Lady Musgrave Island and Southern Great Barrier Reef

I had always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, but the closer the attraction to you more that you tend not to see it. Nalin, one of my friends visited from Sri Lanka and he wanted to see the place too and I booked a tour with 'Lady Musgrave Experience' (https://ladymusgraveexperience.com.au), 210 dollars per head.

Tour departed from Bundaberg port marina at 7am which is a 30min drive from my place passing across the sugar cane fields. There's enough parking at bundy port, there was a designated parking area for our tour people which was right at the end of the road. The catamaran was anchored just across in the waters, beaming elegantly in the morning sun. At 6.30 it was only me, my mother and Nalin at the jetty, other passengers started trickling in slowly, by 6.45 there were about another 15 people. I felt bad for the tour operator, less than 20 people for a 120 seater catamaran?? Then at 6.55, two buses loaded with about 60 tourists from China came in, 80 into 210 dollars, hmmmm good business indeed :)

Sharp at 7am the ship crew members opened the gates and welcomed us on board. We were divided into two groups, turtles and dolphins; we were in the turtle group. You need to take your shoes off before getting on the boat and should not wear shoes while on the boat at all times. It would be better to just wear slippers rather than shoes, as you will be soaking those when you get off the boat, like my friend did. 

Once everyone was on board, the boat started its 2 hour sail towards the southern great barrier reef. The wind was fast at 18 knots/h, and according to one crew member whom I had a chat with if it's above 20 it's considered a storm. The boat was rocking like a roller coaster, and besides all her mobility issues, still being in her school day sprinter spirits, my mother wanted to climb up to the sun deck. I was damn scared myself, and with the help of the crew got her up to the sun deck at last. The views were beautiful. The supposedly placid pacific had taken a rough turn today. Many were sea sick with vomit bags in their hands. Some were seated vomiting, some standing, some with their head stuck in between their legs, not a good way to start your journey. We were so glad we didn't have any breakfast before boarding. Crew served cake and coffee, cake was ok, coffee was hopeless. 

The great barrier reef came into view and the Lady Musgrave island appeared at the horizon at last. It was one of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Water had different hues of blue from aqua marine to deep navy blue. Other than a few boats floating around and small waves everything appeared to be at stand still, like a picture post card sent from a far away land.

In the first half of the trip we were taken in the glass bottom boat to the island for an island walk. Lady Musgrave island is a coral cay in the southern great barrier reef, named after one of the Queensland governor's wife. I could not go on the island walk due to my mother's mobility issues. She sat on a bench, while i strolled the near by beach. There was a ray fish swimming lazily just meters from the shore keeping pace with me or may be me keeping pace with him. Many different sea birds were chattering on the shore waiting for their pray to appear in the shallow waters.

After the island walk we were put back on the boat for the glass bottom boat tour. While one crew member skillfully maneuvered the boat without hitting the coral just feet below, another crew member described what we saw. Many different types of corals, flat ones, branched ones, colored ones, gray ones, huge globes, plates and many more. The true color was not apparent due to the glass bottom of the boat, but still it was amazing. There were schools of beautiful colored fish swimming around nibbling on the corals. It was like looking at a huge fish tank. Every now and then you could see turtles and sea cucumbers resting on the sea bed. It was pretty amazing, especially when you are not a swimmer and not going to do the snorkeling.

After the glass bottom boat tour, we were brought back to the catamaran where we had a lunch with rice, chicken and salads. Being the curry people we were it was not to our taste, but I should say it was not that bad. Wish they had some fresh sea food dishes though. After the lunch it was time for snorkeling. I was itching to put on a life vest and go snorkeling, but  my mother and friend resisted and I had to stay on the boat.




We spent the next hour or two eating ice cream on the sun deck absorbing the blissful views of the magnificent great barrier reef, the largest living organism on the earth. Isn't nature amazing?




The bliss was interrupted once when one snorkler signed to be rescued. A crew member dashed in a dingy boat and rescued the guy. The wind has drifted the guy off and he lost control it seems.

Once the snorkeling time was over it was time to go back. I saw a few people with nasty coral cuts, damn those must have hurt as hell. The initial sail back was rough, there was a gush of wind at a proportion I have never experienced before, I instantly regretted being on the sun deck. The wind took off my mom's clasp and my friend's sun glasses he was wearing. Other than the 3 of us it was another 3 girls on the sun deck and with the wind she fell on the deck. The wind was sooo turbulent I had to crouch and crawl towards her to check if she was ok. Luckily she was fine and the 3 girls decided to crawl down inside. We couldn't crawl down, instead had to stay on the deck, because my mother wouldn't have been able to do the crawl due to her mobility issues. Instead we held on to the chairs tightly and hoped it wouldn't get any worse...


After about 30 minutes it got better, the crew came up to see if we were ok, i wished they came when the wind was about to blow us off the boat...  Probably it's easier to rescue from water than from the sun deck... The smallest of the 3 girls came back to the sun deck, the little daredevil she was, she was jumping around the deck, screaming at the sea gulls and a now and then dolphin skipping by the boat. Rest of the sail was uneventful, we reached Bundy safely absorbing the glory of a Pacific dusk.

Tips:

• Sea sickness would be less if you are on the sundeck.
• At the first sign of rough sea, go back inside, don't risk getting thrown off the boat..