After finishing up early on Wednesday, my two colleagues (Jorgen and Tiho) and I took the advice of our customer contacts and spent a day on Heron Island (here's the website: http://www.heronisland.com/). Since it was the middle of the week, we got a room for $315which included the boat ride to and from Gladstone (where we were staying). The room wasn't much, but we didn't really spend a lot of time in it! It was great...no TV, no cell service, no internet...just white sandy beaches, blue sky, and beautiful clear blue water. The first thing we did was rent snorkel gear and head to "Shark Bay", where we were told we would have the best chance to see...yes, sharks! The nice gal (who actually happened to be from Oregon) assured us that the sharks and rays were harmless, but my instincts still were screaming "Stay away!". Here's a rough map of the island:
I have to come clean here and say I wasn't too excited to go snorkeling with sharks. This mainly stems from the snorkeling experience I had in Cabo Mexico on my honeymoon, which is where I first tried snorkeling. The waves were fairly high, the water was pretty cloudy, and I swear I got sick from swallowing that nasty Mexican sea-water. It also doesn't help that I'm not much of a swimmer...but this all changed after swimming in the Great Barrier Reef!
It only took 15 minutes and Jorgen spotted his first black-tipped reef shark. Jorgen didn't buy a $20 waterproof camera like I did, so naturally he wanted me to swim over and take pictures. Imagine my trepidation...by the time I came over the shark was gone (I was actually relieved), but we did find a 6-foot Shovelnose Ray bedded down in the sand. While we were standing there waist-deep in the water taking in the view and planning our next destination, Jorgen jumped out the the water and freaked out..."Something just brushed my leg!!!!". I threw my mask on and took a peek...there were about 15 Eagle Rays surrounding us! Two even bedded down next to the Shovelnose Ray we were standing by...
Now, you're probably wondering "Where the hell are the pictures, Phil?!". Funny story...for whatever reason, that cheasy POS (piece - o - shit) $20 camera I bought didn't take one damn picture! I got it all the way back to the states and found out the whole roll of film was blank...yes I am pissed. But believe me, that first afternoon was awesome!
After we saw a few more Shovelnose Rays we decided to check out the area just west of the harbor. When we got there, we could see 5 sharks circling in the shallows. Jorgen waded in and started taking pictures, and when I saw the sharks were paying him no attention I finally got up the nerve to get in. I'm glad I did, because you really can't understand how majestic sharks are until you've swam with them from 6 feet away. It was very cool. I grew a little tired of chasing the sharks around the shallows, so I ventured a little farther out to check out the reef. There were all kinds of really cool fish of all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes. The best part, thought, was when Jorgen found a 3-foot green turtle bedded down in the coral. As I headed over to check it out she came up from the bottom for a breath, so we got to swim with her a bit! We actually found another smaller turtle that also granted us a little play time too. I have to say swimming with turtles was the best part of the snorkeling adventure this first day. Rays and sharks are neat, but turtles are just plain cool! These creatures are so beautiful when they are 'flying' through the water. I just wish I could have gotten pictures of it!
That night after dinner we visited the bar and listened to a really great 2-person band called Beautifully Mad (web site: http://www.beautifullymad.com/). I have to say, the gal wasn't much to write home about...but the other guy absolutely rocked! And I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Jameson talking here...he was just amazing on the guitar. He also did a beat-box bit on the "Turn it back Around" cover they did. Very cool. It turns out they live on the island year-around and have earned some very prestigious music awards in Australia.
While we were snorkeling earlier, we noticed some turtle tracks coming up on shore. My Discovery Channel turtle-sense told me that this meant the turtles were laying eggs right now...turns out I was right. After the bar closed, I got a crazy hair to see if we could find some of these turtles and talked the guys into checking out the area next to the dock real quick before heading to bed. I'm glad we did, because we found this beauty...
The next day we signed up for a snorkel trip for $45 each. The original camera I bought is a 35mm camera in a waterproof case, so I figured I'd just buy another roll of film. No such luck...they were all out of film! So after buying another $26 waterproof camera, we headed to the dock. They took us along with about 5 other snorkelers and 6 scuba divers out to Pam's Point. From there we basically just followed the tide along the outer reef to Heron Bommie, where the boat picked us up. The Bommie, we were told, is on Jacque Cousteau's top-five list of best places to snorkel in the world. Here's a map of the island and surrounding reefs...
I don't know if I would say it was all that amazing. After swimming with sharks, rays, and green turtles the day before this snorkel trip seemed pretty mellow. But we did see this Eagle Ray there...
...I know, I'm not impressed with the pictures either. Actually, I'm pretty upset about it! The water was much clearer than this shows and it really doesn't do the experience much justice. I've decided I'm never going to buy one of those damn waterproof cameras again. I think I'm going to invest in a waterproof video camera that I can just strap to my head or hand and forgo the whole camera thing altogether. It's pretty difficult to look in the viewfinder through the snorkel mask under water and see anything! At least with a camcorder you just push play and swim along...then later you can capture screen shots for pictures if you want. This is now what I think I'll invest in: (http://gopro.com/products/?gclid=CJnyo6vOi64CFeUaQgod5lw06Q). For about $300 I won't have to ever worry about this happening again, and I can take video of motorcycle rides as well. This price tag equates to about 15 underwater disposable POS's...sounds like a good goal to me! This camera is definitely going on the ol' X-mas list!! I originally had the idea in Mexico when I didn't get any underwater pictures at all...you think I would have learned! I digress...that's enough about the crappy and lacking photos...
So this whole experience has officially got me bit. I'm hooked...I really like snorkeling! And I think diving would be even more fun! I think I'm going to look into getting certified somewhere here in CDA or Spokane sometime this next year...
One other thing...don't go to this island when we did! It turned out it was mating season for some ugly-ass white-crested black dicky bird or some bollocks...they were annoying and LOUD! Not only that, but the whole island looked like this:
...which would be really cool, like you were walking through a jungle right? WRONG! Every one of us got shit on by these damn birds at least once. As a matter of fact, if this picture was a video, you would hear Jorgen say..."dammit! I got hit again!". I almost diverted the bombs...until the last day. There were THOUSANDS of these birds on this island. Oh, and another bird happened to be mating at the same time too...a burrowing brown bikkie-somethin-or-other. They only burrow at night...and mate at night. Have you ever heard what it sounds like when cats are bumpin' uglies? Well, that's exactly what these mating birds sounded like! I'm not kidding...if it wasn't for the long fun-filled day, keeping cool by sleeping directly under the ceiling fan, and the help of nice Mr. Jameson...I don't think I would have slept at all!
Here's a few shots of the island and resort...
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| The Gantry is seen on the left here... |
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| The Lounge |
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| Our 'Bungalo' |
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| This view really made me want to stay... |
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| Black-tipped reef shark |
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| My collegue Tiho wading while we waited for the boat back to mainland... |
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| Here's a photo of us leaving the island... |
