Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Lady Musgrave Island

[Kyle]The wind was forecast to increase over the next few days, so we decided to carry on to Lady Musgrave Island, which has a protected lagoon inside a fringing reef. We picked a nice sandy spot strategically located between three big bommies on the far side of the lagoon from the actual island. From there, it was easy to leave the dinghy up and do all of our snorkeling right off of Begonia.


More amazing sunsets to enjoy (bug free)

Usually, Lady Musgrave is a big tourist destination. Big high-speed catamarans out of Bundaberg and the town of 1770 take hundreds of people a day to snorkel its lagoon and picnic on its beaches. Since the tour operators were shut down (Covid19 pandemic regulations), it was just us and three other widely spaced private vessels, each enjoying our own square mile.



Enjoying getting our exercise on the reef

The snorkeling was good. There was good visibility and plenty of coral to explore. Even though we swam all day for two days straight, we struggled to find anything that made us wave the other one over and say, Hey, look at that!” There were no sharks, no rays, no turtles, no eels, nor any especially big or colorful versions of all of the usual fishes. Still, it was nice to be somewhere nice and flat while the wind howled through the lagoon.

{Maryanne}Unfortunately, on this visit we didn't visit the island itself. The weather forecast was keeping our schedule tighter than we'd have liked and we had to sacrifice some of our opportunities. If we had have gone ashore, we may well have seen baby turtles hatching and making their first trip to the ocean (we are just at the tail end of hatching season). Something for next time!

Thinking of going yourself? We found the following useful to research and download beforehand (no internet/cell phone signal at the island)

  • Coordinates and details regarding the public mooring balls are available at GBRMPA - note - Note Lady Musgrave is part of the Capricorn/Bunker Group of islands)
  • Dive site maps and info available at LadyMusgraveExperience.com.au
  • Dive sites may also be listed at WannaDive.Net

No comments: