Day 57 – Cape Range National Park – Travelling the Big Island

7 August 2019

The wind got up at about midnight and none of us got too much sleep last night.

Bill and I took our coffees to the top of the sand dune and ended up chatting to a lovely couple up there for over an hour. We had to rush away in the end as I wanted to bake scones for morning tea, and Bill was baking a loaf of his delicious cheese and bacon bread for lunch. After morning tea, Dad and I headed back down to the beach to see if there were any fish around. After an hour or so of nothing, Bill and I jumped in with our snorkelling gear on to see if there were even any fish out there! Nope. None. Not a single fish. It was a nice swim though. After that, the fishing rods were packed up and it was time for fresh baked bread for lunch. My goodness he does a wonderful job of it. The whole loaf was eaten in less than 20 minutes.

We all lobbed in to the Ranger in the arvo and drove down to Yardie Creek and did a short walk along the cliff top of the gorge. Then it was up to Turquoise Bay for snorkelling. There is a moderate current at Turquoise Bay and the conditions were good for drift snorkelling. We got in the water and let the current take us over the reef for 100 m or at which point we climbed out, and I walked back up the beach and did it again. There wasn’t quite as many fish as at the Oyster Stacks, however still amazing. I saw an enormous cod (?) hidden in a bit of an overhang. It was huge! Dad dove down to get a better look at it at the same time that it opened it’s mouth. He said that he thinks his head would have fit in it’s mouth.

The wind died down and it was a lovely afternoon. Showers, beers and chips followed by tea and triominos. Our usual evening routine.