Tuesday - Trip to Fitzroy Island, Great Barrier Reef
Got up early for some breakfast before heading down to the boat terminal to get over to Fitzroy Island. It is on the Outer Barrier Reef and is one of the most unspoilt islands on the reef.
Managed to find the boat check in after some initial confusion and boarded a safe looking and fairly sizeable boat over to the island, with is only a 45 minute sail - although it took longer as on the way, there was an old wooden fishing boat abandoned in the sea so our boat heaved it aboard and that took a while as they weren't very good at it.
Arrived on the island to an actual jetty, not a cement boat and plank a la Flores, which is right in front of a new resort that they are building there and isn't even properly open yet but looks plush. It is a big step away from all the things the island has been in the past, which includes a quarantine island for diseased Chinese sailors - they don't even know where the graves are - grim.
Hired a snorkel set each but the man only charged us for one, making our day out super value. While we were at the beach hire, some small child had run into the sea and then came out with something wrong and its mother decided it had been stung by a jelly fish. The beach hire man gave him ice and pointed out that it was probably a sea lice bite, yet despite this, the mother was still convinced it was a stinger - the child wasn't even crying for chrissakes!! Though they did find a baby jelly fish in the sea later - some idiot people complained it wasn't safe - why did you come to the barrier reef exactly? To scoop out all the nature and moan about it??
We walked the track over lots of pre-historic pre dinosaur age rocks to Nudey Beach, as this is the only sandy beach on the island. It is a nude beach, but nobody was very nudey when we got there. It was a beautiful spot with a lovely view and super soft sand. Also all the shells and corals on the beach were incredible. Decided to soak up the sun at first as it was very hot and we needed to warm up after the windy journey over. However, just as we got warm enough to contemplate going snorkelling on the reef in the freezing cold sea, the sun went in, it went windy and cold and it rained. Great.
As there is not a lot to do on a tropical island when it is raining and cold, we stayed at the beach to sit it out and entertained ourselves making beach art, shell hunting and Nik threw rocks at the sea. We got slightly hysterical and stupid after entertaining ourselves for a while, so decided to trek back and find the barbecues. So while all the other tourists were eating their rubbish all inclusive sandwich in a bag and an apple, we were at the island campsite fixing up barbecue burgers, salad and crisps. It was excellent fun, despite the swarms of flies, and tasted good. Though it did continue Hannah's meat hangover. On the way to the campsite, we also saw lots of parakeets which just fly about and wander around like pigeons.
After lunch it still wasn't all that warm or sunny (we failed to bring jumpers, did I mention that?) so we decided to do one of the island walks. We chose the short one that requires no bushwalking experience or real shoes, as obv we didn't come prepared with those. We went on the secret garden walk, which takes you up the hillside into the island rainforest and gives you a chance to see lots of different plants, birds, butterflies and reptiles (there are more reptiles than mammals on the island : fact). We saw the biggest butterflies ever that were beautiful, major skink (a bronze lizard), little red sided skinks, yellow footed bush something which is a forest bird that is a bit like a chicken. We also saw a sleepy bat, some massive spider webs (inc one giant dead spider) and a small snake that we couldn't identify as it was hiding between a rock and a leaf (NB. No dangerous snakes here, excellent).
We finished the day playing a coral throwing game on the beach as the sun had come out again. Hannah was actually excellent at throwing coral with accuracy with a technique akin to darts. But Nik could throw further.
Got the boat back and it was freezing - we huddled together with a sarong wrapped around us and just about made it back alive. However, we did then go for coffee to warm up in an emergency fashion. On the way back, there were a lot of birds going mental in the trees, then when we got nearer the hostel we looked up and the skies were alive with bats. Seriously, it was a bit like the end of the world or something. Weird.
Popped back to the hostel to shower and change. As we left early this morning we forgot to get our free dinner tokens, so we had to make the choice between Taco Tuesday, or a Kebab. We opted for Kebab - Nik finally got what he had been waiting for all this time, and Hannah got to eat falafel to stop the meat marathon. It was literally the best tasting kebab ever 'Sinbad Simply Fab Kebab', the sauce was excellent and it was really skinny toasted bread. Yum. And we got to sit down on the Esplanade to eat and people watch, which is always a bonus.
Our final night in the hostel was spent in a mixture of tea and biscuits, packing and watching programmes on the computer. Tomorrow we head to Townsville which is further south on the Queensland coast. Apparently it is not that interesting, but it will enable us to go to another island which apparently has koalas. We will also be one step closer to the Whitsundays where we should probably snorkel the reef….

FYI - if you are bored enough to be interested in where we are going next and when, click on Travel Plan on our page and it'll tell you!