NATURE’S CALLING
TWO DAYS, TWO ISLANDS AND TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES. BRIAN CRISP VISITS THE FRASER COAST AND LADY ELLIOT ISLAND TO EXPERIENCE NATURE IN ITS RAWEST FORM
The loggerhead turtle lifted its head, looked me in the eye, and instantly knew that it had the situation under control.
Loggerheads are like the rugby front row forwards of the ocean.
They are big, wide and powerful sometimes weighing in at more than 400kg.
And in the protected green zone waters off Queensland’s Lady Elliot Island, they are in their safety zone. They are the boss.
With its yellow-brown skin and reddish shell, the loggerhead is one of three species of sea turtles that call Lady Elliot Island, the southern-most coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, home. The others are the hawksbill and green turtles.
The loggerheads and green turtles both nest on Lady Elliot Island from November to March with their hatchlings making the life-or-death dash to the warm and inviting Queensland waters from February to April. Nearby Mon Repos is the nesting ground for mother turtles, and if you’re there between January and March, you may bear witness to the tiny hatchlings as they make their first flips towards the shore.
Lady Elliot Island lies about 85 km north-east off the coast of Bundaberg. It’s amazing to think this is right on Queensland’s doorstep.
Day trippers can fly there from the Gold Coast, Brisbane (Redcliffe), Bundaberg or Hervey Bay. You can also stay at the three-star eco resort which exudes the charm and simplicity of earlier times. Make no mistake, that’s not a criticism. The resort has everything a traveller needs – breathtaking
views, the reef on your doorstep, unspoilt pristine natural beauty – it’s eco-credentials make it a sustainable and enriching way to spend a weekend escape or short getaway. This sanctuary is home to 1200 species of marine life; each as unique as the one before it.
I spoke to a couple of guests who have travelled from the inner-city Sydney suburb of Marrackville to Lady Elliot Island six times in the past 20 years. They book for a week each time.
“We arrive feeling stressed and leave without a care in the world.” Nature does that to you.
It washes away the angst of everyday life, recharges your batteries, and focuses your attention on the good things in life.
And you don’t get much closer to nature than when you stay in one of Lady Elliot Island’s beachside cottages, with a choir of resident and migrating birds entertaining you, turtles nesting just metres from your door, whales passing by the window from July to November, and manta rays. Who could forget the manta rays!
Lady Elliot Island is known as the “home of the manta ray”. You can see them year-round, but the numbers really swell in winter. It’s hard to miss a manta ray – some have wing spans of up to 7m.
It’s never too cold to swim here. I visited in late April and the water temperature was a cosy 26 degrees as we donned flippers and goggles and leapt from the side of our glassbottomed boat, about 50m off the shoreline.
On the surface, with the sun’s rays dancing through the clouds, the water looked like a blue margarita and I really could taste the salt in the air.
It was only when I submerged though that the true beauty of Lady Elliot Island revealed itself.
The visibility was perfect – 20m plus on an average day. It truly is nature’s own aquarium (without the glass).
About 50 big-eye trevally circled below me. Turtles cruised past or slept peacefully on the ocean floor. Thousands of fish – anemones, humbugs, wrasse and scissortail sergeants – swam by to say hello, or perhaps it was the local neighbourhood watch on patrol.
There was even a reef shark, napping. We startled her. She startled us. We went our separate ways.
Later in the day, as the tide went out, we walked around the coral with a guide, making sure we didn’t get too close, pointing out how this complex ecosystem not only survives, but thrives here on Lady Elliot Island.
We then hand fed the fish before jumping back on the plane to overnight in Hervey Bay at the Mantra. If you are looking for somewhere to eat in Hervey Bay then Coast, The Vineyard and Enzo’s on the Beach are well worth a visit and proudly hero the local produce. Just a tip. You are on the coast – it is hard to go past the seafood.
The whales are a fan of Hervey Bay too. From July to November, thousands of humpbacks choose these waters as their playground during their annual migration. The safety of the bay allows the mammals to relax and means they’re more likely to stay close to the surface and show off for visitors. It’s no wonder this is the best place in the world to see humpbacks in action.
Day two started early as I had to pick up a Range Rover from Fraser Magic at 6.30am. You can’t hire a 4WD and head on to Fraser Island without the mandatory safety briefing. It makes sense because it is the world’s largest sand island and, with a steady flow of visitors, it needs to be protected.
I’d never driven on sand before and I was cautious as I made my way from the barge toward the famous Lake McKenzie, about 7km from Kingfisher Bay Resort.
Driving on sand is a bit like skiing in soft snow. You need to go with the flow and not fight too hard against the moving sands.
The good news is it is not as scary as I thought.
It’s my third visit to Lake McKenzie and it never disappoints. I sat under a tree and listened as visitor after visitor, in many different languages, said the same thing.
I recognised belle, hermosa, schon and pragtige.
The languages may be different, but the meaning is the same. Beautiful.
From Lake McKenzie we bumped and bounced along clearly defined tracks before emerging from the sand dunes onto the beach on the eastern side of the island.
As I headed north, the towering trees of a world-heritage listed rainforest waved hello, inviting us deeper into the paradise that is this island.
With waves pounding just to the right of my Range Rover window and the sun playing hide and seek behind the fluffy clouds, I couldn’t help but think how lucky we are here in Queensland to have these natural island wonders right on our doorstep.