Australia

March 1st

Morton Island

Today was a very exciting day as it was the first of many island trips we planned to make. Our trip to Morton Island was over two days and one night – spent in a tent at a campsite. As far as we knew we were the only two people on this tour but, this was just for over night. We had quite a few other people had booked just the day tour.

Waking up at 6:30am was a struggle when we’d had lazy, rainy mornings previously. However, up and packed we got, ready to be picked up at 7:15am from Bunk Brisbane hostel. It took 30 minutes to travel to the Ferry Port (at Holt Street Wharf in Pinkenba) and from there the Ferry took 1h50 minutes to reach Tangalooma Jetty on Morton. We were so tired from our early morning start that iced coffees and naps were unavoidable and very much appreciated.

As we got closer to the island we could see the sand dunes (seen in the latter photo) and had a good view of the whole stretch of sunken boats making up the famous Tangalooma Wreck Reef.

On docking we got split into two groups by our guide. One group went snorkelling first whilst we went sand boarding in ‘The Dessert’.

This was a good way round as we could wash the sand off in the sea afterwards and that fine sand got everywhere and stuck to everything sun-creamed.

In this dessert you could see thousands of colours in the sand. The main colours however, were large patches of white which had black sand placed as if a pattern was created. This black sand was due to the titanium and copper minerals located throughout this sand. The minerals causes this dessert to have a high number of lightning strikes for its area. These strikes are often hitting direct spots of sand causing it to crystallise into hard rock like structures. The white sand gets direct strikes when the beige doesn’t get so much of a direct or as powerful strike – according to our guide. There were thousands of these hard sand stones.

The dune we sand boarded down was much steeper than that of our dessert safari in Abu Dhabi. Due to its steepness and the heat, climbing up it was so hard and I only went twice but, Josh went three times with an extra fourth down the smaller dune. It was the same principle as before, lie on your stomach and lift your elbows and front of the board up to go a) faster and b) not get sand in your face. It was so much fun and the go-pro videos are wicked.

We headed back to the camp – rejoining the other team – to have a simple lunch our guide pre prepared for us. Then is was switch over time. They went sand boarding and we went snorkelling in the wrecks. Josh’s first time snorkelling.

Snorkelling around the wreck was insane. Even getting from the beach to the wreck was hard work due to the current but, the water was so clear.

On getting to the wreck we saw huge amounts of different species of fish. The tour guide kept on throwing bread into the sea causing the fish to go into a frenzy right in front/on top of you. It was both very fun and strange but, even josh was enjoying himself after getting used to snorkelling and swimming.

Seeing the different Corals growing on the wreck, as a reef, was a very fascinating experience even if the water wasn’t fully clear for the colours.

On swimming over the wreck we spotted an orange large shark. This turned out to be a Wobbegong shark, a docile shark with no teeth and thus sucks in their fish.

We also saw very colourful and beautiful Luna fish along with parrot fish.

On the way back we saw a shovel-nose shark along with quite a big sting ray which excited Josh. After this the rest of the group were dropped back at the ferry and we went with the guide to the shop however, we had to change cars to an older one. This caused us to break down thus, we bought beers back at the ferry.

After this we headed back to the camp to sort out our tent, change and swim in the sea. We had the whole beach/road to ourselves throughout the evening and sunset.

This was very romantic and whilst swimming and snorkelling we saw dolphins (12+ in the pod) swim through the bay less than 50meters away from us. We tried to swim closer to them as they were in the same spot feeding and got quite close. This didn’t last that long though even so this was the best evening so far!

After our romantic evening with no one around we headed back for a BBQ dinner (cooked by the guide) a campfire and stargazing on the beach.

Our guide told us all about the constellations and the stories he knew of the animals and island, half of which we weren’t sure to believe. We then went to bed ready for a whole day tomorrow of our island tour. Although another spin off the boss of the tour had our guide do the rest of our tour on top of another days tour. This annoyed us but, we kept our mouths shut.