Heron Island, Queensland, Australia
We're in paradise! - Alas our "honey moon" or at least what most people envision a honey moon: beautiful beaches, great snorkeling (and diving) and absolutely gorgeous weather. Some of our highlights while spending 3 nights on Heron Island have been an amazing and educational night time turtle tour, fabulous snorkeling, and just some plane old relaxation and yoga on the beach. Our cabin of sorts was right on the beach which made for easy access!
The turtle tour was lead by Jeanine, the head researcher from Queensland University. Jeanine was chock full of information and has spent the last 10 years studying turtle reproduction and their life cycle at Heron Island. We were fortunate enough to be on Heron Island while it was the season for female turtles to come ashore and lay their eggs. In a nut shell the process entails turtles coming on shore at night. They then meticulously choose a site, dig a deep (2 ') hole in sand and lay their eggs (approximately the size of a ping pong ball) and then fill the hole back in with sand. The whole process takes about 2 hours and is a very exhaustive exercise. We got to see the whole process up close and personal and it was amazing; just like Discovery Channel but live!
When female turtles become mature enough to reproduce, they travel hundreds of miles in the sea to come back to where they were first hatched from their egg to start the whole process all over again. A female turtle may lay eggs up to 5 times in one season (over a 3 month period) and each turtle may lay roughly 100+ eggs. Only one in 1,000 eggs that are laid actually result in a turtle making it to full maturity. Young turtles are eaten or just don't make it back to sea when they are first born. Okay...enough about turtles - I think our nerdy side has taken over...we love this stuff - it's fascinating!
We snorkeled most of the time we were on Heron Island...a break from diving, as dictated by a Doctor's visit while in Cairns. We found out that Xavier had ruptured his ear drum while on our 4 night live aboard dive trip to the Outer Great Barrier Reef. Fortunately, there was no infection but the verdict was no more diving until the ear completely heals (can take 6-12 months) . No worries...it's a good thing we got 9 dives in prior to seeing the Doctor ;). BTW, we couldn't believe how much it cost to see a doctor (generalist visit): $60 AUD (less than $50 US $)! What a bargain. And the antibiotics (taken as a prophylactic) was only $16!
Although the diving is quite good off of Heron Island, we saw a fair amount of marine life just snorkeling off shore - a plethora of rays including ones that would fly out of the water (no joke!), beautiful iridescent bright blue fish amidst the drab colored coral (yes, we were spoiled on our Outer reef trip), yellow puffer fish, plenty of reef sharks, some parrot fish and a host of zebra fish. All in all, we had a blast!
The turtle tour was lead by Jeanine, the head researcher from Queensland University. Jeanine was chock full of information and has spent the last 10 years studying turtle reproduction and their life cycle at Heron Island. We were fortunate enough to be on Heron Island while it was the season for female turtles to come ashore and lay their eggs. In a nut shell the process entails turtles coming on shore at night. They then meticulously choose a site, dig a deep (2 ') hole in sand and lay their eggs (approximately the size of a ping pong ball) and then fill the hole back in with sand. The whole process takes about 2 hours and is a very exhaustive exercise. We got to see the whole process up close and personal and it was amazing; just like Discovery Channel but live!
When female turtles become mature enough to reproduce, they travel hundreds of miles in the sea to come back to where they were first hatched from their egg to start the whole process all over again. A female turtle may lay eggs up to 5 times in one season (over a 3 month period) and each turtle may lay roughly 100+ eggs. Only one in 1,000 eggs that are laid actually result in a turtle making it to full maturity. Young turtles are eaten or just don't make it back to sea when they are first born. Okay...enough about turtles - I think our nerdy side has taken over...we love this stuff - it's fascinating!
We snorkeled most of the time we were on Heron Island...a break from diving, as dictated by a Doctor's visit while in Cairns. We found out that Xavier had ruptured his ear drum while on our 4 night live aboard dive trip to the Outer Great Barrier Reef. Fortunately, there was no infection but the verdict was no more diving until the ear completely heals (can take 6-12 months) . No worries...it's a good thing we got 9 dives in prior to seeing the Doctor ;). BTW, we couldn't believe how much it cost to see a doctor (generalist visit): $60 AUD (less than $50 US $)! What a bargain. And the antibiotics (taken as a prophylactic) was only $16!
Although the diving is quite good off of Heron Island, we saw a fair amount of marine life just snorkeling off shore - a plethora of rays including ones that would fly out of the water (no joke!), beautiful iridescent bright blue fish amidst the drab colored coral (yes, we were spoiled on our Outer reef trip), yellow puffer fish, plenty of reef sharks, some parrot fish and a host of zebra fish. All in all, we had a blast!
Labels: Australia, Heron Island, honeymoon, Julie, Queensland, sea turtle, Xavier
posted by Xavier at 12:16 AM
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