The Low Isles

Day 6

Another boring day in paradise. Another cruise out to a reef. This time the Low Isles, which is about 10km off the coast. Today we are on a 60ft cat which is the last word in luxury, must have cost $2mill at least. The low isles are a proper coral cay, a reef forms then turns into a small island. This one has a lighthouse and keepers lodge, and at low tide you can walk to the other cay that forms the small horseshoe shaped group. In the protected lee of the horseshoe, another reef forms and this is the one we are on today. There are two options: tag along with the 1 hour snorkel tour or take the tinny into the beach for a smaller tour. I took the 1 hour one, Judy elected to take the boat. They keep everyone in a group on this reef as there are a few hundred snorklers paddling about from the 10 or so boats moored in the bay. Today we have the added bonus of 300 extras from the Pacific Dawn which is anchored just of the headland.

The weather is perfect and the sea is calm. Apart from a lower visibility due to the wash, which you don’t get on the outer reef, conditions are ideal. The reef looks healthy, perhaps more types of coral than we saw the other day, but fewer fish. Our guide was great; he kept scooping up some exotic creature and showing us, or pointing out the stingrays, crayfish and turtles. They are really hard to see until someone points them out. Judy was lucky enough to see a ‘cleaning station’, where bigger fish pull in to be cleaned of algae by the two resident cleaner fish and a big male wrasse with his harem in line behind him.

Both groups met on the beach and Dru our guide took us ona short tour of the island. The Ospreys nest is a feature; it got so big that when it rained it brought the tree down and ended up on the sand. The island caretaker built a platform up another tree from a pallet and took the sodden mess of a nest out onto the beach, pulled it completely apart and laid the sticks and twigs out to dry. Within 2 weeks the osprey pair had completely rebuilt the nest using all the dried out material. Now that is recycling! Dru’s party piece is to gather us all around a table in the shade of the lighthouse and produce a timber box out of which he pulled any number of shells and giving us the complete rundown on what type of creature it was and all its habits. As this fellow, who we may have thought of as the skipper of the boat and snorkel leader, gets into his stride it’s evident that he is much more, probably a marine biologist, as his range and depth of knowledge about birds, reefs, corals, shells and fish is nothing short of amazing. As a bonus, he collects shells, and he collects them all right here on this island.

On the short walk back along the beach, they casually point out yet another shark cruising the shoreline, not more than 1m from the waters edge.

I chose to swim back to the boat to build up my appetite for the luncheon that awaited: the usual chicken, ham, pastrami, prawns and a range of salads.

After lunch there was to be another tour, so we suited up and hopped into the water….

Cue the soundtrack from Jaws…

We were swimming with two black-tipped reef sharks. They were there, so close you could touch them, but as Dru had so rightly warned us, these ones see us as a threat and will, and did, leave us alone. Apart from the sharks, there were a couple of huge bat fish and a bunch of other ones that I couldn’t identify.

When the tour got started, the girl leading it took off like a croc to dinner time and we bailed out, swimming leisurely back to the boat. I amused myself by jumping off the side of the boat into the water, until the other crew member suggested I try the roof! Far out, sooo much fun!

On the return trip, a whale and calf were sighted and followed for a while until we finally had to return to the wharf, where the guests for the dinner cruise were waiting already; seems we were about 45 minutes late but I don’t think anyone on the boat, including crew, cared that much!

Low Isles, Qld