Day 6: Sunday, February 10, 2002
Relaxing on Heron Island

We both slept well despite the humidity, thanks to the ceiling fan. Not only did it keep us cool but it also drowned out the sounds of the mutton bird, which they'd warned us about. Walendo turned off the fan at one point and we heard this loud, painful-sounding screetch, which must have been the mutton birds. He turned the fan back on.

Heron Island Dining Hall

We woke early, around 7:40 and rang Gordon on the radio, arranging for a quick breakfast. They of course had a nice spread but I still wasn't hungry from gorging last night, so I limited myself to a small croissant and some fruit. Then we walked over to the dive shop to get information. They said they don't advise snorkeling yourself out to the reef because the tide is strong and it's a long way out there, so you may find it difficult to swim back. Meantime, they have a boat that goes out to the reef twice a day and you can sign up to snorkel off of that for $20AU (US$10). We could tell that it's the official line not to snorkel out to the reef, maybe a bit self-serving, but I was fine with taking a boat right to the good stuff. We decided to sign up for the 11am trip. Gordon wanted to try the scuba dive training (you don't get real certification, but you get a little instruction and they take you on a couple of dives as part of the instruction), so he signed up for tomorrow.

Heron Island Dive Shop

We wanted to test out out snorkeling gear and just get in the water, so we walked down to Shark Bay, which is on the far (north) end of the island. It takes about 10 minutes to get there, walking along a sandy path along a little forest in the inner part of the island. We got to the beach, and quickly head in. There wasn't much to see, but it was good to get wet and to try things out. I quickly got water in my mask and in my eye, which got irritated from the salt water. That wasn't so good. I also discovered I had the breathing tube on the wrong side, since it was curving away from my mouth, so I fixed that. Everything seemed to be okay for Walendo and Gordon. After about 20 minutes or so, we headed back to the beach, refreshed and psyched to see more interesting stuff. We walked back, got our stuff for the snorkel and headed over to the harbor, where there were three boats waiting. One was for divers and the other two were for snorkelers. They said they'd take us to Blue Pools, a particular area of the reef. I chatted with a man sitting next to me who had done a lot of scuba and snorkeling, and he really seemed to enjoy it. He had a little card showing the types of fish and he was saying how hard it is to remember the details of what you saw and then figure out what type of fish it was later on. Exactly the problem I've had.

Heron Island Pier

Once we got there, they anchored the boat in a little cove area and asked us to stay inside that cove. They squirted our snorkel masks with some soapy water to help keep the fog down and then off we went. (Immediately I was cold in the water, but after a while I warmed up a bit.) Now this was more like what I'd been hoping for. There were gazillions of fish of all sizes and colors, lots of brilliant colors. It's fun just to see how many different kinds you can spot. Initially you see a bunch, but then you get adapted and many more become apparant. Some of them were huge, probably three feet long. I saw a shark fish-looking thing and tried to call those guys over but it was gone by the time they got there. They said we might see a turtle but we didn't. Still, we saw tons! The coral itself is also quite pretty, also lots of interesting colors, some nice purple and day-glo blue, amazing. I recognized a few of the fish from when I snorkeled in Hawaii, or at least I think I did, you never can tell. They give you an hour to snorkel, with a ten minute warning to get back to the boat. After about a half hour I started getting cold again, but I kept going for a while longer and finally headed to the boat after 45 minutes. I was glad I'd brought my towel with me cuz I was shivering. I really liked the snorkeling and wanted to do more, so I decided to look into renting a wet suit so I could stay out longer. Those guys, of course, loved the temperature and Gordon said it was the first time he'd been really comfortable since he'd gotten here. Sigh, it sucks to be such a temperature wimp.

Gordon relaxing in lounge/pool area

They took us back on the boat and we took a quick shower and then met for lunch. Again I had a quiche and again it was exceptionally good. Yum! I also had some fruit and a roll, which was also very good. Gordon overheard someone saying that they had lychees and that they were really good so he took some. I tried some and it was yummy — a very sweet flavor. It looks strange, kind of a translucent fleshy pulp but it's yummy. I got some of my own to try too. Walendo and Gordon managed to go through about 3 plates each, and then tried to claim that someone else had eaten there before them. I suppose the wait staff sees this all the time.

Walendo lounging in pool area

Having been so active all morning, we decided to take advantage of the activity "lay around," which Walendo had added to our daily schedule, indicating it was available all day, every day. We grabbed our books and went to the bar/pool area where they have nice lounge chairs. Walendo & Gordon had a beer. I read a bunch and dozed a bit, going into the pool every so often. Such a nice feeling. At one point, I felt something gooey land on my forehead and quickly realized I'd won our contest to see who would get dropped on first by one of the many birds. I ran to the pool and quickly washed off. I guess if you're going to get hit, that's not a bad place for it to happen.

