Swimming with the Turtles, Fish AND Sharks

We certainly are in paradise. Once the tide drops and the water stops coming over the reef, the cay at Lady Musgrave turns into an absolute millpond (at least while we were there).

We used the dinghy to go over to the reef where we found a pool with great coral, all the fish out of Finding Nemo, turtles and a reef shark. Sonia was the first to encounter the shark and she immediately found a piece of dead coral to stand on whilst she called for me. When I eventually surfaced from my snorkelling across the other side of the lagoon she ordered me back into the dinghy with the words "shark, there is a shark".

We spent a magic time watching the turtles swimming around and sunbaking. You hardly need to snorkel as the water is so clear you can see the bottom.

Sonia was even brave enough to go up the mast in the bosun's chair to take some panoramic photos of the lagoon and reef.

BUNDABERG TO LADY MUSGRAVE

An early start (up at 3:30am) for a 4:00am departure from the marina to ensure we made it out to Lady Musgrave in good conditions (most importantly in good light) so you can see the "bommies" which are submerged coral outposts.

The conditions were absolutely perfect for a motor out to Lady Musgrave with an absolutely flat sea

We set a course straight for the island and were there by 12:00 which was just before low tide which was a perfect time to go through the small entrance. As we were approaching the island we saw a lot of masts sticking up which we realised were inside the reef. We were starting to worry that there would be no room and we would have to turn around and motor back for another 8 hours. Should not have worried, the space inside the reef is 1.6 nautical miles long and 0.5 nm wide, enough for a lot of boats.

The entrance looks extremely narrow but we successfully navigated through the gap and dropped anchor in 5m of water. The water is so clear you can see your anchor and chain on the bottom. Hard to believe you are out in the ocean (so far out there is no mobile phone coverage).

In the afternoon as the tide had come in and covered the reef we went ashore and walked through the Pisonia forest on the island. The island is home to both turtles and migrating birds.
The forest is home to these little birds called Noddys. The only sad thing is that the seeds of the Pistonia tree are very sticky and a number of the birds get trapped in their own nest and then fall to the ground where they decompose to become food for the forest. Conclusion was that the island would not be such a nice place during breeding season.

Evening was spent with an idyllic tropical drink and BBQ