Lady Elliot Island

Hi

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive, has
anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go there in
September 2004.

Thanks

Filler

"Filler" wrote in message ...

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive, has
anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go there in
September 2004.

Haven't been to Lady Elliot but have been to its close cousin Heron
Island (also in the Caprricorn Island Group on the southern end of the
Reef) several times. Assuming the reef there is very similar to Heron,
I'd say it would definitely be worth the cost. It's always been my
understanding that Lady Elliot is a budget alternative to islands such
as Heron and Lizard - so "quite expensive" may be pretty cheap in the
relative sense.

Ralph R, CT, USA

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 09:22:03 -0000, "Filler"
wrote:

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive, has
anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go there in
September 2004.

I have been to both Heron and Lady Elliot Islands. To the research
station on Heron in 1996, and as a guest for a weekend on LE in 1996.
This makes my information fairly old, so take it as you will.

Lady Elliot is a very relaxed place - no keys to any of the rooms, so
you must place any valuables in the office safe. There are two types
of accomodation - permanent tents, or small demountables. While these
are a little aged, they are also right on the beach.

The real attraction to Lady Elliot is that it is one of the few true
coral cays on the Great Barrier Reef with a resort on it (the rest
tend to be submerged mountains). As it is also the smallest of the
resorts in that area, there has been remarkably little impact on the
fringing reef and the snorkelling is incredible, just a few metres off
the reef.

I have grown up on the GBR and been to (or worked in) most of the
resorts along the Qld coast. Lady Elliot is in my opinion one of the
best I have been to, and most definitely worth the cost. I would love
to go back there.

Geodyne

I also haven't been there for a long time, but would agree with everything
Geodyne wrote below.

Lady Elliott is not a swimming pool/aircon/disco place. There is exactly two
things to do for most of the year. One is walk aound the island (20 minutes)
and marvel how strong bird **** smells. The other is scuba dive. The diving
is absolutely superb. A hard core diver can dive 3 or 4 times a day for a
week and love it. A hard core snorkeler can't snorkel all day for a week and
not be bored, even on Lady Elliott. When I was on the island, every single
other person was also a diver.

Frankly, for a diver, Lady Elliott is fantastic. If you aren't a diver,
there's nothing else ....

Peter Webb

PS If you can be there when the turtles are laying their eggs in the sand,
that is a real Attenborough moment - to stand amongst hundreds or thousands
of giant turtles laying eggs in the sand in the moonlight ... I think its
about that time of year (Sept/Oct) but depends on the phase of the moon ...
if you do go, try and be there for the turtle nesting, a unique lifetime
experience.



"Geodyne" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 09:22:03 -0000, "Filler"
wrote:

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive,
has
anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go there in
September 2004.

I have been to both Heron and Lady Elliot Islands. To the research
station on Heron in 1996, and as a guest for a weekend on LE in 1996.
This makes my information fairly old, so take it as you will.

Lady Elliot is a very relaxed place - no keys to any of the rooms, so
you must place any valuables in the office safe. There are two types
of accomodation - permanent tents, or small demountables. While these
are a little aged, they are also right on the beach.

The real attraction to Lady Elliot is that it is one of the few true
coral cays on the Great Barrier Reef with a resort on it (the rest
tend to be submerged mountains). As it is also the smallest of the
resorts in that area, there has been remarkably little impact on the
fringing reef and the snorkelling is incredible, just a few metres off
the reef.

I have grown up on the GBR and been to (or worked in) most of the
resorts along the Qld coast. Lady Elliot is in my opinion one of the
best I have been to, and most definitely worth the cost. I would love
to go back there.

Geodyne

Two years ago we visited Lady Elliot island for 5 days. It was fantastic. It
is a very relaxed island with superb snorkling places. Staff is friendly and
the food is good.

Apart from snorkling and diving there are many birds (it was february). If
you are scared of Hichcock 'the birds' don't go. Also there were turtles.
One night a turtle layed het eggs 5 meter from our balcony.

Lady Elliot was the highlight of our 6 month trip. (also Fraser island and
Western Australia)

Felix Cohen
"Filler" schreef in bericht
...
Hi

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive,
has
anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go there in
September 2004.

Thanks

Filler

On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 22:22:03 +1300, Filler wrote:

Hi

Lady Elliot Island has been recommended to me for great off the beach
snorkelling. I know it's an "all-inclusive" resort and quite expensive,
has anyone stayed there and is it worth the cost? Am planning to go
there in September 2004.

Thanks

Filler

I'm staying there in early May so I'll let you know how it was
with a repost on this group. We're based at Bargara beach and flying
out to Lady Elliot island from there. The main attraction for me is
the diving - I don't care about the accommodation. Included in the
price is two feeds a day. Compared to Heron island, it's pretty
reasonable imho.
Their website is
http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/
and for Bargara beach
http://www.bargaradive.com/mainmap.htm

cheers'
Brian
http://linuxguide.co.nz

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:22:15 +1300, BrianM
wrote:

I'm staying there in early May so I'll let you know how it was
with a repost on this group. We're based at Bargara beach and flying
out to Lady Elliot island from there. The main attraction for me is
the diving - I don't care about the accommodation. Included in the
price is two feeds a day. Compared to Heron island, it's pretty
reasonable imho.

You're going to love it. If you're at all interested in birds, make
certain you take a bird book with you.

