Chesterfield Reef the place to see

We are so pleased that we decided to make Chesterfield Reef one of our stops. The sun is setting on our fifth day of another great experience. It may get dark now but life keeps going on the islands that are like a chain all along the eastern side (Way off to the west on the other side you again have a number of cays that you can just see from here). Soon the turtles will be heading for the shores to dig their massive holes and lay their eggs. For some this takes all night and you can see odd ones still heading down the beach in the early morning totally exhausted. The birds keep calling all night and the sky is full of birds feeding at night with the odd ones stopping for a rest on the boat.
As you go ashore through the rocks and coral in the shallows that guard the beach in an array of blue hues one is confronted by hundreds of airborne birds circling over the island. Stepping onto the white sand one stops immediately to pick up a beautiful shell or two. At the top of the beach every bush has a few nestlings, from Boobies to the Lesser Frigate birds, a variety of Terns and Dotterels... the list goes on. The Gannets seem to pull up on any part of the beach, some barely above the high tide mark and lay their two eggs. As you walk past they watch you and once you have passed give you a skwaak almost to say: "that's it keep moving..." It's just bird's birds everywhere. The rock pools are full of fish and the occasional little black tip reef shark. The eels hide amongst the rocks and some even slither out on top of the rocks. The crabs are colourful and some fairly bold and other very happy to head for the holes in the rocks to sit and watch you go by. We found some hermit crabs in shells that were twice the size of a golf ball and looked like they needed to trade up to an even bigger home. It is just wonderful. The whales are still here and there were 2-3 just out from where we anchored earlier this afternoon. They have been hanging around here for the last few days.
The fishing has been good and we have been feasting on mackerel, but have caught large Cod, Queen Fish, Giant Trevally and a few large ones that went the other way, but shook the lure out. We stick to eating the pelagic fish as they would be less likely to be carrying Ciguatera poison.
The weather here has been good and the weather for heading to Bunderberg looks as if it will dislodge us from this wonderful place on Saturday. It will be sad to go but the experience we have had here will always be remembered. For a true natural experience this must rate as the highlight of our trip... What a way to finish. We should be on a high all the way to Bunderberg.

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