Tuesday 5th October 2021
We woke to a beautiful sunny, calm day for our trip on the Frankland Islands Reef Cruise. We headed to Deeral Jetty for check-in at 8am, so an early start for us. After checking in, the boat headed along the Mulgrave River for about 30mins and then out to Normanby island, one of the Frankland Island group. Whilst on the boat we had a snorkel demonstration and were kitted out with our snorkel gear, wetsuit and stinger suit. We arrived at about 10am and were all dressed ready to hit the water. So thats what we did, we snorkelled for about 20mins before it was our time slot for the snorkel safari. This was a guided drift snorkel along the reef on the western side of the island. We saw many, many fish including the Spiny Chromis, Six-banded Angelfish, many different parrotfish species, Threadfin Butterfly fish, Robust Fusilier, and many, many more.  We also saw some colourful giant clams. Our snorkel safari went for about 45minutes and then we were brought back to the northern part of the Island. After a short break we headed back out and David saw a stingray and we swam with a turtle. At about 12 we were called in for a lovely smorgasbord lunch of chicken, ham, salami, prawns, potato salad, pasta salad and coleslaw plus fresh fruit and a bread roll. It was a huge lunch and we were so full we didn’t know how we would manage the afternoon snorkel. After a little rest we headed out again and saw some Clown Anemone Fish hiding in vibrant blue, pink, purple and apricot coloured anemone, we swam along with another turtle which was so healthy looking and very colourful, it was happy for us to just glide along with it. We just kept heading out to sea with the turtle as it peacefully swam away. In the end we had to leave it as it was time for us to head in for our island walking tour. The tour was headed by Michelle the Reef Guide for the day who was very informative about all the sea life in the rock pools which had been created by the lowering of the tide. There were some clams, Synapta Maculata sea cucumbers and many other little life forms stranded in the rock pools. We then headed across to the western side of the island where we saw a Golden Orb spider called Larissa and her male mates. We also found some star sand which is only found in a few places in the world – Japan is one of them and on Normanby Island, sorry can’t remember the other place. We then headed back to get ready to leave the island at 2.30pm. Unfortunately this was not to be, the big boat was having trouble with one of its rudders and they spent the next 1.5 hours trying t fix it. In the end they couldn’t get in to get us so we were ferried out to them on the snorkel boats, so two trips were required to get us out. This meant we enjoyed a late afternoon trip back to the river mouth and then along the river. We arrive back at about 5pm, an hour late. They handled this situation well by giving all customers a complimentary beer, wine or soft drink when we first left the island and then tea, coffee, hot chocolate and cake half way home. Hopefully that would stop the complaints. It seemed to work.

We had a lovely day and were happy we were camping just a 10 min drive away. Once more I loved the snorkelling. On the way home we tried to decide which island’s snorkelling was the best but they were all different and had there own beauty. I loved seeing the blacktip reef shark and swimming with the turtle at green island but also enjoyed the variety of fish and turtle at Fitzroy, as well as the giant clams and nemos at Normanby. So all in all I have been very spoilt with visiting 3 islands and the outer reef. Woohoo!!