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Danish guests Swim with the Lady Elliot Turtles
The journey started in Hervey Bay, the airport was nearly empty except for us and 5 other people, we were all waiting for the plane to Lady Elliot Island to arrive. When we saw the little plane we all got very excited. It was a mini plane that could carry around 8 people and the pilot. We were all able to see the pilot; it was great to see how the pilot manoeuvred the plane during take off and landing. The pilot was also the guy at the check-in counter, the baggage man and everything else that needed to be done. It was good to see a well-educated person that was happy to do what is takes to make everything work as effective as possible. It made me think that I would meet staff here that was willing to do something extra in order to create the best conditions for the guests. And I was right; the staff at Lady Elliot Island was very helpful and well trained, which made our stay full of useful information.
The view from the plane was extraordinary and when we landed guests and staff along the runway were welcoming us. We quickly made friends with other people on the island. In a way I felt like I was coming home. You kind of knew everybody, knew how to find everything and I had a feeling of being in a true local environment. Around the bar area we talked to a lot of people that were eager to share their experiences at the reef. Every single one we talked to was impressed with the snorkelling conditions around the island. The water was super clear so even though we just snorkelled we could see lots of corals and fish also in deep water.
The corals around Lady Elliot are mostly hard corals in all shapes and colours. The brain coral has a round kind of shape. The plate coral is a flat a bit like a CD disk, just much bigger. The clam coral look like a mussel with a big colourful zigzag mouth. We found the coral landscape was amazing, we have never seen anything like this. It is an experience that everybody deserves to get just once in their lifetime. Our problem is that after seeing a part of the Great Barrier Reef we simple can't get enough. The corals are one thing, but around the coral reef there is a tremendous amount of fancy fish.
One of our greatest adventures was swimming with an old turtle. The head of the turtle was about the size of my head. It was used to humans, so we could get up real close. We could see the turtle face real clear when it came up to breath, the skin was robust and old, but the structure and the colours were fine. The funny nose or beak was moving slowly and confidant when the turtle breathed. The carapace was full of alga so we couldn"t see the structure very well. We would guess that the turtle was a good meter long and above 100 years old. This turtle was missing nearly its entire right back fin so it’s easy to recognize. Some of the staff told us that his name was Frankie. He is living around Lady Elliot Island.
Right now it is the end of the turtle-nesting season, so we could see some turtle tracks at the beach and we saw some nests as well. The hatchig season is starting in February, so if you are very lucky you might see some baby turtles running towards the sea. Even though we didn’t see any turtles on land, we felt we had a true turtle adventure after spotting 7 in the water. In the water the turtle is majestic to watch.
In addition to the turtles we also saw some rays, a stingray and an eagle ray, which is also a proper big underwater creature, they came flying near the floor. We saw two big fat moray eels that were 'crawling’ along the corals; it was easy to spot the long black eel among the colourful corals. Among big schools of various types of wrasses, we saw parrotfish, blue line surgeon and different types of butterfly fish. There was also schools of baby fish they tried to use us as protection and they where very curious so the came up close to the mask. Another funny fish we found was the Picasso triggerfish a beautiful little fish that we found near shore.
It was incredible to snorkel abound Lady Elliot Island; we think that we had a luxurious stay among friendly casual people. There are only a few places on earth where you can enjoy and experience the nature like we did on Lady Elliot. We deeply respect the unique nature and hope it can stay for many more years.
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publication: LEI News
author: Marianne Jensen
date: 14/2/2008
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