My 2004 Holiday to Queensland

Contributed by Eryn Werry

I will say from the outset that all I wanted from my journey to Queensland in early July 2004 was to see some turtles. I had been to Queensland
numerous times without seeing any, and was most of the way through this 2004 trip without seeing any despite my numerous snorkeling and sea
kayaking trips.

On the last few days of this trip I was blessed enough to receive a chance to go out to "Reefworld": a floating platform on the edge
of Hardy Reef, Great Barrier Reef, QLD, 39 nautical miles from the Whitsundays and a reef along from the famous Heart Reef.

My sister and I had the privilege of spending the night at Reefworld and after the 200 or so day guests had hopped out of the water and left Reefworld on the boat back to the Whitsundays, my sister and I had the whole of Hardy Reef to ourselves to explore. The serenity and spaciousness of that in itself was an experience and a half that I would recommend to anyone, but what I really want to tell you about was what happened after my sister had hopped out.

I was over on the outer edge of the designated snorkeling area when I looked up at Reefworld to make sure the tide wasn't carrying me too far
away from the platform. When I stuck my head up, I saw my Reefworld hostess (the lady in charge of making sure we stayed safe and enjoyed ourselves) jumping up and down and waving her arms about, motioning me to come back into the platform. The first thing that went through my head was: "Bugger, I'm just about to be eaten by a shark!".
I looked around and couldn't see a fin sticking out of the water, but I swam the fastest 50m I'd ever swam in my life back to the platform. When I got there I asked: "Where's the shark?", but all the hostess did was point straight underneath me and said: "Turtle".

I stuck my head in the water and saw the most magnificent turtle eating barnacles off the underside of the platform. It stayed there for about 20 minutes, happily munching away and not caring about me swimming next to it or taking photos of it eating dinner. It even moved to the window of the Reefworld viewing chamber allowing my sister to get photos of me swimming with the turtle. After about 20 minutes of eating, it quietly swam away.
It was the highlight of my trip to Reefworld, which is a pretty big call seeing that other high points included watching the sun set and rise over the reef, eating breakfast while watching fish swim in aquamarine blue water under my feet, seeing Hardy, Hook and Heart Reefs from the air and having the whole of Hardy Reef to myself to explore. Definitely was a once in a lifetime experience and the sound of the turtle chomping on barnacles off the bottom of the platform will stay with me forever.

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