July 20 – Heron Island
We woke up fairly early and left our
little spot by the river to head into Gladstone. We stopped into
Hungry Jacks for breakfast and I was able to Skype Mom and Dad. They
seem to be doing well and things are looking good at the cottage. It
had been awhile since we last Skyped. We chatted for a while then
Beau and I had to go to catch our boat to Heron Island. This time we
arrived at the harbour and checked in no problem. We paid for our
trip at the tourist information center and only were charge
$199/night about $120 c heaper than normal since we had had to
reschedule our trip. We boarded the boat around 11am and hit the
high seas. It was pretty windy and ride was a little rough but we
made it in one piece about 2hrs later. Heron Island runs on “resort”
time and is an hour ahead of the mainland. Once on the island we
had a complimentary, non-alcoholic drink, and our welcome brief
before we had lunch. Lunch was buffet style but delicious. We went
to the Marine Center to get the down low on diving. It was a bit
more expensive then we originally expected. There was a separate
price equipment rental. It cost $65/day for dive gear and $65/dive.
We decided we do two dives tomorrow so we'd only be charged for one
day of gear hire. We got set up with dive kits and signed up for the
9am dive. We then hurried over to the information center where there
was a reef walk going on. We grabbed some old sneakers and joined
the group on the reef. The guide talked about sea cucumbers, sea
stars, coral, crabs. We passed around some sea cucumbers and sea
stars. He also managed to catch an epaulette shark which Beau had
spotted. We was a really interesting walk and last about 2hrs. We
headed back to shore and put on some warmer clothes. We hurried to
catch the sunset but we had just missed it by the time we got to the
bar. We bought a beer and took a few pictures of the lovely colours
in the sky. We headed back to the room and I read while Beau played
guitar for a little bit before dinner. Dinner was a three course
meal and we both had seared scallops with bacon to start and a
kangaroo fillet with sweet potato puree for dinner. The food was
good but the service was a little slow and they forgot about our
dessert. But we reminded them and I had a lemon-lime tart and Beau
Vanilla Panacotta. The coffee is quite good and we enjoyed some
brewed coffee with dessert. We took a tea to go and headed to the
bar to listen to the live music for a bit. We played some a
Jenga/Uno game which was pretty fun and then reclined on the couches
for a bit. After the music had finished we were joined by an older
Australian couple who wanted to catch the second half of a rugby
game. Beau got into but I grabbed my book since I wasn't very
interested. After the game we headed back to our room, had a shower
and read for a bit more before bed.
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| Heron Island |
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| Epaulette Shark |
July 21 – The Perfect Day
Beau and I had set a 7:30am alarm so we
could be up early for breakfast and have it fairly digested before we
went diving at 9am. Breakfast was another buffet with eggs, bacon,
sausage, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles and much more. I was a little
disappointed with the waffles they were like eggo and had to be
toasted. I'm dying for real waffles! After breakfast we went back
to the room and got our bathing suits on then headed down to the
Marine Center. We struggled into our wetsuits and then waddles down
to the jetty with our gear. We got our equipment set up and took a
2min boat ride to our dive site, Heron Bommie. There were 4 of us
divers and 2 guides with us. As soon as we got in the water and down
to depth our guide started tapping on his tank to point out a green
sea turtle. A moment later he did it again and there was a white
tipped reef shark. Again and there was a mantaray. Again and he
pointed out a lion fish. It was like an amazing creature overload!
We saw lots of other fishes and had an awesome 40min dive. The super
thick wetsuit really helped keep me warmer although it did mess with
my buoyancy. I had extra weight on but I was a little too heavy. We
got back on the boat and were taken back to shore. Beau and I
decided to go out on the 3pm dive so we could do some snorkeling
around the island while it was high tide. We decided to hop in right
away and snorkeled/drifted to around part of the island. We saw a
sea turtle and lots of fish. Unfortunately we didn't see any lemon
sharks that tend to hang around there. I was pretty cold by the time
we got out and we went back to the room to rinse off. We sat by the
pool for a little while suntanning before lunch time. Lunch was
another awesome buffet and I tried not pig out too much. After lunch
Beau was restless so went for a walk around the island while I sat
and read. He came back around 2:30 and we got ready for another
dive. This dive was at Coral Cascades just off the north of the
island. It was another incredible dive with 2 types of turtles, a
moray eel, a tiny pip fish, a huge lobster, a big white tip reef
shark and tons of fishes. We also did some swim threws which were
pretty sweet. Both dives today were pretty amazing. Back on the
island we headed to our room and got showered up before heading to
the bar. We got a beer and sat on some loungers writing up our
dives. We chatted with a German couple for a little bit before
someone came by claiming there were whales. We headed to the jetty
but didn't see any whales but did get a beautiful sunset. We were
both a little chilly by then from the wind so once the sun was gone
we headed back to our room to put some pants on before dinner.
