Getting to Heron Island involved a 5hr drive north of our home to Gladstone and an overnight stay to make the 9:30am ferry to the island There is only a single trip to the island on certain days.
Trying to keep things succinct… a few quick facts about Heron Island:
- there are now no herons on Heron Island but there are egrets. There were reef herons in 1920’s
- Heron is an islands or quay at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef that started forming 6,000 years ago
- is part Nat. Park, part resort, a bird & turtle sanctuary - no drones allowed
- takes about 20 minutes to walk around island
- resort started construction in 1970s so buildings and accom. are a bit tired but okay
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| General views of Heron Island - jetty and the bar |
- don’t touch the sharks or rays
- stay away from the turtles laying eggs
- don’t step on the baby turtles trying to reach the sea
- stay away from turtle nests
- don’t pick up any baby Noddy terns who have fallen out of nest etc etc.
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| Rail - can fly but like running around on the ground |
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| One of thousands of Noddy Terns |
There are a variety of activities both free or paid for everyone to enjoy and we chose a bird walk, turtle hatchling walk and snorkeling on the outer reef. Masks, snorkels and flippers are provided to each person per room at a cost, so it wasn’t long before we were in the ocean directly out of the front of our room for the next 5 nights.
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| The view directly out front from our room |
At the resort there is a swimming pool, hardly used because of the beautiful aqua blue ocean surrounding the island, a bar, small store, restaurant, reception centre and marine centre.
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| The swimming pool with restaurant in the background |
For the first 36hrs there were strong winds and infrequent rain squalls before finally abating, but it didn’t stop us walking around the island along the beach, exploring various tracks across the island, all the time being constantly accompanied by a range of birds, especially noddy terns in their thousands, the most numerous birds and most of them nesting.
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| Various walks we took around and through the island |
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| We were always in the presence of birds |
Our goal(s) during this visit to Heron were:
- do a lot of snorkeling
- relax
- try to see some Green or Loggerhead turtles coming onto or leaving the beach
- see some baby turtles hatchling coming out of their nest and hopefully reaching the ocean
We managed to go snorkelling at least once a day but 2 times was more frequent, including venturing to the outer reef around the island. The reef is not rich in colour but there are still all sorts of fish living within it. People who went scuba diving told us the reef was more vibrant in the deeper waters they visited and even saw manta rays.
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| Shows the extent of the reef around Heron Island where outer reef tours can venture |
Very quickly everyone learns there is an abundance of white and black tip sharks patrolling close to shore and most visitors became quite relaxed as they glided close past them whilst snorkeling. They were on a mission but more on that shortly.
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| Visitor enjoying the close proximity of ever vigilant reef sharks |
In the waters around the island live a lot of rays of various forms and we managed to see these during snorkelling under the jetty we landed at.
CLICK HERE for Snorkelling Under Jetty - Heron Island
Our other goal was to find turtles either arriving onto or leaving the beach and see turtle hatchlings leave their nest and head to the ocean.
Seeing hatchlings bursting out of their nest came first because you really need to be in the right place at the right time as they may emerge anywhere at anytime between sunrise and sunset.
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| Baby turtles digging their way out of their nest |
CLICK HERE for Turtle Hatchlings Marching - Heron Island
It was very surprising to see them bursting out of one hole and next was how quickly they ‘flipper sprint’ to the ocean with it all being over within 10-15 minutes. We had to be very careful not to step backwards on baby turtles because they are all over the place.
There are many predators scouring the island looking for these babies to eat, the first being the birds, especially seagulls. We were encouraged by the island staff to do what we could to scare seagulls away from any baby turtles trying to reach the ocean.
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| Lots of predators looking for a quick feed during breeding season |
Talked earlier about sharks big and small patrolling the shores because they are also waiting for the babies to reach the ocean and during one episode we watched 20-30 baby turtles successfully reach the ocean and start swimming before the water ‘boiled’ as sharks attacked them in the shallows eating every one of them.
During the breeding season only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings will return to lay their own eggs.
Adult green turtles take 25-50 years to reach reproductive maturity and return to the island where they were born, but only nest every 2-4 years and sometimes lay up to 9 nests per season. As a result there were lots of turtle tracks on the beach each morning and new nest depressions.
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| Every morning we would find fresh turtle track on/off the island |
Adult turtles prefer to arrive onto and leave the beach during high tide, reducing the distance to crawl to nesting locations. We were lucky to have high tides happening around sunrise so it was early morning starts for us in our quest to find adult turtles.
We never actually saw any turtles coming onto the beach to nest but we did see them swimming close to shore.
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| Turtle swimming the shoreline either feeding on jellyfish or waiting to come on land to breed |
Over the course of a few mornings we found multiple adult turtles in the process of covering their eggs after laying by using their flippers and then return to the ocean to feed and rest.
It was fabulous to observe these magnificent animals.
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| Returning to the ocean to feed and rest |
After finishing laying, she gently pushed sand back over the eggs using her rear flippers to cocoon them. Next was the arduous task using her front flippers to push lots of sand backwards whilst slowly hauling herself forward.
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| Green turtle covering her eggs |
She also used her rear flippers to compress the sand and by the time she was finished, she had moved forward nearly 2 mtrs and had piled a 40cm layer of sand over her precious eggs.
It was such a privilege to be able to observe all of this?
CLICK HERE for Green Turtles Laying & Covering Eggs
We went to Heron Island with quite low expectations apart from the relaxation and snorkelling and we came away feeling very satisfied with what we had experienced.
With ‘living with covid’ now changing our capacity to get back into increasing travel activity, all being well (pun), there will be more to come from the Geripackers going forward.
CLICK HERE if interested in a few more Heron Island photos
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