’s crank the music and get the party started;) The girls were ready to order cocktails even before the flight took off. It was hilarious as we took selfies of our group of 5. They gave us good ideas for Brisbane, keeping it good clean fun and we were able to chat up with the flight attendant. Turned out to be a funny night and an even funnier flight.
As we landed Sam thought it would be fun to take the train into town. We arrived at Central Station from the Airport and then we had several blocks to walk to the hotel. I wasn’t sure what the situation was with the part of town we were in and not sure if safe to walk at night and and since the skies had been cloud filled when we landed, it was really dark I opted for a cab. We flagged one right away and the driver was all flustered, honestly like a skit from SNL. He got out giggling and broken English. His “boot”/trunk was broken. He threw the bags in the back nearly onto the pizza he had just purchased, which he secured on his lap since I had to sit in the front seat. I told him we needed to go to the Brisbane Marriott and he said, can you give me directions to there? What, this is a huge hotel in the middle of town..."? This is my second trip," he said. He had just started driving a taxi, honestly maybe an hour ago and said he was new to the city. "Are you kidding...," I said laughing Which way should I turn he asked me? Hang on, I turned on my data roaming and plugged it into my maps and figured out a way. He knew about as much about Brisbane as we did. All I could do was laugh and then literally talk him through how to get us there. He then drove right past it, after even pointing it out. When he parked the car he could not stop laughing and saying how much he loved Americans. Sam and I could not believe it, what an unbelievable night…lots of stories and many good laughs. We couldn’t believe we made it to the hotel!!! They took us to a lovely room, so grateful and Sam ordered up some Dim Sum and we got caught up on our blogs, since we haven’t had any internet for the past 3 days. We were even hoping to have homeschool but not possible. So glad and grateful to not be held captive on Heron Island and having the hassle of having no cell or internet service really and being at their mercy. We loved the experiences at Heron Island but the management at the end of the day and the food was very poor and we were ready to move on.
It was a night to remember. So happy to be in Brisbane tonight. But, did love our experiences on the island as we got to see turtles, marine life, many birds, and swim in dreamy warm water filled with all kinds of natural wonders and marine life.
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