Lady Eliot Island is famous for its Manta Rays which are local residents. The Manta is even a centerpiece of the eco-resort logo! A set of coral 'bommies' (big free standing coral heads) are cleaning stations for these amazing fish.
I did not take my UW camera as it has not been serviced (and I didn't want to drown it). But our excellent divemaster, kiwi-born Chris Garraway) had a digital rig and gave me a DVD of all the photos he took during our brief stay.
The weather was typical for this time of year - wind with rain on the mainland 70 km away. The wind kicked the swell up and limited our dive options. But as it was our first visit and we have not been diving much the sites that were available were sufficiently amazing!
The video below (click the little arrow) is pretty amazing - this manta is about 3 m tip-to-tip. The big guys are up to 8 m!!! As you watch, look for bubbles appearing on the right side - that is me. Me and the manta had a 15 sec eye-to-eye meeting during which I could have reached over and touched him. I could see all the little cleaner blennies inside his mouth as he eyed me and finally turned away to head back into the blue. Simply amazing...
Nancy saw this little turtle swim towards her - as she tried to back away, it just came on. It 'frisked' around her and the other divers. If it didn't have a dense hard shell, you would swear it liked having its back scratched (Nancy does think it was playing....)
We also saw some really BIG turtles gliding about. Lady Eliot is a nesting island and over the 3 days we were there we saw about 30 turtles in the water - feeding, swimming and sleeping. There ere some simply humongous big turtles out there!
This one let me swim along side with one hand on its shell. It would stop and eat something, look at me, swim on. If I half closed my eyes I could imagine I was such a graceful swimmer, gliding under the waves.Until I had to breathe that is...
Nancy and Dirk doing their surface time and watch the tide go out in the lagoon. The cute pick
beach shoes came from the 'reef walking shoe rack' full of sneakers and things for people to wear when wading out across the reef (which is NOT a good idea in thongs)
A collection of cone shells - to be avoided due to the likelihood of containing predatory gastropods with neurotoxic peptides that cause death.
Even the damn molluscs are out to kill you here!
Hermit crab on the beach...
Numerous geckos hung around the lites catching their dinner 0or maybe breakfast)
The Noddies lined up on the rail at the diner pavilion. They were interesting dinner company as they pecked at each other and jousted for the best position near our plates. We *did not* leave anything unattended!
Astounding water colors around the island (which you could walk around in 20 minutes, Its a small but densely interesting place! Amazingly, only about 20% of the visitors dive!
A White capped Noddy looking quite elegant in her white eye-liner.
One of the common octopi we saw (at least it was not one of the blue-ringed versions! The blue rings (Hapalochlaena lunulata), althought quite small, contain a neuro-muscular toxic that cause blockage of nerve conduction, paralysis and respiratory failure. Charming.....
Nancy and Nina visited by another turtle
A Cowtail Stingray. We also saw big Eagle rays, guitar fish and more bright reef fish than we could count.
Nancy and the playful turtle.
Dirk investigating a school of Glass Fish - these hung in great masses around certain coral heads. As you small through them they would part and coalesce gain behind you. Looking at the world from inside the school was quich interesting!
Nancy and Dirk check out one of the local Tiera Batfish.
I took this picture of little cuttlefish as we snorkeled over second reef on our last day (we couldn't dive as we were flying out). Lots of great stuff to see snorkeling but we agreed that after diving to 2 days - well, diving is the way to go.
A clown fish doing its symbiotic thing with an anemone -- the clownfish eats potentially harmful invertebrates and providing excreted nutrients to the anemone. In exchange its gets a place to hide among the stinging cells in the anemone.
This is an amazing place - great dive guides, fabulous sea life (and a healthy reef - not too much bleaching this far south). Apparently up to 87% of the inshore reefs up north have high to extreme level of warm water coral bleaching. The mid- and outer reefs only have 14% high levels (http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/hot_topics/coral_bleaching/coral_bleaching_on_the_great_barrier_reef).
But here there are blowholes and arches to swim through, a wrecked yacht where the sharks hang out, great food, nice tide pools, an modest eco-oriented resort, largely empty beaches, and of course, our favorite mutton birds! We will be back in winter when 50-70 mantas migrate in and you have to "push them out of the way to get a photo of a turtle"!
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