Great Barrier Reef

Our 6 days on Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef started with a calm trip over on the catamaran. In years past, many students have become seasick. Most of us took pills to combat that, and we were fine. Because of the prevailing winds and the way the waves are hitting the boat, the trip over is supposed to be much rougher than the trip back to the mainland, so we were lucky for the fine weather! It’s about a 2 hour ride to get to the island.

Since the weather was so good, our leader Rob rearranged the schedule and made sure we made the most of the good weather. We got settled in our accommodations at the Research Station, which is part of the University of Queensland. It is recently re-opened, after a fire that they had there in 2007. It was a very nice facility. We all got issued snorkeling equipment and headed to the beach for practice. Even though we were just near the jetty, we still saw fish and turtles on that first trip.

The next day we went on a reef walk and a 15 minute boat ride to snorkel at the Blue Pools, off the reef. We got to see lots of interesting things that time: black tipped reef sharks, green turtles, many types of coral and numerous kinds and sizes of fish. We spent an hour or so snorkeling. After supper, we went on a night snorkel near the dock. Different types of fish, etc come out at night. We all had glow sticks attached to our wet suits and we each had an underwater torch/flashlight. I’ll admit it was kind of freaky swimming around in the dark. Thankfully, Bryn was my buddy and he let me hold on to him during the snorkel. That way I could relax and look around at the sites instead of worrying that I wasn’t with him. We saw a Wobbegong shark, several turtles, including a huge loggerhead, a lionfish, a huge hermit crab, and a crown of thorns starfish. At one point we gathered near the shipwreck, which is a ship that was purposefully placed near the jetty as protection from waves for the boats as they come in. We all hid our glow sticks and turned off our lights and looked at the bioluminescent zooplankton and jellies in the water. That was cool. We went in two groups and nearly all of those in the second group got stung by jellies or parts of jellies, that were floating in the water. Luckily, the sting wasn’t severe and went away pretty quickly, but still it was a challenge.

The next day we went on a drift snorkel off the reef. They dropped us off at one spot and then we swam to a pick up location. The plan is to go with the tide and the current when you do a drift, but unfortunately it worked out that we were going against it. At one point, Erik looked at Ryan and I, and he said it looked like we weren’t going forward at all. Thankfully, we made it and had fun along the way. We rented an underwater digital video camera that day and Bryn and Erik got some good footage.

Throughout the days we had lectures on poisonous marine life, coral reef/algal reef formation, geology of the island, marine species, and turtles. The one Rob gave on the life cycle of the green turtles was my favorite. They are amazing animals and after the lecture we got to head to the beach and see a nest hatching. We watched about 60 baby turtles crawl up out of the sand and scurry to the ocean. We tried to shoo away the seagulls that invariably snatched up some of the babies. It was the coolest thing to watch these little turtles. They are only about 4 “ long and they know to head straight for the water. The next 2 nights we got to see 3 other hatchings occur. One was on a night that was stormy. It was pouring rain and very windy, but Erik and I were lucky enough to find a hatching. Erik counted 100 babies from that nest. I was standing near the ocean watching them stream into the sea, when I felt a tickle on the back of my sandal. One of the turtles was a little lost, but he eventually made it.

There were 3 days during our visit that were too windy to safely take the boats out for a snorkel, but we still had fun. We went snorkeling along the reef at low tide and it was amazing the variety of fish we saw. We also saw eagle rays, cow tail rays and whip tail rays. Erik and the boys saw a moray eel protruding from the coral. We saw white tailed reef sharks and shovel-nosed sharks. None of these were too big, the largest was about 6 feet long, and they aren’t aggressive. Ryan spotted two sea hares, which are a weird mollusk-type thing. When you hold it, it squirts out purple ink as a defense mechanism. When we saw the first one on our reef walk, our leader, Derek, had us gather around to see this “deadly” thing. Then he proceeded to pick it up and show us the ink. We were all amazed and wondered why he’d do that, if it was deadly. Then we realized he meant “deadly” in the Australian way. That is what they say to mean “cool” or “awesome”!

On the island there is also a resort. We didn’t have too much interaction there, except to buy from their shop. One night we went near the resort and saw about 10 whaler sharks swimming off the beach rock about 100 feet away. Derek said that they are “sharky sharks”, meaning they can get aggressive. We just took pictures of them!

One evening at low tide we played cricket on the beach. Actually, the tide was coming in so we had to move the wicket several times! Some of the outfielders were in the water! There was a full moon that night and it was magical being there!

The weather calmed down a little our last morning on the island so most of the group did one more boat snorkel. Our catamaran ride back was very bumpy with waves splashing up the side of the boat, but thankfully none of us got sick. Rob was right, it’s better going towards the mainland! We all loved our time on the Great Barrier Reef. What an awesome experience.

We had a 7 hour bus ride after the catamaran trip and are now staying at the Glasshouse Mountains EcoLodge for a retreat. It’s a great location, we have the place to ourselves. We are cooking our own meals and the students are studying for their last tests. On Monday here, but Easter back home, we’ll have an Easter Egg Hunt. Fun. Tuesday we head back to Brisbane for a final two days and we all split up on April 16th. I think about 6 students will be on the flight with us back to Portland. The rest are heading to New Zealand, Perth, Figi and more. I can’t believe our time is nearly over. It’s sure been wonderful. Thank you Lewis and Clark and GED for this opportunity for our family. The college students we’ve had the priviledge to be with are outstanding people, “deadly” as the Aussies would say!