The Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on earth. At 1,400 miles long, it occupies less than 0.1% of the ocean surface, yet 25% of all marine species can be found in the reef. Lady Elliot Island’s reading room exhibits explain that the reef is made up of corals—which are tiny marine animals that grow in colonies. The colony excretes a hard carbonate skeleton, and over many generations coral reefs are formed from the buildup.

Lady Elliot Island’s Coral

The beaches on Lady Elliot Island are filled with bits of coral washed ashore, making beach walking a slow workout, especially when you stop every three feet to photograph a piece of strawberry red, asparagus green, or carrot orange coral. The coral bits sometimes have shapes like hearts, sponges, tubes, or plant-like stalks. They sound hollow, feel hard and a little chalky, and clink and crunch like bone china beneath your shoes.

 

Walking Around the Island

Every morning on Lady Elliot Island, we circumnavigated the island. It takes about 45 minutes to walk all the way around including a few minutes to stop and examine a piece of coral, or to stare out to sea. We did the walk at least twice a day.

 

Reef Walking

A favorite thing to do was reef walking. Wading up to my knees with a walking stick in one hand, camera in the other, I walked in the paths between the corals. How peaceful out there. No one else around, just the sounds of the waves and the birds, and feeling oh-so-small in the big blue sea. One day, I caught a glimpse of something cobalt blue underwater. I made my way over in the maze of coral to find a blue starfish below the waves stretching its arms and hugging the coral, as it made its way across the reef.

 

Peaceful Days

Lady Elliot Island was a series of glorious days of sun, of passing clouds, and of peace. One day was a repeating cycle of a misty rain for 2-3 minutes, then the bright warm sun for 5-10 minutes before the mist returned. This cycle repeated again and again that day. I felt like a vegetable in the grocery, waiting for the mist machine to cycle on. Another day was really windy—which they say is a forbearer of cyclone season, but since the wind came from the east, there was no reason to worry. We watched the birds float on the wind, just over the water.

 

We spent sunsets at the Lighthouse, with champagne and beer. Sitting in plastic chairs photographing the colors and the clouds. One evening, there was a double rainbow behind us as the sun went down. Such extraordinary beauty. Afterwards, walking back across that little island in the dusk and dark, across the deserted runway, feeling the wind and the mist, hearing the birds and the ocean waves surrounding us—and beneath all those stars—THAT was magic. That feeling of isolation, of distance, of solitude, of the immenseness of the world. It puts things in perspective. 

 

To read more about Lady Elliot Island, please see this post.

To read more about climate change impact on coral reefs worldwide, please see THIS ARTICLE.