Day 71

Tuesday 11^th January 2011

Well we didn’t sleep a wink. It was ridiculously hot in the cupboard of a bedroom and seeing as the engine was underneath our bed, we weren’t going to get any sleep when we got going.

We gathered for a breakfast of cereal and coffee as Steve set off for the next stop. Some of the group tried to get a bit of sleep on deck I was just grateful for the breeze and couldn’t wait to get into the water to cool off. Just over an hour later we were at our first snorkelling site of the day. I leapt into my stinger suit (due to the box jellyfish) and was pleased to have been deemed good enough to have flippers.

I jumped into the cool water and swam over to the reef. Most of the group followed suit. Steve rated yesterdays reef as a 6 out of 10 but rated this one as an 8. I was unclear as to how the rating system worked but I couldn’t tell the difference. Steve boasted that what made his tour different was that he took you to parts of the reef that others don’t, I was starting to realise why the other tours stuck to certain bits of reef, probably because the reef and fish are better there!

We saw some fish and the coral was ok but it wasn’t like you were surrounded by shoals and shoals of fish or the coral blew your mind, it was just, ok. Disappointing. We headed for our final snorkelling site and most of the group stayed on the boat, this was probably due the fact that the sites we were getting taken to were bobbins. Me and Suz decided to give it one more go and plunged into the deep blue. We were glad we did. We swam with another turtle and the reef was more vibrant and healthy. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted something really small that hid as it saw me, I turned around to investigate and found a baby turtle hiding in the reef. I got Suzi’s attention and we swan down for a closer look. It was amazing. After that we went to White Haven beach, the most beautiful beach I have ever had the pleasure of lying on.

The sand is like flour and is so clean it actually squeaks as you walk on it. We were told that this is because the sand is 98% silica.

Whatever it was, it was staggering. We took a well earned nap until a few spots of rain woke me up. So with nothing else to do and an hour and a half to kill I dug a hole.

Suz woke up just as I finished and I told her that my plan was to put her in the hole and cover her up. Then make her a mermaid. She wasn’t keen. So I jumped in the hole myself and asked Suz to fill the hole in. She reluctantly obliged and dragged herself off her towel, she soon got into it though and spotting our fun from down the beach Dave and his missus Karen arrived to help out. We stuck to the same plan and made me into a mermaid. Well, it killed some time right?!

Regrettably, it was time to go back to Narra Bay, so we got back on the boat and set off. By this time the prospect of staying another night in the box was not appealing and I could have happily gone back to shore, but instead we went back to the same spot as last night. Dave was still feeling rough from last night so it was just me and Suz having a drink. I didn’t fancy the idea of carrying beer off the boat so instructed Suz to step up the pace.

We ate Spag Bol for tea (and the Italians didn’t get involved) which was average and then settled in for another night of drink and chat. I went to get my head torch as Steve said that it was common to see tiger sharks around the bay but I didn’t see any.

We managed to drink all but one of the beers but due to lack of sleep, and swimming all day we were all in bed for 22:00. Me and Suz decided to take a couple of blue tablets to aid the sleep. This helped and before long we were asleep, still sweating, but asleep none the less.