Heron Island
In April 2008, we spend one week in paradise, on Heron Island, a coral island at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, around 70km off the Queensland coast. The island is tiny and walking around it at a leasurely pace takes little more than half an hour. Apart from a national park and a Queensland University research station Heron Island only hosts a resort. Our daily activities are affected by the tides (and the opening hours of the resort restaurant :-)). At low tide, it's reef walking as the water is only knee-deep and the corals reach up to the surface. At high tide the conditions are perfect for snorkelling.
Read more in our monthly report April 2008.
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Marina
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Beach idyll I
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Beach idyll II
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Marina in back light ..
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... and at sunset. A popular spot for the resort staff in their leisure time
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Coral reef at low tide. At the outer reef there is a last diving boat
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Old gantry, used until the 70th to bring supplies ashore
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The guys the island is named after
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Exploring the coral reef at low tide
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Corals ..
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... as close-up
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Beach idyll III and above mentioned gantry
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High tide offers perfect snorkelling conditions: At the wreck at the marina ..
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... as well as at the gantry. Surprises everywhere ..
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... like this one, ..
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... a Loggerhead turtle of about one metre in length
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Blue Corals
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Reef sharks (this photo taken from the pier), ..
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... this time there is one snoozing in the background ..
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... while this one is fully awake (and BTW harmless)
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A Lemon Shark, again a rather benign representative of his species
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Cowtail Ray
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And apart from that?
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Lots, lots of colourful fish and fishes
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Really heaps
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For a change a coral without a fish
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But from now on ..
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... heaps of fish
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As you can imagine, ..
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... saying farewell is really hard!