Green Island
The first of my "reef" adventures was a cruise out to Green Island. It was a great way to get my feet wet (pun intended) and get re-aquianted with snorkelling, as well as trying out my camera gear and stinger suit.
I have been known to get a bit sea sick, but between it being a catermaran, the ginger tablets and me sitting low down in the ship near the centre, I was perfectly OK. The cruise took about 50 minutes to get to Green Island, and once we'd docked it was off to the Dive Shop to pick up my snorkelling gear. Unfortunately, nearly everyone else had the same idea so there was a bit of a line. After that, it was a challenge to then find somewhere to get changed into my swimming gear. Finally after doing that and storing all my stuff in a locker, I headed towards the beach. There's a couple of snorkelling/swimming areas at Green Island, but the area to the right of the pier is manned by lifeguards and recommended - so that's where I started.
Putting on the stinger suit was akin to some type of beach yoga, and I suspect I may have invented a couple of new positions. The type of suit I had is basically stocking material and it goes over your entire body. After that it was on with the mask and snorkel, get the camera gear ready then down to the water to get the flippers on. It was all a bit of a rigmarole, and not very elegant. Eventually I made it into the water and started snorkelling.
It wasn't long before I got the hang of it, and could snorkel and operate the camera properly. Here's proof...
There were a few small fish to see, along with some Parrot Fish, surgeon fish and even a small barracuda. They weren't very fussed by the people, and some of them were even swimming very close to the shore.
In terms of my gear, the Canon D20 performed REALLY well - was easy to operate underwater, I could see the screen, and showed no sign of fogging up. Next I tried my Sony Action Cam. This has it's own waterproof housing - which is waterproof to 60m - but the down side is that the only button you have access to once it's in the housing is the start/stop record button. I took it for a swim and soon realised that I must have set it up for Time Lapse Photos, not Movies, so all it was doing when I hit the record button was taking a photo every 10 seconds - DOH!. I mad the mistake of openning the case back on the beach, and although the case was dry, I suspect there may have been a bit of moisture still on my hands, because once I closed the case and got back into the water, the housing started to fog up - DOH AGAIN! Oh well, one of the aims of this day trip was to check out the gear and try to correct any problems before the "big trip".
The morning had been great and I'd spent 3 lots of about 30mins each snorkelling off the beach. I had a quick shower and some expensive lunch. After lunch I wandered around the board walk which has some interpretive signs talking about the island and it's wildlife. The boardwalk goes for about half the island, then you can walk on the beach for the remainder. All in all you can walk right around the island in about 40mins (it's not very big).
About 3/4 of the way around I ran into some French tourists who said "you can see turtles here?" They way they phrased it made it sound like a question, but in fact it was a statement, and when I looked out onto the beach, inbetween some rocks on the beach and some weed beds further out was a clear sandy stretch of water and every 30 secs or so a turtle would swim by. We had a bit of a chat about it, and I jokingly referred to it as the Turtle Highway. The back portion of the island was beautiful, very unspoilt. Here's a shot...
Due to the crystal clear turquiose water, blue skies and sandy beaches, virtually every photo you take in this area is "picture postcard" stuff - great!
They do have some crocs in captivity on the island, including Cassium (The biggest saltwater croc in captivity in the world), however I'd seen enough cros shows, so decided to give it a miss.
For the afternoon snorkelling session I thought I would try the area to the left of the pier. One of the attendants on the boat had said she was snorkelling there Monday and saw some White Tipped Reef Sharks. This area turned out to be a little less "reefy" and I had no luck in seeing any sharks. I did, however, have the pleasure of following a Green Turtle for about 10mins while it was feeding on the weed beds. It was pretty cool, and I would have followed it for a bit longer but was distracted by the sound of a tourist screaming her lungs out. I asked if everything was OK (she wasn't making any distress type signals - just screaming), but she couldn't understand me. I suspect she just got separated from her group and when she looked up she was further out that she expected. Anyway, two members of her group swam over to her and all was good. However when I looked back down the turtle was gone.
Here's a photo...
And here's some video...
It was getting later in the day and I thought I'd allow some time for getting showered and changed, and also try to re-hydrate a bit, since it was pretty hot. As it turns out I'd got a little bit sunburnt, even though I had sunscreen on (should have put a second layer on at lunchtime). It was then onto the ferry for the trip home. I suspect many people had learned their lesson from the trip over, because the downstairs area of the ferry was absolutely packed, with some very tired snorkellers.
HERE'S a link to some more photos and a few videos as well.