Snorkeling Lady Elliott island - Australia

Let me tell you a tale of our day trip to lady Elliot island with friends for my birthday. Which turned out to be some of the best snorkeling I had ever done! 🐠🐟🦈🤿

My bday was in May and this was the start of Mantaray season.
Lady Elliott island is known for it's large Mantaray population from May through til September.

I have never swam with a Mantaray so this is definitely something on my list!

So I rounded up the group for this adventure, booked an air bnb in Hervey bay and printed up some Snorks shirts as this will be a day of snorkeling we will never forget.

It's a four hour drive from brisbane to Hervey bay.

Two friends flew up from New South Wales, 2 friends from brisbane also drove up and my other mate flew in from Indonesia as he was over there for a skate comp.

Lady Elliot is the most southern part of the great barrier Reef in Queensland Australia, and is off the coast from Bundaberg.

The best way to get to Lady Elliott is by light plane.
It's crazy to think that we will charter a plane over to a paradise island.

After a quick briefing we boarded the plane in Hervey bay and then had a quick stop in Bundaberg to fuel up and pick up another two passengers.

The flight from Bundaberg to Lady Elliot is about 40min.

As we left Bundaberg the sky's were clear then 20min in we flew straight into a cloud and this cloud lasted along time.
I started to get worried that we will arrive at the island with bad weather as we only had one day to enjoy the island.

Luckily, we broke through the cloud and it was blue skies !! And we could see the island off in the distance.

Wow what a sight to behold! This beautiful atoll just breaking up out of the ocean.

With a runway that cuts through the middle of the island.

We circled the island so we all could get a great view then we went in for landing on the grass.

As we got closer we could see the coral reefs from above. And the difference shades of blue water. It was so beautiful.

Once we landed we were given a briefing about the island and the spots to check out snorkeling.

We were fitted with wetsuits and snorkeling gear. Grabbed some beach shoes (as the island has no sand it's only coral so shoes are a must) then we headed straight to the lagoon as the tide was on its way out and we only had 30min before it would be to shallow to snorkel.

HOLY SHIT this was some of the best 30min of snorkeling I have ever done!!
The moment I put my head under water I was surrounded by tropical fish. The coral was so bright and colourful. Huge parrot fish were pecking away at the coral.

Fun fact.
Every grain of sand has come from a parrot fish pooping out the sand as it eats the coral and grinds it up -
So sand is basically parrot fish poo!!

Bright blue star fish were scattered around.

Then all of a sudden I noticed a big shadow in the distance. As I got closer it was a big black tip reef shark.
I started to swim along with it then out of the corner of my eye another reef shark started to swim next to me. At first it gave me a huge fright as it would have been over 2 meters long as it was Def bigger than me.

But it was just following his friend. The lagoon is teeming with life so none of the sharks would go hungry and turn on me.... Well that is what I told myself anyway haha.

As we were swimming along in a V formation like the mighty ducks, I noticed another object in the distance. So I swam over for a close look.

Cowabunga It was a TURTLE!!!

This turtle didn't mind me hanging out at all. He was just cruising along doing his turtle business. Little bite from this coral patch. Little bite from that one.
I was even able to snap a quick selfie with him.

Then something darted past. That looked translucent like the predator. Then it noticed me and turned brown and swam down to the sand.

It was a Octopus!!

Wow I have never seen an octopus swimming before. Let alone come so close without it freaking out and hiding.

I was just bobbing up and down in the water as the octopus was moving along the coral and changing colour as the coral changed.

Then it just stood up and started to walk along the sand....

WTF.

I have never seen this before

As the tide was going out it was time to head back in and make our way to the other side of the island for a glass bottom boat tour to the various part of the reef that we can snorkel. Fingers crossed we see a Mantaray

This is such a cool experience heading over deep water and floating over bombys. The water is so clear we could see right to the bottom.

The depth at most part was around 18 meters outside the reef.

Once we moored up it was time to explore this side.

As we jumped in the water instantly we spotted a very large reef shark might have been a dusky shark. Not too sure, but it was definitely bigger than the ones we seen at the lagoon.

Exploring the reef here is just magical.

So many schools of fish at every turn.

Then I could hear someone yell TURTLE!!
So I swam with the quickness to that direction.

Holy shit this has to be the biggest green sea turtle I have ever seen!!

The photos don't do this any justice. His shell was atleast 1.5m long

And not only was this the largest turtle I had ever seen there was two of them!!!

So after hanging out with them watching them doing their turtle business, I headed back to the deep parts in hope for a Mantaray.

As we swam around looking there was not one to be seen.

So we headed back in for our complimentary lunch.

Then it was straight back in the water in hopes of even a glimpse of a Mantaray.

Now this part on the island is turtle central.
There were so many turtles of all sizes just cruising around.

To the point where it lost its wow factor at the time which is crazy to think back on haha.

But all I had on my mind was to see a Mantaray.

An hour or so of exploring to no prevail. Our time was up in the water and the illusive Mantaray was never found.

But it's not that bad as I had such an amazing time exploring just a small part of the reef that wraps around the island.

We'll just have to come back!

Which we have booked for the end of this month as it's turtle nesting season, so it's going to be interesting learning about the sea turtles and their nesting behaviour.

If you are ever in Australia and are looking for the best Great Barrier Reef snorkeling experience (in my opinion). Definitely add Lady Elliott island to your itinerary!
Stay tuned for my next lady Elliott blog, and happy travels!!