Seventeen Seventy

3 great days at Seventeen Seventy. We took it pretty easy chatting to fellow campers, walking on the beach, bike riding and reading and of course some eating.

(P-nothing like a Roast slow cooked over coals in my “Dobson made” Camp oven / fire pot. A roast of lamb and veggies cooked in the coals one night, Roast Duck another, lamb shanks and Beef short ribs to mention a few of the items on the menu. We have endless onlookers commenting on the delicious aromas that waft across the camp grounds.)

We are soaking up the sun and warmth while we still have some, it’s gunna be much cooler when we get home.

On Friday (31st) we were up early to walk up to the marina by 7.30 ready for a trip out to Lady Musgrave Island. Have to go early to catch the tides as once the tide is low there are sand bars across the estuary mouth. It’s a 2 hour trip out to the island and it’s a bit rolly but we travelled okay. There were only 19 of us on the boat so plenty of room to move about. Just before reaching the island and reef we were lucky enough to see 4 whales passing by us. We stopped to watch for a few minutes until they were out of view. Pretty awesome to see these great creatures.

Once we made our way inside the reef the water levelled out and the boat moored and a wonderful morning tea was served before we off loaded into a glass bottom boat for a trip around some of the bommies and the reef walls that surround the island. Although the coral is not very colourful it is very healthy with many different types of corals about. We also saw numerous green turtles, some resting on the coral some just lazily floating around and some poking their heads above the water. After spending 90 minutes looking at the reef we landed on the island ready for a walk with our island guide.

Lady Musgrave Coral Cay is only 14 hectares, with a 1292 hectare surrounding reef, one third being the Lagoon. The island is a haven for seabirds, Wedgetailed Shearwaters, Noddies, Boobies and Terns. The seabirds nest in and under the Pisonia forest ( these trees are unique to the Great Barrier Reef) the main nesting season is October to December but some early arrivals of Noddies were making their presence felt. The Pisonia forest is beautiful. The old trees have gnarled and broken trunks with new branches shooting outs, and a bright green canopy of leaves giving a mottled shady walk through the island. Back out on the beach we wander round the shore spotting black tip reef sharks and sting rays along the shore line. The beach is not sandy but made up of broken coral in all shapes and sizes. Not good for walking bare foot but interesting to walk along. As your feet move the coral it makes a light tinkling noise as it hits against more coral. With 20 people walking long it makes quite an interesting musical accompaniment. Back on the main boat it’s lunch time and then snorkelling time. Only about 8 of us snorkelled but the water was warm and the fish life was amazing. We saw many variety of fish and turtles, probably the most variety we have ever seen in one snorkelling area. It was great. Then unfortunately it was time to leave and head back to the mainland. A good time to have a snooze and relax before we get back. The tide is now very low so the Reef Jet can’t get through the sandbars at the estuary so the Lark (an amphibious boat/vehicle) has come out to collect us. We board the Lark and drive, and motor back to the jetty and walk back to the van, tired but very happy with the great day we have had.

Saturday, we are off early this morning for a 5 hour drive down to Caboulture to stay with Philips cousin, Peter and Di for the next couple of nights.