Heron Island, Australia



We went to Heron Island in Australia!
It is a place where you can take a break from the busy city life….literally, as there is no TV, no computers, no free access to wi-fi (even if you pay for it, it’s super slow), and no phones.  You will be disconnected from the outside world.  Well, amongst all the resort rooms on the island, there is 1 room with a phone.  With that phone, you can only call the reception or something.  So, if you are traveling with friends and wanna ask them late at night to hang out or whatever, you will need to walk over to their place and talk face to face.  When it’s 4amor 5amand you wanna give your friend a morning call, you will learn to appreciate the invention of a phone.

Anyways, why would we have morning calls at 4am or 5am? It’s turtle hatch-ling season!  The little turtle hatch early in the morning or late at night.  So, we would wake up early each day to try our luck and see if we find any little turtles racing to reach the water on the beach.  The mother turtles lay eggs sometime around 11pm to 2am.  We also tried to get a glimpse of that.  Because of this, even when we have so much free time since we have no TV and computers,we still didn’t have time to rest.  

Our schedule each day is:

5:00am – 7:30am : search for hatch-lings and walk around the island
7:30am - 8:30am: breakfast
8:30am – 9:00am: rest
9:00am - 10:00am: join island tours/research tours or nap for a coupe hours
10:00 – 11:00am: rest
11:00am- noon:lunch
noon5:00pm: swim / snorkel / sunbathe or sleep on the beach
5:00pm – 6:30pm:wash up
6:30pm – 8:30pm: dinner
8:30pm – 9:30pm: join talks/lectures
9:30pm – 11:00pm: rest
11:00pm – 2:00am: search for mother turtle nestling
2:00am – 5:00am: sleep

By the end of our 4 days stay at the island, we were all exhausted.

The island is small and covered with trees.  I thought that would means I’d get lots of bugs/spiders around.  To my surprise, we only saw 2 tiny little spiders during our stay.  I think that’s probably because they are all eaten by the 75,000 birds living there.  There are sooooo many birds that it’s scary. They are not afraid of you and would just fly right in your face.  The bad part is that they poop everywhere.  Cho, got one on her face~  Every day and night, all you hear is the sound of birds calling.  It’s quite annoying at first, but you will get used to it later.

There is a restaurant on the island where we had our 3 meals each day there.  For the days that we were there, they were serving buffet 3 meals a day.  They serve pretty healthy food.  Mainly fruits and vegetables with a few dishes that has meat in it.  Too healthy in my point of view.  I needed some unhealthy junk to fill my stomach once in a while.  It seems that they don't waste their food as well.  Each night when there are left over at the dinner buffet, they would turn the left over into next day's breakfast and lunch.  Eggplant and pumpkins weren't a very popular dish.  So, I always find eggplants and pumpkins in the breakfast sand lunch buffet. 

A picture says a million words.  So, lets just enjoy some of the pictures here~

Flying to Gladstone to then fly to Heron Island.

This is the Heron Island.  We took the helicopter to get there from Gladstone.  The ride is about 30min compared to the 2.5hr ride if you were to get there by boat.  It's a lot faster and you can see some amazing views!


 This looks like some leopard print doesn't it?  It's actually a coral reef near Heron Island.  It's sooooooooo pretty.  I can't remember the name of this reef though.

This is another reef/island nearby that I have forgotten the name of.  Isn't it amazing?  Though the helicopter ride is more expensive, but it's definitely worth riding at least once.  I mean, if you already paid that much to fly all the way the Australia, why not spend a little more?  You might not go back again anyways.

 
Here is the beach house we stayed at on the island.  It's surrounded by trees and of course birds and bird poo.

Here is the living room.

A bedroom.

 
The washroom. 



When we arrived it was already dinner time after we settled down.  The food looks better than it tastes~ 



 For breakfast, there is cereal and raisin.



Look closer and you will find some flies camouflage with the raisins.  I didn't touch them bowl....too disgusting.

It's early in the morning and we are out to find some turtle hatch-lings.

We were able to find any, but it's sure nice to take a long walk on the beach.

beautiful~

Sun rising~


The water is so clean and clear~

A rain cloud is coming and it just looks so beautiful.

We didn't find turtles, but we found the egg shells.

Here is the trail of the mother turtle going up to the beach to lay eggs.  But of course, by the time we were there, she was long gone.


Here are just a few birds on the island.

There are sharks in the harbour where people swim near sunset.  They say these sharks don't bite, but it's still scary to swim with them.



Here is the shark playing with his food.  He is just swimming in the cloud of little fishies...not eating them yet.

We joined a tour walk to the research center on the island to learn about the marine life~ The tube feet on the starfish looks quite gross up close.

It's always windy and sunny on the beach.  Here is my sun/wind/bird poo shield.

We joined the turtle walk at night and found this mother turtle trying to lay  eggs.  She wasn't able to lay any eggs though.  They said this particular turtle has some problem with her body.  We weren't allowed to have flash lights on the beach or shine lights on the turtle, unless they are getting back into the sea. So, here she is heading back to the sea after the unsuccessful attempt to lay some eggs.

I miss this place.  I wish I am there instead of sitting in the office now.

Chi.
Heron Island, Australia Heron Island, Australia Reviewed by chichicho on February 27, 2013 Rating: 5

2 comments

  1. Absolutely beautiful! I'm so jealous!!
    Too bad you didn't get to see the mother turtle lay any eggs :(
    I'm glad you had fun anyhow :)

    ReplyDelete

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