We had to do some work to earn our trip out to the Reef. As Cate suggested we drove to Airlie Beach to see what we could find to do there. It’s a winding-up whither-the-wind’ll take us way of travelling; from being stranded in St Helen’s Creek, to finding ourselves staying in Strathdickie, was something we couldn’t have planned, that dropped out of the sky for us. Trying to get to Mackay to work, then finding out on the way that our contacts there had fallen through and, with nowhere to work until Bowen, a tank of fuel we didn’t have away, we had to leave it up to random chance to dictate where we ended up next. And then Cate delivered us unto Airlie Beach.Airlie Beach is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands, and as such it’s a lively bustle of backpackers, travellers, transients and blow-ins. It’s a speciality place for those passing through. The reefs, the islands, waterways and forested mainland make it a prime place to explore and enjoy. Over 74 islands and islets comprise the Cumberland Group, known colloquially as The Whitsundays (again, thanks to Cook, who named the body of water there the Whitsunday Passage, as it was the 7th Sunday after Easter – White-Sunday – that he sailed it). Most are uninhabited and almost all are part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This is where you come if you want to dive or love to snorkel, are into water sports or find yourself a budding or bit of a sailor.
We did not think we’d get to see The Whitsundays. We thought initially we might have to pass them by altogether. So to find ourselves in Airlie, with all it could offer, we thought we’d be a little audacious and see if anyone would like to show us the Great Barrier Reef. We couldn’t let this opportunity slip by us.
After a little chasing around we eventually found the person we needed to talk to. Adrienne at Fantasea Adventure Cruising
was more than willing to arrange for us to go out on the Friday cruise, the next day – provided we would be willing to do some work for them on Saturday at Airlie Markets, dressed up as King Neptune and The Little Mermaid, to hand out flyers. Would we be ok with that, she inquired? Chuck in Pocahontas too if you like, we retorted. The deal was struck. So we were off next morning through the Whitsundays. From being stranded in St Helen’s Creek to The Great Barrier Reef. The trip was warming up for us, we could feel it. There’s no reason for people to do anything for us, and all we do is ask. Some people say no, some people say yes. We were very pleased to have met Adrienne, especially as she gave us the opportunity to make fools of ourselves.We had lunch courtesy of Gordon at Wisdom Health Lab who donated us some sandwiches then we went for a swim at the pool, an enclosed open air dip, by the sea, but full, due to Stinger Season (see Whinging Poms for more on Stingers). Tribal Travel donated some internet use time to us, and Con Raptis at Neptune’s Seafoods, on The Esplanade, donated a fish ‘n chip platter we had for dinner after the good people at Beaches Backpackers Bar allowed us to collect donations for Bookaid from some people despite the stern frowning of one of the doorstaff. Fish’n Chips down by the seaside, who can ask for more than that. We went back to Strathdickie, very happy with a good days work.
We got up early for the 8 a.m sail out to the reef, and were so keen to be there early we arrived at Shute Harbour, the major departure point for all the Whitsunday Islands, just after 7, just in case. We didn’t want to miss this. Having said that, it did look like we’d have the only day of the month when it decided to rain. Overcast and cloudy, it even spotted a little rain, giving us the opportunity to indulge in the time-honoured sport the British really did invent and are world-beaters at which is Weather Whinge One-Upmanship.
When a comment like ‘ooh, it looks like rain’ is uttered, it involves the next person in a complex strategic move whereupon the acceleration of panic and the forecasting of doom ‘it doesn’t look good’, forces the next commentator to step things up further, to Mother Nature’s grim determination to ruin your day out ‘bloody typical’, leading to the lamentation ‘why can’t anything go right for us, ever’ leading onto the eventual, equivocal fatalism of ‘oh well could be worse’, then the round of ‘oh yeah’s’ and the inevitable breaking of the silence when ‘clouds are looming ominously’, and the game takes on a more sinister edge, and the decision to cut loses and just go home takes place.
But this is Australia. The sun makes it’s predictable appearance and all talk of the dastardly scheming of a malevolent weather was forgotten. The sea was turquoise green, the islands looked lush and the sea breeze refreshing. We soon boarded and headed out to Reef World the floating pontoon by the Reef where we were to spend our day. Our day at one of the Seven Wonders of the World! – that list of miraculous phenomena; that feast the senses, are miracles to the mind, and that stagger the imagination, that, yet, somehow, the list manages to exclude Ventriloquism!
