Lady Musgrave – Southern Great Barrier Reef

Fraser Island was a pretty big deal. It fully lived up to the hype and expectation we carried about what it would be like, and we spent a lot of energy charging about the place having tonnes of fun. Back on the mainland it was time to slow things down and go for a bit of chill…but then we discovered we had reached the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef spans 2,300kms and is made up of 2,900 individual reefs. With all of this in front of us over the next 4 weeks of travel up the coast, somehow it became necessary that we needed to visit the Southern tip of the reef tomorrow!

Just enough time for an emergency snorkelling lesson:

..and we were off to Lady Musgrave.

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Lady Musgrave is a cute little sand cay surrounded by its own ring of coral. There is a narrow entrance through the reef and the boat drives into the shallow lagoon behind the reef. The tour started with a walking tour of the island. Our group was tiny (consisting mostly of us), and the tour guide (a fully qualified marine biologist) was gripping so the kids didn’t leave her side.

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It wouldn’t take more that 15 mins to walk around the whole island. Then it was time for a glass bottom boat tour. There were turtles everywhere and also kids an adults alike leaping about the place yelling Turtle! Fish! Coral! Turtle…etc). After this, we stuffed down a buffet lunch, and then it was on to the main event:

There was a fleeting moment where Daniel pondered the wisdom of leaping off a giant cat into the ocean miles from land, but the minute he clapped eyes on the bewildering cacophony of fish, coral and turtles below, that moment was gone.

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Now while underwater photography is certainly a poor representation of the real thing these coral shots might give you an idea:

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But the highlight has to be the turtles. These things are hypnotic in their slow and graceful movement, gliding effortlessly through the water, and right up close to us as we comparatively floundered around after them.

I can’t bring myself to cull any of my turtle shots, so I will use them to demonstrate that turtles can swim both left AND right.

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Turtles are also capable of swimming over coral (not just sand).

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Much of our snorkelling was done at low tide meaning that some of the coral was exposed. We learnt from the tour guide that this coral would be excreting a mucus which acted as a sunscreen for the coral. Just as we were leaving, the first waves started coming over the lagoon and instantly the visibility drops from lots to not much.

Highly recommend this trip to anyone in the area. Mother Nature was brilliant and the tour operator had a real and obvious passion for what they were doing and for the conservation of this treasure. Having started at 7am, with 2hrs in the water snorkelling, not everyone made it all the way back to port.

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One more thing: these things are the reason the turtles are in the lagoon. Salp. This photos shows hundreds of them washed up in a corner. Interesting fact (if I have this right) is that these things are the first animal to develop a central nervous system and as such are an important link in the evolution of our illustrious selves!

Phew. That was quite a day, and not our last trip to the reef I hope. Back on the mainland now in pursuit of some of that ephemeral relaxation we keep alluding to.