20th October recap: Out to sea again!
A recap of our boat trip to Michaelmas Cay
Early morning, we boarded the Seastar at Cairns harbour in perfectly calm conditions. But once again we were fooled as, immediately we were out of the protection of the harbour, the waves began to pick up and Alan began to go green. An hour and a half into the journey, the inevitable happened and his breakfast went over the side. When we eventually reached the sandbar known as Michaelmas Cay, we were immediately surrounded by Sooty Terns and Brown Noddys. A noisy spectacle, the typical hive of activity of a tern colony with birds swooping low over us and greeting each other with raucous calls. We also added Lesser Crested Tern, Great Crested Tern, Black-naped Tern, Bridled Tern, Black Noddy and Brown Booby. All too soon it was time to return to the boat, with a near disaster as the overloaded tender was swamped by waves and was sinking fast as we struggled to reach the Seastar, a very close call! We then motored a little way before stopping at Hastings Reef, to allow the other passengers to go snorkelling, diving etc. While Alan tried to sleep to escape his nightmare, Ruth enjoyed more boating with a stunning tour of the Barrier Reef on a glass-bottomed boat! Back on dry land, we drove inland up into the mountains and rainforest surrounding Cassowary House, our home for the night, www. Cassowary-house.com.au
Bird species total: 3486, 177 needed