The art of making a puppet talk is no mean feat.Anyone who’s ever seen an inanimate sackcloth suddenly come to life, tell jokes, cheeky backhanders and act the larrikin while sitting gently on their Masters knee must surely have gasped in horror, when, at the end of it, it doesn’t walk up around shaking everyone by the hand, but collapses, in a heap, limp and lifeless, spent, and no matter how many times you repeat it’s catchphrase it refuses to obey you. Who are these magicians and where do they live that they make the inanimate effective tellers of dirty anecdotes and one-liners?
The Barrier Reef though is even better. We did a little research during the two hours it takes to get to the pontoon. The Barrier Reef, so named by Captain Cook because of the obstacle it presented his ships for 2,300 kilometres along the north-eastern coast, from the Gulf of Papua down beyond the Tropic of Capricorn. It isn’t one large reef, but a network of almost 3000 individual reefs, covering an area of 230,000 square ks, or, roughly the same area as the UK, and is the world’s largest coral reef province.
Coral reefs thrive in clean, clear, nutrient free, shallow waters, no more than 60 metres deep and derive all they need to sustain themselves and grow from sunlight. The material of the reef is made of calcium carbonate, limestone. The living reef, the coral, are merely a veneer, adding to the structure of the reef all the time. Their colonial structures are made up of thousands of individual polyps, each secreting its small cup of coral limestone. These flower-like creatures provide the building blocks for reef construction and were what we couldn’t wait to soon be seeing for real.
It really was staggering. We berthed and made our way to the pontoon, and set to getting ourselves in the sea, snorkels on, to feast our eyes. The sea was bath-warm and clear, and the array of shooting, darting multicoloured fish was stunning. Unable to stop and ask them what they were we had to content ourselves with our own names – the little triangular zebra fish, the rainbow fish, the great big fella fish (which we later found out was a Groper) eyeballed lollie-stick fish (sea whip gobies) the stripey ones (so many stripey ones). Giant Clams impressed us also, as did the array of sponges, and coral, and the brilliant clarity of the water. The world of the coral reef, the symbiosis of the existence of each and every creature, animal and invertebrate, mollusc or sponge, is stunning. It’s impossible to visit, see what’s going on and not be blown away by the way that living things live. It’s so much more than big thing eats little thing out there, and what we all love about Australia is the fact that nature and wildness encroaches daily life all the time.
To be out on the reef is to be allowed to view something unique occurring. The environment isn’t something people over here talk of as something thought of in inverted commas, the ‘environment’. It’s real and effective in daily life. It is the drought that kills your crops; it is the severe flood that puts you out of your home the same year; it’s living your life according to dry season, and wet season; it’s lush tropical rain forests down to the sea; it’s arid desert. There are lightning storms so spectacular you think the sky is about to rip open; it’s the everpresence of insects, animals, spiders, snakes, reptiles, ants; the respect afforded those things, animal and plant, that possess either a toxic venom or a ferocious bite.
On land, at home, or at work, doing a job, this is all viewed as being in the way (stings, bites, scratches etc) but at sea, looking at the reef, seeing the life there, the ecosystem at work, you begin to understand that living things have evolved a symbiotic relationship with other living things, that nothing is arbitrary, that death and decay are important to regeneration, that it all has some use, call it purpose, call it accident, design, time, or whatever, but it all works, and not in harmony, but in discord, in confrontation, in the face of assaults and threats.
The reef itself, despite the bemoaning of some about coral bleaching, remains healthy and thriving. Not all corals are brightly coloured and illuminescent, although these are, for obvious reasons, the ones most noticed and beautiful to see. The Great Barrier Reef remains the healthiest and largest reef systems on the world, and a true wonder to behold. We swam around, agog with awe as we witnessed it all.
The day ended and we sailed contentedly back to Airlie with images of trumpet fish, blue-girdled angelfish, giant turtles and all the sponges, clams and corals that looked unearthily translucent in the crystal clear water. Were we to have missed out on this and passed by without being able to experience this up close and personal we would be the poorer for it for sure.
We must give thanks again to Adrienne at Fantasea for making this day possible. Also to Portia at the Esplanade for making it all so friendly and accommodating. Thanks also to Jordan Blake who donated us a Reefworld dvd. Mention also goes to Flamos Takeaway for the Kebabs they donated to us in Airlie.
But this is Australia. The sun makes it’s predictable appearance and all talk of the dastardly scheming of a malevolent weather was forgotten. The sea was turquoise green, the islands looked lush and the sea breeze refreshing. We soon boarded and headed out to Reef World the floating pontoon by the Reef where we were to spend our day. Our day at one of the Seven Wonders of the World! – that list of miraculous phenomena; that feast the senses, are miracles to the mind, and that stagger the imagination, that, yet, somehow, the list manages to exclude Ventriloquism!
