Today was a long day with 3 different flights. We flew Qantas from Sydney to Queenstown and onto Gladstone. There we walked over to a sea plane office where Sam and I were the only ones on the 5 passenger seater. 40 minutes later our sea plane landed on the ocean. We couldn’t land when we were first got to the island so we flew around some more spotting rays and turtles from above until the water level was high enough to land. There is a little sign that if you can see it it means the water is too shallow. About 10 mins later we came in hot and pulled right up to the beach. We jumped out in about knee height water and they unloaded our bags. The flight over was spectacular especially as we got to where we were flying over the reef. There were sand bars and reef and clear waters and we flew about 100 feet above the crystal blue water. It was really magical. It made me so grateful that we weren’t taking the ferry over because the water was actually pretty rough below and I know that I would have been so sick!! You really got an idea of what the reef is like and how expansive from the air. It was nice it wasn’t high tide actually because you could see the reef so close to the water. The tide moves in and out about 4 meters. The plane only needs one meter to land in.
Walking onto the island it was almost deafening how many birds there were- millions!!! A variety of trees some that look like mangroves and others spiny evergreens cover the island and are filled with nests of so many birds that clearly own the island, dive bombing left and right. Honestly I was glad I had my glasses on for fear that one would fly right into my eyes. The island is part of a national park and have a nature conservancy here protecting, birds, marine life and the hundreds of turtles that nest here. Researchers are primarily studying the thousands of huge green turtles that lay their eggs on this island and come to breed. We moved rooms around and ended up on a point overlooking the water with a good breeze, because honestly the smell of of bird dodo was pretty overwhelming when we first arrived. Bonus it had air conditioning! We got ourselves signed up for scuba for tomorrow morning and took a walk about to get an idea of the place. It is like being at scuba, eco, bird camp. This place is like we are staying inside the bird zoo and surrounded by the most spectacular water and reefs.
After dinner we went down to the beach where they said the turtles would be coming up to lay eggs. Sure enough, we saw the markings of a turtle pushing itself up along the beach into bushes that lined the beaches. We watched carefully seeing this huge turtle push itself up the beach- larger than me curled up on the sand! We aren’t supposed to get in their way or use flashlights because if they get frightened they turn around and head back to the water. They lay about 120 pingpong balled sized eggs called a "clutch" every couple weeks for a few months. They have a big hatchling season like this one and then they take a break for a few years. The eggs hatch in about 20-30 days. The hatchlings then make their way to the water. They have 1 in 1000 chance of making it to adulthood. Since the turtle was just making it’s way to dig out its place to lay eggs, we knew it would be at least an hour until it was ready to lay it’s eggs, so Sam and I walked back to the room. In about an hour I went back out on the beach by myself and came across a couple more turtles. So dark and they didn’t want us to use flashlights so hard to see, but I spotted one coming back into the water, could see by the brightness of the moon. Amazing to be on the beach at night with these gentle beasts.
Turtle going back to the beach after laying her clutch of eggs
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