Day 5: Saturday, February 9, 2002
Arriving on Heron Island

Today we had to get up very early to head up to Heron Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. The alarm went off at 5am, which seemed like just 5 minutes after I'd fallen asleep. Groan. We got up quickly, checked out, met Gordon in the lobby and got a cab to the airport. It was so quiet at that hour that it took only 15 minutes to get to airport, just AU$23 (US$11.50) this time.

Ellen & Gordon at the empty Sydney airport

When we checked in at around 6am or so (for the 7:35am flight), they hadn't even assigned a gate for our flight yet. Then when we had a gate, we walked over and there was not a soul there for about a half hour. I got to tease Gordon and Walendo for being so paranoid about getting there early. Most people started to straggle in around 7am, which seemed about right to me.

The 1.5-hour flight to Brisbane went smoothly, and then we connected with small plane to Gladstone, which took a little over an hour. We were in one of the 10-row prop planes, which barely had enough room for our carry-on stuff!

Gladstone Airport arrival area

We landed in Gladstone's tiny airport, which consisted of one main room that served as the ticketing area, the waiting room, and the baggage claim area. Most of the floor was taken up with a baggage claim ramp, and you could see where they drove the baggage cart to the side of the building and then put the bags on the track that goes into the main room. Cool. It was very hot in Gladstone, clearly tropical. I was glad I'd travelled in my shorts/pants cuz I just took off the legs and presto - I was wearing shorts! While we waited for our bags I discovered that the bus waiting outside was the transfer bus to Heron Island, which was there to meet the plane. (It had been late, but I gather that the bus waits for the plane.) Many of the people on the plane were also going to Heron Island, so we all got our bags and loaded them onto the bus. At that point, we became part of the Heron Island system, and we just had to followed along.

Walendo & Ellen on Cat to Heron Island

The bus took us to the marina, where they checked everyone in for the whole weekend. They took our bags and put them in big metal bins, which they then loaded by crane onto the boat. They told us they'd deliver them right to our room for us, which was very nice. (It was just a bit embarrassing to have so many bags, since most people are just packing for this trip, not for a month.) The boat was a fast catamaran, and it was nicely done inside. They had little booths with tables in the middle, so we could relax in comfort. They served us tea and biscuits while we chugged out of the bay area, which was nice. Then we picked up speed and the boat started rocking pretty seriously. All of us got a little queasy. I slept some but mostly we just chilled out and tried not to get sick. The boat arrived at around 2pm.

Heron Island from boat

As we walked down the dock, we saw all the people waiting there for the boat ride home. It's nice to have the feeling of just beginning. They walked us down to the central area and sat us in a small room where they give presentations. We got a quick orientation and then they split us into two groups and walked us en masse to our rooms. (Well, Gordon had gotten called out right away cuz he was in an expensive room — having booked late — he gets special treatment. He said he felt bad to miss the regular orientation, and in fact they didn't give him as much information.) There were about 20 people in our group and we walked slowly down the path, stopping as she called out someone's name and showed them their room. It was very hot and muggy and we were all travel weary, so it didn't seem like the best way to do it, but so be it. They'd told us there was no air-conditioning in the rooms, so Walendo was praying quietly, "Please have a ceiling fan, please have a ceiling fan." They called us about mid-way through.

Our Heron Island Room (Reef Suite)

The room was quite nice, very comfortable with nice funishings. And, Walendo was pleased to see, a strong ceiling fan. They explained in orientation that the rooms don't lock from the outside, so you don't have to carry a key. You also don't need to carry money cuz you can charge everything to your room. I really liked that. You can just walk around unencumbered, which is great. They said that in 70 years they've never had any problems with people stealing things, which seems right for this type of place. (If you have something valuable you're worried about, they have safe deposit box.)

Heron Island Eating Hall

After washing up a bit, we headed to the eating area, which was serving lunch for the people who had arrived late. It was delicious! I had a yummy quiche and they had delicious sandwiches on good rolls. Also a fruit salad with nice ripe melons. The food is going to be good!

One of the first things you notice here are the gazillions of birds (noddy terns) that are nesting in all the trees around the rooms and throughout the island. They make quite a racket, and they'll frequently zoom past you. It seems inevitable that you'll get hit by one of their droppings at some point. Walendo said we should have a contest to see who would get hit first. At orientation they said a different bird (mutton bird) comes out at night and it sounds like a screaming baby or a cat being strangled.