Dinner was a seafood buffet and we pigged out. We also treated
ourselves and bought a bottle of wine with dinner. We had crab,
bugs, shrimp, muscles and oysters. I have to say I'm not that big on
the oysters, they were okay but there is other seafood I'd much
rather eat. We also had some really yummy dessert, there was cake
with caramel sauce and strawberry mousse. Yum! We were both stuffed
and had some of our bottle of wine left so we headed over to the bar
to enjoy some live music. After the music had finished and we
polished off our bottle we decided to head back to the room. Along
the way Beau convinced me we should go down to the beach to look at
the stars. We started to talking about how amazing our trip had been
and how happy we both were travelling together. Before I knew it he
was down on one knee asking me to be his life partner. Then he
officially asked me to be his wife. Of course I said yes and he put
a grass ring on my finger. (It wasn't actually grass more like a
leafy needle thing obviously we'll get something a little more
permanent when we get home). It was an amazing ending to an amazing
day on an amazing trip.
July 22 – Back to mainland
We slept in a bit compared to yesterday
and were up around 8:30. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast before getting
our room packed up. We left one bag on the doorstep for the porter
to pick up then headed over to the reception to settle our bill.
Afterwards we headed to the pool area and lounged around. I read my
book and Beau played his guitar. We decided to go for a little walk
about the island, Beau had done one yesterday but I hadn't. We put
his guitar on the porter truck so we wouldn't have to worry/carry it
about. We walked along the beach but as we came around the northern
tip of the island the wind was raging so we opted to walk back
through the center instead of the full perimeter. We was a nice
albeit short walk. We ended back by the pool and lounge a bit more
in the sunshine. Lunch time rolled around and we pigged out on our
last meal. Before we knew it it was time to congregate at the jetty
waiting for the boat to arrive. We took some pictures in the crazy
wind then watched the Heron Islander bob into dock. We got loaded
onto the boat and had a pretty rough ride back to land. I tried
writing up but found it made me a little sea sick. So I had a nap
instead. Once back in Gladstone we got our belongs and fired Dotti
up. We picked up some groceries and returned a call about the van.
We set up a meeting for tomorrow down on the Sunshine Coast. We
drove about 100km out of Gladstone then pulled into a rest stop for
the night. There was a well lit picnic area which aided us in making
dinner. We passed the evening writing up and went to bed fairly
early.
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| The Proposal Location |
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| The type of tree my ring was made from |
July 23 – Back to the Sunshine Coast
We awoke to another beautiful day. I
called Mom and Dad after breakfast to tell them our awesome news and
Beau gave his parents a call too. We started our drive down to the
Sunshine Coast. We had said we'd be there about noon but that was a
little optimistic. We stopped in Maryborough for lunch and to check
our e-mails. We also got in touch with the woman we were supposed to
meet and said it would be closer to 2pm. When we finally did hit the
Sunshine Coast in a town called Coolroy it was about 2pm and we were
about 20min for our destination. The check battery light came on
again.... crap. We pulled into a mechanics and they had a quick
inspection. Sounded like the alternator was about to go kaput. The
owner called around and could get one in for us tomorrow. We just
couldn't believe that when we were about to show the van the
alternator went. We figure it's due to our battery issues from last
week and the alternator getting over worked. We told the mechanic
we'd see him in to morning then head slightly out of town to a rest
stop. We also rescheduled to show the van tomorrow. At the rest
stop I gave Elaine a call to tell her our good news and we had a
little chat since we haven't talked in ages. The rest of the
afternoon/evening passed with writing up, reading and guitar.