Geodyne

Their website is
http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/
and for Bargara beach
http://www.bargaradive.com/mainmap.htm

cheers'
Brian
http://linuxguide.co.nz

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 13:44:27 +1300, Geodyne wrote:

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:22:15 +1300, BrianM wrote:

I'm staying there in early May so I'll let you know how it was with a
repost on this group. We're based at Bargara beach and flying out to
Lady Elliot island from there. The main attraction for me is the diving
- I don't care about the accommodation. Included in the price is two
feeds a day. Compared to Heron island, it's pretty reasonable imho.

You're going to love it. If you're at all interested in birds, make
certain you take a bird book with you.

Geodyne

Thanks for reminding me about the book. I live 200 metres from the
seacoast so I'm pretty used to our own local varieties. The area is
home to 113 species including 2,000 Eastern bar-tailed Godwits who
have just left the Avon estuary bound for Siberia. They'll be back
in November. For a bird not much larger than a well-fed thrush, that's
some journey.

A correction to my first post - flying out to Lady Elliot Island from
Bundaberg (not Bargara)

cheers
Brian

On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 13:44:27 +1300, Geodyne wrote:

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:22:15 +1300, BrianM wrote:

I'm staying there in early May so I'll let you know how it was with a
repost on this group. We're based at Bargara beach and flying out to
Lady Elliot island from there. The main attraction for me is the diving
- I don't care about the accommodation. Included in the price is two
feeds a day. Compared to Heron island, it's pretty reasonable imho.

As promised, a few words about our trip to Lady Elliot Island in early
May.
Flew out from Bundaberg in a 12 seater mid-afternoon and landed on the grass
strip of the island 25 mins later. Given a safety and rules quick tour
and shown to our reef unit which was clean and comfortable. Too late for
a dive we went for a walk to the Lighthouse and had a look at the reef.
Back at the resort it has a nice bar, and good food. Plenty of salads,
vegs, desert, cheeses, several hot meat dishes - bbq steak and chicken etc.
There is also a bistro next to the pool for snacks, and a gift shop with
a few essentials like film etc.
Next morning we snorkelled the shallow lagoon on the eastern side, and
saw a good variety of fish and a metre-long ray. Then we
booked in at the dive shop for the snorkel boat (there
were'nt many scuba divers around) and at 10am walked to the lighthouse
beach and they brought the flat bottom boat into the beach, dropped the
nose and we all climbed on. Went out to the Second reef area and dived
around there. Vis was brilliant, no wind, no swell. Got some good video.
Didn't see any turtles there but there was plenty of big fish lurking
around the bommie edges. Saw some hurricane damage in places, eg
car-sized plate corals flipped over like tin plates; gullies with broken
stag coral up to a metre deep - however, most of the coral we saw was in
good nick. There were blue Antheas everywhere. Saw a large Batfish, a few
small Moorish Idols and cleaner Wrasse etc. Others saw reef Sharks, Mantas and
Turtles ( I always seem to be in the wrong place ).
Spent about 45 mins there and then climbed back on and motored to the
Lighthouse Bommie area where we saw large turtles on the surface and a
pair of Mantas skimming just below the surface. The dive boat boys are
friendly and adaptable, but also very professional, watching
everyone all the time.
The next morning we went out on our own from the beach at the Lighthouse.
There was a bit of wind and a mod swell. The inshore area was a bit murky
but still saw a lot of young turtles. One went past my wife at 100kms an
hour and she didn't even see it !. As we reached the deeper water and
away from the sand the water cleared and we did some good drifting toward
Coral Gardens for about half an hour before the wind and tide stirred up
the bottom and the vis dropped. I had my camera and got some good video
of the turtles etc.
Later in the morning we joined the divers boat and moored out at
Second reef. There was still a heavy swell and the vis wasn't as good as
the day before - however I got some photos and had an enjoyable time. I
didn't do any SCUBA diving the whole trip.
That afternoon we flew back to Bundy. We were staying at Bargara Beach
so went over to Hoffman rocks and watched some SCUBA divers out there.
Spoke to one of them after exit and asked about the vis - not good.

Some comments on Lady Elliot...
It's good diving/snorkeling if there is no wind and no swell. check with
the dive shop before you go out. High tide appears to be best.
Food is good, Bar is good, accomm is fine.
Seabirds rule - day and night.
Go in the off season say May/June. The island can accommodate 130 but
there were only about 25 when we were there.
Take an old pair of trainers for walking around onshore and on the reef.
Everything is coral. Found sandals to be more of a nuisance than an
asset.
You don't always have to go with an organised boat dive party - on the western
side of the island you can swim to the bommies from the beach (or from the
edge of the lagoon at low tide).
For some lightweight fun, go on the "Night Stalker" tour in the dark.
We used 3/2 shorty springsuits, and for the western lagoon, a rashie.
Overall we liked it very much and will be going back same time next year
for a longer stay.

There are some photos on my website - they may take a while to load.
http://linuxguide.co.nz

cheers
Brian

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:22:15 +1300, BrianM

wrote:

I'm staying there in early May so I'll let you know how it was
with a repost on this group. We're based at Bargara beach and flying
out to Lady Elliot island from there. The main attraction for me is
the diving - I don't care about the accommodation. Included in the
price is two feeds a day. Compared to Heron island, it's pretty
reasonable imho.

You're going to love it. If you're at all interested in birds, make
certain you take a bird book with you.

Geodyne

Their website is
http://www.ladyelliot.com.au/
and for Bargara beach
http://www.bargaradive.com/mainmap.htm

cheers'
Brian
http://linuxguide.co.nz
--multiplaza.nl.nu--