Hello again,
last night the rain came, well "squall" is probably a more apt word, not once but twice and it was heavy. The birds woke me as ususal this morning, but it was still too dark to see what the day would hold. By 7am it was clear that it would be clear (did you see what I did there?). Light cloud, light breeze, Mt Gower still catching clouds. Wow, the first real LHI weather we had experienced on this trip.
As I am writing I am taking photo of the sunset. One beautiful part of the view from our verandah, and I hadn't previously realised because it has been so cloudy, is that the view of the sun set is a direct line. No need to go wandering for the best vantage point, I have it already.
I digress. After breakfast we thought that some snorkelling in the lagoon would be the thing to do. It was then I discovered that I had not packed the GoPro. Bugger. No underwater shots. Anyway, we gathered our gear, applied that ghastly sunscreen stuff and walked down to the lagoon. Sadly, children dominated the landscape so we meandered around a little headland and found a beach all to ourselves. Not that it mattered because in a few minutes we were kitted up with fins and goggles and were in the water.
The area we were snorkelling was not anything special. It was mostly sand, yet every now and then there was an outcrop of rock and coral and it was transformed into a scene from Finding Nemo. The colour of the coral and the fish always seems to surprise and and amaze. Today was no different. Unexpectedly we came across the fish superhighway. The coral gave way to rock and sand and the little colourful fish were replaced with schools of trevally, the biggest whiting I've seen and the occasional morwong. We floated around for a while, well, until I became tired of blowing water out of my goggles. Excellent experience. Weather permitting we will go in search of turtles tomorrow.
Back home for a shower and change of clothes and then a quick light lunch at the LHI Museum/Visitor Centre. Menus were on the tables, wait staff were delivering food, but nowhere did it say you had to order inside at the counter. Nor did any wait staff suggest this would be a good idea. I don't get tourist areas sometimes. A simple sentence on the menu would have sufficed. Anyway, we ordered and the food was good and headed back up the hill to pack for our afternoon fishing expedition.
I underestimated the time it would take to walk to the pier and as we arrived we were asked, "are you going fishing?" "Yes" I replied, "Well you'd better hurry because he's going to leave without you." We made it. Just. There was Jayne and I and another couple, Hugh and Storm, young enough to be our children. Jack, the skipper, captain, whatever, is a LHI legend. He takes people fishing 5 days a week, twice a day and climbs Mt Gower the other two days. Fit? Are you joking?
The wind has not abated since our arrival, so we ploughed through the nor'easter for three miles before we reached the reef on the edge of the drop off. I thought we were fishing in close to the island with hand reels. Nope. Heavy duty rods. And we had to wear those cutesy rod holding thingos (about which I was most pleased at a later time). The point where we began fishing had its own marker system. Dolphins. They were everywhere. Riding the waves, jumping out of the water, it was spectacular. I've seen them at Hawks Nest/Tea Gardens and on the south coast, but 3 miles out to sea. Epic!
Let the games begin. Hugh and I were the first to have a shot at catching dinner. Jack is a genius because we never had a run without a hit or two. I struck first, or was struck first by a very tasty trevally. I say tasty because we have eaten half of it already. Simply cooked, olive oil, salt on the bbq and lemon juice to serve. Sweet, tasty, yum. Then back to the beginning and Hugh caught one but it never made the surface thanks to the abundance of sharks. Back again and this time Hugh hooked a shark, about 1.5 metres in length. Again we returned to the dolphins and drifted back for a similar result. This time it was Storm who hooked a fish that a shark enjoyed before we saw it on the surface. We understood the process now and went again. Same result.
Storm retired and returned the rod to Hugh, Jayne was not interested in playing this game of brinkmanship which required you to stand at the end of the boat and brace your legs against the rails as you reeled in your fish. One more pass and I caught a Coral Cod. Next pass and Hugh caught a trevally. The final drift both Hugh and I hooked sharks. I would have preferred a kingfish, but we had enough for dinner. As I sat slumped on the bait bin, exhausted after the fight with the shark (1.75 m and angry - well how would you feel if you you took a bite of free feed and ended up with a bloody big hook in your mouth?) Hugh turned to me and said, "you win". Gentle reader you know what a competitive spirit I am, graciously, I could have said "this wasn't a competition" however Jayne was there and would have replied, "everything is a competition for you". I guess she's right and in that case I won.
The trip back in seemed to take less time and we stopped to look a some caves that have formed in the north end of the island. The only other stop was to fillet the fish and then finally to disembark to come home and finish a typical LHI kind of day - awesome natural beauty kept simple to enjoy without crowds or hassle. We have been to many other islands but nothing holds a candle to LHI in either its beauty or its uncluttered environment - nothing feels crowded and as Storm said today, it's the the only island that actually looks like the publicity shots. Say no more.
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