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| Sailor Cerae - Lovin' it in calmer weather |
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| Captain Rene - Chillaxin'. |
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| Natural Beauty on Pelican Island. |
Since Scawfell Island, we've been island-hopping as each of these beautiful places are within a couple of hours sail of each other. The weather has been calm and nature has been providing us with constant amazement.
Rene was astounded at how much Keswick and St Bees Islands have changed since he was here 20 years ago. I was enthralled by some white wild goats who hung out on the rocky foreshore and am glad that Rene didn't manage to kill one for dinner!
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| Red Coral Spawn. |
At full moon the coral spawned, painting the sea water bright red in long wobbly strokes. A sea fog decended on the islands as did millions of butterflies. Imagine us sailing through a red sea escorted by thousands of blue and black butterflies! Bliss!
On Brampton Island we hiked to the lookout and sat amongst the clouds in the moist rainforest listening to Coucal Pheasants and watching the butterflies glide about in the currents of warm air.
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| Millions of Butterflies! |
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| Just one of the visitors on deck! |
At Linne Island (named after the man who formulated the system of botanical classification) I wondered how much the island had changed from when it was first discovered by Europeans in 1802. Walking along the small beach, I got my answer. So much human-made junk in such an isolated place (old tyres, fluro light, rope etc.). Back when the Lady Nelson explored here all they found was a wrecked canoe which evidenced visits by Aboriginal people.
More whales - the biggest group yet – about 5 all swimming together. I still can’t get used to their size and beauty.
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| Anhinga Anchored at Goldsmith Island. |
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| Loving all of the coral here! |
Relaxing beach time on Goldsmith Island. Playing boules at sunset and lying under the shade of some casuarina trees. Last night, we were serenaded by whale song! It echoed through the water into our boat and I drifted in and out of sleep, enthralled by the high pitched squeaks of a baby whale and the deep rumbles of its mother.
Absolutely loving everything that nature is offering us on this trip (except big waves of course ;o).
aawwwww...makes me feel all warm and fuzzy hearinf about the whales.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for th goats, goat curry is delish cerae - shame captain ren didn't catch one for dinner! (joking)
natalie
I really should follow your blog more regularly instead of reading 3-4 posts at once... This is too much!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThe coral spawning and the butterflies sound like straight out of a nice dream.
As for the whales, I am extremely fascinated by them, and still have to see any of them up close... So, yeah, I'm pretty jealous, now. In a good way, though.
LOVING the pictures, by the way!!!
Miss you guys. Keep having the best of times.