riverECHO

Life is pretty easy to enjoy when you are stranded on a deserted island for three days in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. As we were dropped off at Crayfish beach with a sit-on-top kayak, snorkeling gear, stinger suits (more on that later) and a cooler full of food, our boat captain yelled to us “pick you up on Tuesday morning at 8am.” Okay, so we weren’t exactly stranded. And we were camping with a few other folk so it wasn’t exactly deserted. But it sure did feel that way.

Crayfish Beach is on the east side of Hook Island, one of the many Whitsunday Islands which are some of the closest land masses to the Great Barrier Reef. Surrounded by a ton of coral and similar marine life that is found out in the reef, Crayfish Beach is quiet and is known for having some of the best snorkeling in the chain of islands. Unfortunately we don’t have photographic proof of just how amazing the snorkeling and kayaking were, so you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you about what we saw.

First a note on stinger suits. We have been warned over and over again that late October is the time when box jellyfish, the deadliest creature on earth, come into the shallow waters off the coast of Australia. If you don’t believe me about the deadliest creature in the world mumbo jumbo just read the little description here. While many beaches post “no swimming” signs, it is accepted to swim safely with a “stinger suit.” I was picturing some hideous form of full body pantyhose but the suits are like a very thin wetsuit. Even though it is still early October, we didn’t want to take our chances. What if the young jellyfish don’t know how to read a calendar and arrive early? We thankfully never saw a box jellyfish but we did, however, spot a Portuguese Man o’ War floating on the surface of the sea while kayaking back into camp. It’s not deadly but can give you a good sting and we were glad to float by it in our big plastic boat.

At low tide on Crayfish Beach, you can literally put your snorkel gear on and waddle down the beach and start snorkeling immediately from the shore. It was really shallow in the immediate bay and although you could skillfully swim over the coral without touching it, BJ and I preferred taking the kayak out to the reef’s edge and snorkeling right from the boat. The coral was brilliant and came in all sorts of colors and shapes like giant lime green flowers, spiky coral that looked like tons of deer antlers stacked together, huge brain coral taller than me, and a large type that we decided looked like a very large donut. There were tons of fish as well but the coral was definitely the underwater highlight. From the seat of the kayak we loved exploring the edge of the reef before it dropped off into a much darker and deeper shade of blue. It was an area where we were almost guaranteed to see sea turtles. They would keep their distance but seemed curious, always giving us a few glances before diving down into the depths.

We spent most of our last day on the kayak and explored the handful of mini bays that made up the larger bay in front of Crayfish Beach. The tide was all the way out but we were able to float above all of the coral and sea life, kayaking into areas that we wouldn’t have been able to swim in because they were so shallow. At one point we reached a deeper area surrounded on all sides by a shallow coral reef. As the tide was out, there were a handful of huge fish that were trapped within this lagoon until the tide came back in and BJ even spotted a reef shark surfing in on a small wave. Another favorite moment, probably more entertaining for BJ, was when I was snorkeling in a shallow bay and he was near me in the kayak. All of a sudden a huge cloud of sand billowed up and a giant stingray shot out from the sea floor. It was so close it made me jump and I immediately stood up on the sandy sea floor to get BJ’s attention. He was of course laughing and I was now standing knee deep in the middle of a bay trying to decide if I should keep swimming.

Our camp was quiet and basic with a smelly pit toilet. We actually picked up and moved our tent to a different location the second night because we were in its direct line of smell. We made friends with two of the other campers, a father and his daughter who were at the beach for an entire week. The daughter, 14 and away from all her friends on her spring break, was really homesick and dad actually asked us to talk to her and try to cheer her up. I thought it was kind of a funny request to a complete stranger but she was cool and easy to talk to. We all ended up snorkeling one afternoon together which I think gave us all a sense of security to venture a little further out into the reef. Dad was fishing for their dinner each night and one evening he actually somehow caught a reef shark! His line was much too weak to try to pull it in or fight it but as BJ was watching, he saw the thing leap and squirm out of the water as if trying to fight the bait. No harm done and little shark was able to easily escape, but it made for quite the evening entertainment.

After waking up on the beach yesterday morning, we cleaned ourselves and our gear, reloaded the van and began our drive west to Broome. The next couple weeks are going to consist of a LOT of driving as we are trying to get to the west coast before BJ’s mom flies in for a trip to Darwin and the red center with us. We are basically driving the equivalent of New York City to Seattle in two weeks, while working full time as we go. We are prepared for heat, humidity, lots of flies, and hopefully not too many glitches with the van. We did just discover, as we pulled into camp in a small town of Charters Towers, that Slim’s fan doesn’t seem to be spinning. Hmmm, not such a good thing to go out before we cross a 2000 mile long desert. Looks like we will forego today’s drive for a visit to the shop. Could be worse and we are still glowing in relaxation from our three days in the Whitsundays.