Noddy Terns in Pisonia Tree

They said you get used to it, but they provide earplugs just incase. Heron Island is a National Park, so they don't want you to touch anything or collect anything (no rocks or shells). They also said the turtles are nesting now, so we should see some, just don't shine a light or they will follow that light. They come out at night, so we're not sure how you're supposed to see them. I guess we'll find out.

We read that the island is self-sufficent with power & water. They use solar for power, we learned they use desalination filters for the water, after Walendo had been speculating that they might do that. Not bad that he figured it out. (Later I learned that they can't power things exclusively on solar because they'd have to use half the island surface area for tiles and then they'd need a whole crew to clean up the droppings. So they have 4 diesel generators, 2 on at any time.)

Inside Gordon's Point Suite

After lunch, we checked out Gordon's room, which is the top of the line. He had booked a Heron Suite, but it turned out they must have upgraded him one level to the Point suites, cuz his room matched the photo of that class. We were in a Reef suite, which was the 2nd-level room. (Turtle suites are the least expensive.) Gordon's room was a little bigger and had a few more amenities, and his patio was right out by the reef. But for the price difference, it didn't seem like they could do that much more to make it worth it. (He later found they served him appetizers to his room before dinner, but it was the same food as you got at dinner, so again, not a big deal.) Anyway, we hung out a bit on his patio and then decided to walk out on the reef. They suggest you wear covered shoes, which we didn't have, but they have a bunch there and you can take one for the time you're here. That was nice. I like when they think of things like that.

Outside Gordon's Point Suite

The reef was mostly sandy with some weird fat slug/eel-looking creatures (sea cucumbers) to start, and gradually we started to see more plantlife with some small fish swimming among them. It wasn't nearly as pretty as I'd expected. It was mostly ugly looking creatures, but interesting if you can get your mindset that way. Some of the plants looked like brains, some like weird trees. Walendo found these squiggly things that he thought were the openings to giant clams. We also saw a huge sea snail thing that crawled along the bottom. It looked like a weird snail at the front with a round blobby body and lettuce looking fins that wrapped around the body. I called it a lettuce snail. I saw some colorful fish (tiger fish, black & yellow stripey fish, bright blue & turquoise fish). We walked out a long ways still with the water at our calves, though as we got deeper it came up to my thighs. As we started to head in, I realized it wasn't the depth of the sand, it was the tide coming in, because it was still at my thighs all the way in. As we got closer to shore, we saw two tiny little turtles, about 2 inches long, paddling out, stopping every now and then to pop its head out and look around. That was cool. Overall, it was interesting to see, but not that pretty. (Later we learned that the beautiful stuff is out by the edge of the reef, and you can sign up to go out on a boat to snorkel there twice per day.)

Entrance to our Reef Suite

We went back to our rooms to take naps and get ready for dinner. There are no phones in the rooms, so we used our FRS radios to communicate with Gordon. Perfect! (Whatever the situation, we got the technology.) Dinner was a huge buffet of all sorts of seafood. We'd heard a few people say that Saturday was the best night, that they had amazing seafood. They had crabs and huge shrimp, but the shrimp wasn't shelled or de-veined, which wasn't great. I took a few, but then discovered that they didn't have regular cocktail sauce (just a mayo-based one), and then it was such a pain to de-vein it, that it didn't seem worth it. I ate only two and felt bad about letting the other two go to waste. The crab was also more work than it was worth (in my opinion), though if you love crab, I'm sure you wouldn't agree. I went back and got all sorts of other food, a yummy fish filet dish, hot veggies, and salads. Walendo & Gordon had roast beef and pork. It was all very good. Then for dessert I had chocolate brownie/cake thing that was yummy! It was the best chocolate thing I've had so far on the trip. I overate and felt stuffed, which wasn't good, but it's hard to resist.

Heron Island Suites from beach

After dinner we came back to the room, planning to do some laundry in the laundry room we'd discovered. The two machines were full, but then Walendo discovered another laundry right below our room, and it was empty, so we did a couple of loads. (We'd bought the detergent in the souvenir shop earlier.) Since it was so hot, it didn't seem urgent to wash all the cold clothes we'd been wearing, but it felt good nonetheless. Gordon came over to hang out with us, and we discussed what to do tomorrow. They hand out a daily schedule at dinner the night before, which allows you to plan the next day. The schedule lists a bunch of activities throughout the day, some free, many for an extra fee. (They don't tell you how much anything costs, though, so you have to ask when you go to book it). This place is an interesting mix of thoughtful but sometimes uninformative. I guess you just figure stuff out as you go, which is fine. Now we're just relaxing and finishing up the laundry. Tonight we'll go to bed early.

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