Thursday 29 June 2017

30th June 2017 - Whitsundays - Stonehaven Bay - turtle magic

Friday 30th June 2017


Hamilton Island marina

Facepainting and craft at Catseye Beach
Today is our last 2XS day with the Thomases.  We are going to go for a short trip, just to Henning Island, where we can have a picnic, swim, and pootle around in the kayaks.


Thank God for the kayaks!

They have made life a lot easier for everyone. 

For a start, they are fun.

And also – it is possible to transport small girls long distances which they wouldn’t be able to do by swimpower alone.

We went back to Stonehaven Bay and moored near an expansive reef, in a fairly sheltered position.  There were a few issues with bits of snorkelling equipment breaking or plunging to the bottom of the sea.   But all was well; we all got back onto 2XS happily enough.

And then our Attenborough Moment began!

Katy and Rose had seen a small turtle near the boat when they set out.  Exciting enough but…

Small turtle between kayak and boat
After lunch a really big turtle ambled along and came right up to the boat.


It was very interested in watching us, and was quite happy to be touched. 


Pete and I have never seen a turtle behaving this way; it was totally tame!  Usually turtles appear for a few magic seconds and then they disappear very swiftly under the water.


We thought maybe it was hungry, but there was plenty of coral on the reef; none of it seemed to have been damaged by the cyclone.


It certainly didn’t want the crumbs from our BBQ lunch.

Never mind the reason – it made us all very happy, being so close to such a beautiful sea creature.


And as we were about to leave our turtle behind, a big burst of flying fish arose from the sea, and a large batfish me swimming up to eat our crumbs.  Total Attenborough Time !!


We have had a bit of a boat injury…Poor Jeff was kindly helping me lock the workshop drawers.  This can be a bit tricky and oh dear oh NO…I slammed the biggest heaviest drawer just as he was putting his hand out…(Oh the guilt!!!  He will lose that fingernail; not a good souvenir!!!)


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