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Published: January 7th 2011
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… might be the number of McDonald’s we have seen since leaving Heathrow six weeks ago …
or,
the number of times William has asked ‘Are we there yet?’
or, perhaps,
… it could be England’s total in the final innings of the Ashes.
Actually, 1770 is a place! It is named for the date that Lt James Cook and the Endeavour (… all sounds a bit Captain’s Log doesn’t it?) landed on this headland sticking out from the coast of Queensland, backed by creeks and mangrove swamps, in search of fresh water. With its sister settlement, Agnes Water, this is the upper limit of surfable beaches and the lower edge of the barrier reef on the east coast of Australia – hence its marketing byline, ‘Where the surf meets the reef’.
We camped on the beach at 1770, a great if tightly-squeezed site by Antipodean standards, and spent the first afternoon watching the millions of tiny crabs, excavating their holes by throwing up sand-balls in remarkable patterns, and kayaking across the estuary to a very picturesque sand bar. More terraced now than semi-detached, each Australian pitch seemed festooned with all manner of fishing equipment and the reason for this
became apparent late in the afternoon when groups of men returned to shore from their boston whalers, dragging their catches back to camp. It became all-pervading later in the evening as we were surrounded by the smell of fresh fish and shellfish being barbecued all around us. Tuna pasta has never seemed such a poor excuse for seafood!
Our main reason in driving to 1770 was to go on a snorkelling boat trip to Lady Musgrave Island, some ninety minutes by fast catamaran from the headland. We had gone to bed sunkissed from the beach and excited by the prospects of finally finding the turquoise waters that William has increasingly fantasised about…
RAIN … again we awoke in the Sunshine State (‘over 300 days of sun a year’) to drips inside the Spaceship© and to the disappointment that the tropics are not always paradise. As we packed the rucksack for the day, the sky brightened and the rain cleared, allowing us to stroll along the shore, behind the mangroves, to the boatslip. At first we were quite pleased to have found four seats together on the upper deck of The Spirit of 1770 … but once the thunderclouds caught up
with the boat, 45 minutes out of harbour, we realised why the seats had been free. I am not sure what was more intimidating; the stair-rods bouncing off the sea’s surface, the roll of the approaching thunder or the fact that the captain seemed to be struggling to find the entry to the coral atoll. Despite the rain the colours in the lagoon were beautiful, all shades of blue, and were enough to remove the sulk from W’s face. After a short stare out of the windows of the underwater observatory from the pontoon we moored at, we got down to the real business of the day. We were so excited to get out on the reef that the usual Watts family time for kitting out was brought down to a matter of minutes and there we were, the four of us in a line, flippers dangling over the edge of the platform, trying desperately to understand what each other was saying through our snorkels. Bewitched by the fish quite clearly swimming all around us, Emily shot off the platform and raced off after an angel-fish – the rest of us struggled to keep up, especially when W and P
came face to face with some VERY long ‘Flute-fish’ with LOTS of VERY POINTY teeth. This first session flew by, with Diana leading us all along the reef edge pointing down for the children to get a sense of the variety that they could expect in our longer afternoon swim.
Before lunch, we took a glass-bottomed boat trip to land on the island. Kevin Spacey (another uncanny look-alike) gave us a fascinating talk about the coral and the different fish we were seeing, and promised us a turtle, if all the children wished hard enough … and then there they were. Closer in to shore, just lounging on coral stacks or gently sculling over the sandy sea-floor, several large loggerhead turtles proved something of a highlight of the day. Although the cay of Lady Musgrave Island is a unique environment, and we did see turtles, rays and sharks swimming along the shore-line and boobys and terns nesting amongst the trees, what we really wanted to do was to get back in the water. Rushing down our lunch, we headed out for another exploration of the reef. Although W and E started to get tired (there was quite a swell
and the rain continued to lash down) and were nervous to swim over the coral at such low-tide, we all saw sights of beautiful fish and multi-coloured corals that will stay with us a lifetime. I would be lying if I said that it wouldn’t have been better on one of those 300 days of sunshine, but how many people can say that they have snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef in the middle of a tropical storm?
Do you know, William and Emily didn’t buy that line either …
PS The sun did come out for sunset as you can see in the photos before the rain returned with a vengeance for our return to 'The Sunshine Coast' - I kid you not!
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