From Hervey Bay we took the bus to Agnes Water and stayed at
a hostel with great potential, but which fell short on cleanliness. “Breakfast”
included toast and peanut butter and Jam, only they were basically out of the
peanut butter and jam. So, we went shopping for items we could eat without
using the greasy-looking kitchen. Really it was the bathroom floors (embedded
stench) and the kitchen that weren’t clean. The place itself was super cool. A
central hangout area with many wooden tables, a pool table, a fireplace and a
large TV….and a bar. The accommodations were set off in the woods in individual
cabins named after countries. It was really a charming oasis with a ton of
potential.
Our first evening we went sea kayaking with dolphins! We saw
several pods within ten yards of our boats. They weren’t quite as curious as
the whales, but they did come quite close. We also stopped on a beach for wine
and fruitcake just before the sunset, then put our paddles up and just floated
around to watch the sunset. Just amazing. Charles and I would have liked to
have been out longer, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and have found a new
fun activity to invest in when we grow up. Our tour leader was a real Crocodile
Dundee type – that sense of humor really is uniquely Australian!
Another day we went to Lady Musgrave Island…not really an
island at all, but a coral cay at the Southernmost end of the Great Barrier
Reef. This is an “island” made entirely from coral. On it has grown a fantastic
and mystical tropical paradise of lush trees with no underbrush, a sandy floor,
and thousands upon thousands of sea birds. Actually, it seems the birds came
first and left the seeds of trees behind in their poo. Cool. The whole thing
was quite small and you could probably circumnavigate it in under an hour.
Making a lagoon and attached to the island is a nearly
complete circle of coral reef nearly reaching the surfaced during high tide and
reaching out of the water during low tide. The protected lagoon within is where
we spent the majority of our day riding a glass-bottom boat, a semisubmersible,
and snorkeling around the reef. So many fish! I could look at coral and
tropical fish every day and never get bored. The highlight for me was the
snorkeling! I got to swim with a Green Sea Turtle! Yay! So so so much fun. We
also saw a hawkbill (?) turtle from the semisubmersible.
On our third day we rented hilariously chunky bikes from the
hostel and pedaled to an area where the kayak guide had said we could see
wallabies. (Side note: we were usually not sure whether something was a Wallaby
or a Kangaroo. The main difference is size and the shape of their jaws. We just
called them all Boing Boings). So we chugged along on our bikes (small hills
were nearly impossible on these things) and saw so many Boing Boings! They’re
great! We quickly fell in love with these guys – they made us giggle a little
each time we saw them boing boining away.
The final day, since the only bus north was at 9pm, we spent
strolling along the beach that connects Agnes Water to Town of 1770 (pop 63).
Lovely. We spent a couple of hours just sitting on a rocky outcropping and
watching the ocean. I also got to spot a Brahminy Kite and a Sea Eagle as they
soared lazily along the coast hunting their lunch.
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