The art of making a puppet talk is no mean feat.Anyone who’s ever seen an inanimate sackcloth suddenly come to life, tell jokes, cheeky backhanders and act the larrikin while sitting gently on their Masters knee must surely have gasped in horror, when, at the end of it, it doesn’t walk up around shaking everyone by the hand, but collapses, in a heap, limp and lifeless, spent, and no matter how many times you repeat it’s catchphrase it refuses to obey you. Who are these magicians and where do they live that they make the inanimate effective tellers of dirty anecdotes and one-liners?
The Barrier Reef though is even better. We did a little research during the two hours it takes to get to the pontoon. The Barrier Reef, so named by Captain Cook because of the obstacle it presented his ships for 2,300 kilometres along the north-eastern coast, from the Gulf of Papua down beyond the Tropic of Capricorn. It isn’t one large reef, but a network of almost 3000 individual reefs, covering an area of 230,000 square ks, or, roughly the same area as the UK, and is the world’s largest coral reef province.Coral reefs thrive in clean, clear, nutrient free, shallow waters, no more than 60 metres deep and derive all they need to sustain themselves and grow from sunlight. The material of the reef is made of calcium carbonate, limestone. The living reef, the coral, are merely a veneer, adding to the structure of the reef all the time. Their colonial structures are made up of thousands of individual polyps, each secreting its small cup of coral limestone. These flower-like creatures provide the building blocks for reef construction and were what we couldn’t wait to soon be seeing for real.
It really was staggering. We berthed and made our way to the pontoon, and set to getting ourselves in the sea, snorkels on, to feast our eyes. The sea was bath-warm and clear, and the array of shooting, darting multicoloured fish was stunning. Unable to stop and ask them what they were we had to content ourselves with our own names – the little triangular zebra fish, the rainbow fish, the great big fella fish (which we later found out was a Groper) eyeballed lollie-stick fish (sea whip gobies) the stripey ones (so many stripey ones). Giant Clams impressed us also, as did the array of sponges, and coral, and the brilliant clarity of the water. The world of the coral reef, the symbiosis of the existence of each and every creature, animal and invertebrate, mollusc or sponge, is stunning. It’s impossible to visit, see what’s going on and not be blown away by the way that living things live. It’s so much more than big thing eats little thing out there, and what we all love about Australia is the fact that nature and wildness encroaches daily life all the time.To be out on the reef is to be allowed to view something unique occurring. The environment isn’t something people over here talk of as something thought of in inverted commas, the ‘environment’. It’s real and effective in daily life. It is the drought that kills your crops; it is the severe flood that puts you out of your home the same year; it’s living your life according to dry season, and wet season; it’s lush tropical rain forests down to the sea; it’s arid desert. There are lightning storms so spectacular you think the sky is about to rip open; it’s the everpresence of insects, animals, spiders, snakes, reptiles, ants; the respect afforded those things, animal and plant, that possess either a toxic venom or a ferocious bite.
On land, at home, or at work, doing a job, this is all viewed as being in the way (stings, bites, scratches etc) but at sea, looking at the reef, seeing the life there, the ecosystem at work, you begin to understand that living things have evolved a symbiotic relationship with other living things, that nothing is arbitrary, that death and decay are important to regeneration, that it all has some use, call it purpose, call it accident, design, time, or whatever, but it all works, and not in harmony, but in discord, in confrontation, in the face of assaults and threats.
The reef itself, despite the bemoaning of some about coral bleaching, remains healthy and thriving. Not all corals are brightly coloured and illuminescent, although these are, for obvious reasons, the ones most noticed and beautiful to see. The Great Barrier Reef remains the healthiest and largest reef systems on the world, and a true wonder to behold. We swam around, agog with awe as we witnessed it all.
The day ended and we sailed contentedly back to Airlie with images of trumpet fish, blue-girdled angelfish, giant turtles and all the sponges, clams and corals that looked unearthily translucent in the crystal clear water. Were we to have missed out on this and passed by without being able to experience this up close and personal we would be the poorer for it for sure.We must give thanks again to Adrienne at Fantasea for making this day possible. Also to Portia at the Esplanade for making it all so friendly and accommodating. Thanks also to Jordan Blake who donated us a Reefworld dvd. Mention also goes to Flamos Takeaway for the Kebabs they donated to us in Airlie.
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