This place was just perfect as a wildlife resort. The management had had problems with their desalination plant, finding staff, etc., so we were prepared to be disappointed by all the negative reviews. However, the problems had clearly been resolved by the time we arrived for an amazing experience.
If you don’t like unsanitised nature, the fun of the unpredictable, the place shakes your senses in a good way. We soon got used to exuberant bird noise, carefully keeping mouth closed when the bird poo rained down, and the possibility of remote logistics hiccups. Absolutely no whinges from us...a tip-top trip.
On arrival, right beside the staff building was a fluffy muttonbird chick nestled in a hollow. Two metre muttonbird burrows are all over the island, on pathways, and in the pisonia forest. During the day the adults are foraging at sea; during the night they return to feed the chicks which wail like banshees.
On arrival, right beside the staff building was a fluffy muttonbird chick nestled in a hollow. Two metre muttonbird burrows are all over the island, on pathways, and in the pisonia forest. During the day the adults are foraging at sea; during the night they return to feed the chicks which wail like banshees.
Groups of reef sharks whizz into beach channels below the bar terrace. We swam with them close up and they were harmless. However they will bite hard if harassed. We saw one idiot doing that, though not bitten. A boy was bitten a few years ago and the conclusion is that the shark was teased.
Walking on the harbour beach near sunset, we saw a lone turtle hatchling struggling, flippers windmilling bravely, all the way to the water. We cheered, heaved a sigh of relief, only to see it taken quick as a flash by a reef shark. One in a 1000 hatchlings survives to adulthood. Nature breeds tough love.
You soon get used to the eau de toilette scent of 20,000 noddies nesting in their leafy nests glued with poo. It is wonderful how all the birds have no fear of humans, even really close up. Birds fill the sky. Charming noddy calls crescendo during day, then joined all night by the wailing baby calls of muttonbird chicks.
Snorkelling here is spectacular, drifting amongst coral, seeing giant clam, sea slugs, reef sharks, and all kinds of multicoloured fish. A personal triumph for me was solving the no moustache, no snorkel mask leak conundrum. Worth waiting 30 years to shave my moustache!
The island can be walked around in a leisurely hour, stopping frequently for pics of the pisonia forest and along coral fringed beaches where we spot golden plovers, silvereyes, turnstones, silver gulls, and more.
Turtle nests and turtle tracks abound because nesting season is still happening.
The ever changing weather gave us an opportunity for striking photography.
On my birthday, whilst imbibing caipirinha cocktails on the bar terrace at dusk, I was thrilled at the sight of three frigatebirds, floating high in the air, demonstrating their amazing aerobatic skills. As befits my birthday, the day of foody treats starts with fluffy pancakes for brekkie...and then a bottle of bubbly with steak for dinner. Cheers!
Chief funmakers on the ground are the Buff-banded Rails which are everywhere. You see them like a fan club, mobbing the groundsman raking as he unearths insects. Rails in the bar nicking toasties, rails peering through netting at the restaurant where we are enclosed not them, and rails hopping onto the room deck, inquisitively pecking our toes.
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Heron Island, Gladstone, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
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