Australia
Lady Elliot Island

Lady
Elliot Island.
The
southernmost section of the Great Barrier Reef, this tiny coral cay,
a 90km (65miles) light-plane flight from Hervey Bay, is a cheerful
little eco-resort, home to many tens of thousands of birds, particularly
the white-capped noddy, but also at night amazing acapellas can be
heard from the wailing, moaning, groaning wedge-tail shearwaters.
Turtles lay eggs which hatch at night on Lady Elliot's beaches, from
Nov-March, though they don't exactly swarm and can be difficult to
find.
Diving
and snorkelling here at the end of the GB reef is good if conditions
are calm, otherwise visibility goes down the pan. And since the island
is very small and very exposed conditions are rarely calm.
There is a neat but newish little wreck, many good coral bommies and
plenty of small sharks, manta and sting rays, turtles, maori wrasse
etc.

Lady
Elliot Island and a few of the 60,000 white-capped noddies.
Hervey
Bay, gateway to Fraser and Lady Elliot Islands is a pleasant town
- tho not exactly lively - loaded with beach and places to stay -
most of them still unlisted in popular travel guides so don't
panic about finding a place to stay. If you have no transport, try
to find accommodation not too far from the Esplanade intersection
with Main St or you're looking at a lot of walking to find food,
drink or entertainment.
Hervey's long, sandy beach is just south of the Great Barrier
Reef and so usually free of toxic jellies that prevent sea swimming
further north, while the shady esplanade provides an attractive fringe,
but the town centre is still young and lacks a hard core or the buzz
that Cairns and Airlie Beach thrive on.
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Coast Beaches | Airlie
Beach
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Island | Cairns | Gold Coast | Map | Australia Travel Guide | Beaches Guide

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