Finding a place to stay in the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef was at the top of our list of what to see in Australia, and thankfully we found this tiny island. Lady Elliot Island is a coral cay located at the southern tip of the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef. The 111-acre island is a a highly protected sanctuary for over 1,200 species of marine life and is known for its abundance of manta rays, turtles, birds, and unspoiled coral reef. All of that sounds great…but the thing that hooked me was the photo. When I searched for places to stay near the Great Barrier Reef, I came across an image of a green and white dot, circled by a turquoise tutu with white fringe sitting alone in the middle of miles and miles of midnight blue water. Here. That’s where we’d go. I reserved our room within the hour of seeing the photo. Booking at Lady Elliot Island includes their air travel to/from the island, a basic room, and buffet breakfasts and dinners.
Getting to Lady Elliot Island:
We left Hervey Bay in the rain, on a 20-seater plane with two propellers and two pilots. After only about 30 minutes flying in the thin layer beneath the rain clouds and not far above the water, we saw the tiny island ahead. In five more minutes we flew in over the reef, the beach, touched land, and bounced down a grass airstrip.
Lady Elliot Island is an “Eco Resort” which means they generate their own power with solar panels, desalinate seawater for drinking, maintain a waste water treatment plant, and recycle the majority of the island’s trash. Their goal is to have minimal impact on this fragile ecosystem and be 100% sustainable by 2020. They also minimize the use of disposable items: they were the first island in the Great Barrier Reef to eliminate selling bottled water in 2012.
We checked in to our reef room, with a sliding glass door view to the water (which was just 24 steps from the porch). We did the first of many walks all the way around the island. You can go all the way around in about 45 minutes and that includes stopping for photos and looking at turtle tracks and pretty corals washed ashore.
Coming back from dinner that first night, with our phones acting as flashlights on the dark trails, we saw many birds sitting on the pathways. One was sitting on the steps to our unit, and Bryan nearly stepped on her. She made a whining sound as she jumped out of the way. We’d meet her again in the morning…and each and every time we came in or went out. We named her Gracie.
Gracie, the Dog Tern
February is bird season here. Lady Elliot Island has the highest seabird diversity of any island in the Great Barrier Reef: 94 species have been recorded. It is an important nesting site, and over 100,000 birds come to Lady Elliot Island during summer breeding season. The island isn’t that big, so the nests are everywhere, and sometimes very close together. Between the territorial spats and the babies begging for breakfast from mama birds, there was a continuous racket of bird cries…cackling, whistling, calling, whining, barking.
Our reef unit bird, Gracie, was a whiner and a barker. She made little woof-woof sounds, which explains this bird’s nickname: Dog Tern. The official name is Bridled Tern and they are most often seen nesting on pathways. It seemed all the units had a resident dog tern. These birds sat on paths everywhere on the island, waiting for moms to come feed them, and hunkering down when guests walked by.
And Gracie was always there at Reef Unit #1, on the steps, the porch, the sand path. We walked carefully around her during the day and prayed we didn’t step on her in the dark nights. Her similar-sized mom brought Gracie snacks often. One day, we heard a lot of whining and barking outside. Looking out, we saw mama bird hopping around with food in her mouth. No Gracie. Mama bird flittered around the path and the porch, frantically looking—the food still in her mouth as she whined, called, and cried. She got too close to neighboring White-Capped Noddy nests which caused even more commotion. We stood inside, watching this mother’s heartbreak. Did Gracie unexpectedly leave the nest? Did something happen to her? After a long while of this, Mama bird flew away. As we stood there wondering if another bird had gotten her, Gracie came side-stepping up the lane back to her usual spot. All smiles now, we told her that her mom had been looking for her.
