Friday 30th
June 2017
Hamilton Island
marina
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| 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…
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| 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!!!)