Pathway to Heron Island Info Center

After a few hours, we got up from our lazy stupor and sprung into action. We signed up for the snorkel boat for tomorrow (both at 11am and 3pm) and I rented a wet suit. I'm psyched to be able to stay out a while. Then I went back to the room to take a proper shower before heading to the Island Walk. Walendo and Gordon decided to go for another swim/snorkel off Shark Bay. The Island Walk was really enjoyable. Melissa was our guide, and she was a marine biologist. She told us all sorts of things about the trees and birds on the island, as well as some info about the place itself. I won't remember it all, but I tried to make note of things that I think Walendo will find interesting. For one, she told us that, although people often say that the Great Barrier Reef is the largest living organism, that's not quite true because it's not really one single organism. It's really many, but she said they don't often correct people.

She told us about the Pisonia trees, which are all over the island and have gazillions of terns in them. They're have a very porous, corky bark and are almost more like herbs than trees. There are very few in the world. About 15% of the world's population are on this tiny island, 90% in the islands around here. Apparently, the terns prefer these trees over any other, and yet the strange thing is that the trees aren't that great for the birds. It's hard for these trees to pull enough nutrients from the soil. So they grow these branch-like things that have a sticky, mucous substance on them. If the birds touch them, they get their wings stuck with the stuff and they can't fly.

Noddy Terns in Posonia Tree

They drop to the ground and die, and the tree absorbs the nourishment from the soil. Not very nice! The trees are not that strong, so the branches often break off. The way they grow new trees is to shoot new branches vertically from the fallen branches, which is a clever way to go for this type of tree.

She also told us that the the birds make nests from leaves. The male bird collects leaves and brings them to the female to check out. She checks it for size, water content, and such and if she decides it's okay, she sets it down on a branch and then shits on it. The nests are mostly made of bird poo. Then she lays her egg, one per season, about 20% of her body weight, ugh. Then they share the time sitting on the egg, not leaving it for long because it can't stay viable for longer than 15 minutes on its own.

Tree with many trunks

She pointed out a certain kind of tree that has a bunch of branches sticking out from the bottom of the bark to the ground. The more the tree leans, the more branches grow. She explained that the tree has an enzyme in it that triggers the growth of these branches. Gravity pulls the enzyme down but if a tree starts to lean, the enzyme winds up higher in the trunk so more shoots go down. She said some trees are practially horizontal with these stalk-like things dropped to the ground along the way. They're cool looking trees. She also showed us how strips of bark wind up at the bottom of the tree and they have little thorn-like things that makes the bark strips stick to one another, creating a covering over the roots. This protects the roots from soil erosion from sun, rain and wind. As we got closer to the shore, the trees changed and she pointed out how they had much smaller leaves. Near the shore they have to worry more about preserving their water conent, so smaller leaves works better. She showed us one tree that grows right out of the sand, which has no nutrients, so that's kind of amazing. (She explained how it gets nutrients but I forgot.) The whole walk was just under 2 hours, perfect. I like hearing about how nature works, there's a satisfying way that things make sense. And each species seems to find different ways to solve similar problems.

Now I'm sitting out on our porch writing up today's events and waiting for those two to return from their swim. I'm finally hungry for a meal, which is a first since I've been here.

...

Noddy Tern eating a fish

Dinner was quite good again. This time they served us off a small menu rather than buffet style. That was good because it made it easier to not overeat. They call the first course the Entre here, which caused some confusion when they asked us what we wanted for our entre. After dinner we went back to the room for a bit and then went out to look for turtles. It was dark and there was very little moonlight, so we could barely see where we were walking, let alone turtles. When we first got to the beach, there was a group shining a flashlight on the sand, which is exactly what they instructed us NOT to do. Walendo called out "NO LIGHTS" and the guy shut it off. We wandered up the beach a bit not seeing much, and finally decided to sit in one place and hope we saw something. Another guy came walking along turning his flashlight on every so often. Walendo couldn't stand it and went over to tell him to turn it off. The guy said he'd knocked his toe so he'd turned it on, but Walendo firmly asked him to turn it off. It really bugged him. After a while of sitting, a couple came by who told us they could hear some turtles digging up by one of the boardwalks leading to the rooms, so we stood there a while and heard them digging, but we couldn't see anything. It was cool knowing the sound was a turtle digging, but also frustrating. After a little while we walked back. Tomorrow we'll try again before it gets dark. (They said they're out a couple of hours before and after evening high tide, so there should be plenty of time.)

By now we were all tired from all the heavy activity of the day :-) so Gordon went back to his room pretty quickly. I've been reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, whose main theme is about why it's so important not to interfere with nature, which seems appropriate to this place, since it too is so much about respecting and learning about nature. After reading a while, we went to sleep. Tomorrow: lots of snorkelling.

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