We had a bit of a rocky start to the day. We almost didn’t catch the ferry, but once we were on the ferry, all of us got a little seasick, besides Kristine. Never in my life have I been seasick before, so I was a little surprised by how sick I felt. The waves weren’t even that bad compared to those we experienced at the Whitsundays.
Thankfully, we made it to Fitzroy Island with mostly just queasy stomachs. Our day started uphill with a steep hike to the summit. We made a stop at the lighthouse on our way up to take in the view of the bright blue tropical waters. I might dare say the water here was more beautiful than at Whitehaven beach.
We headed up to the summit of the island where they had built a little viewing platform, but right behind that was a giant rock: the real summit. Of course, we felt the need to climb to the top. The wind was insane above the tree line, and we thought we might blow away. The view was completely worth it though.
The trek down went much faster than the trek up of course. Overall, the hike was much shorter than we were told, or maybe we are just too speedy. We made our way over to Nudey Beach for our first try at snorkeling.
The beach was completely covered with bleached coral pieces that had washed up on shore. It was like a coral graveyard. When we walked across the beach, it sounded like we were walking on glass shards. The sound was tragically beautiful.
The wind created a choppy sea around the large rocks we were snorkeling. It was my first time trying to properly use a snorkel and flippers, so I was honestly quite nervous. I’d love to say I got the hang of it right away, but I was the least graceful person in the water.
We swam around the edge of one of the boulders out of sight of the beach and started our diving. The water was deep and dark, with waves crashing into the small alcove we found. There wasn’t a lot of space for the four of us, I felt trapped by the surrounding rocks and I didn’t know how to use the flippers properly. I was absolutely panicking.
My flippers felt like weights, and my snorkel kept getting full of water from crashing waves. I thought for sure I was going to drown. If I had judged snorkeling based on that experience alone, I’d never have gone again. Luckily, we moved to a different beach that was less rocky and had fewer waves.
Immediately, this site was better. The water was only about 10-12 feet deep, and there were no rocks to block the sun from shining through. Rachel and I explored the reef while Karoline and Kristine relaxed on the beach. Once I had space to move, I mastered using the flippers (my cousin Aimee would be proud).
The wildlife I saw was incredible! I never would have expected to see so much so close to the shore. I accidentally snuck up on a stingray taking a rest under a large piece of coral. I swam right up to it and had to do a doubletake because I couldn’t make it out. It was a reddish color with white speckles. I was about two feet away from the stinger when I realized what it was. Coolest. Moment. Ever.
We continued on to see an insane amount of tropical fish. Big blue ones, small yellow ones, multicolored and plain ones. Rachel spotted an octopus peeking out of the rocks. We must have startled it because we got to witness it camouflage from a deep red to match the white coral. Its eyes were fascinating, large and like crystal.
Moving on, I spotted a tropical rock lobster. If you don’t know what that is, please look it up. Just kidding, I’m just going to show you instead: https://bit.ly/2LIT8bm. Check out that link for a picture of what we saw. It was amazing! I had never seen anything like it before!
We were in the water for about two hours straight, but the time flew by so quickly. When we ran out of time, we returned our snorkel rentals and headed back to the ferry dock to board. A small child peering over the edge of the dock excitedly exclaimed that he saw a shark and everyone rushed to the edges to take a look.
Sure enough, two small reef sharks were swimming back and forth underneath the dock. They were only about a foot or two in length, but they were beautiful. I’m glad I wasn’t in the water with them though, the stingray was enough of a jump scare for one day.
The ferry ride home was a lot more peaceful. I ate a bag of chips to settle my stomach and then I fell asleep in my seat. The day was a wonderful adventure, and I definitely can’t wait to snorkel again!
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