Time to move camp

Monday 25^{th August}.

Pack up and move on day. Early breakfast downstairs (Holiday Inn), very disappointing, nothing was hot. I had to ask the waitress to put my meal in the microwave to make it hot enough to eat. I’ve already been a bit ‘off’ this trip, I’m not taking any chances eating luke warm food. Turns out that no-one had lit the burners under the food, so it had been sitting for an hour just getting cooler and cooler.

We have one suitcase on wheels each and having already checked out where the Reef Fleet Terminal is, we figure we can walk along the boardwalk to get there. Easy, and we arrive in plenty of time to check in and get all the tickets we need for island transfers, reef tour and snorkel tour. Decorative wristbands attached and we head out the boat, where we wait and wait. Why would you refuel the boat 10 minutes before departure when the dock is crowded with people? I don’t know, it must be a FNQ thing……. We seem to be the only ones with the fish wristbands.

The boat taking us to Fitzroy continues out to Moore Reef for the day, the same trip we’re taking tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s not as crowded. Apparently there’s around 140 on the boat today, mostly Asian tourists, who haven’t been warned to take seasickness preventatives. By the time we were half way to the island, the boat resembled a hospital ship! It was a very sad and sorry sight. It was a looong 45 minute boat ride!

Our room isn’t ready yet, we’ve arrived early, no worries, we can leave our luggage in the luggage room near Reception and start checking out the resort. Zephyr Restaurant has just closed after breakfast, 10.30, quality hours! The resort faces the sea and the mainland, there is a beach to the left and right of the dock. We wander along the beach for a bit, and see the start of the path that leads to the Lighthouse and ultimately, the summit. Might tackle that while we’re here. I do like the view from the top of things! Returning back past Reception and Zephyr’s we follow the path to Foxy’s bar where they serve more casual food, and find the general store next to it. Feeling a bit peckish, we grab a serve of wedges and a couple of beers – well it is a bit warm here! By the time we’re finished, our room is ready, so up we go.

We booked an ocean suite and it’s amazing! It’s a one bedroom apartment, complete with full kitchen, and balcony with a lovely water view! We’re blown away! This so much more than we expected! The other rooms are much smaller and while that would be ok, they have no view, the only window faces the walkway and offers no privacy. Be warned though, some of these ocean suites have no water view. Make sure to request one with a view of the water! There are 3 little bungalows down in front of our building that would probably be quite good too. Each one house 2 units and we figure they’re probably the original accommodations, but they have no cooking facilities.

We’re really keen to see what the snorkelling is like here so, there’s no point waiting any longer. The water is a bit cool at first, but ok once you get in. The tide is low so probably not the best time to go in, you have to go out so far to be able to get in, maybe up the other end of the beach is better, that’s the area marked for snorkelling on the map. We’ll have to wait till later in the week to find out. Tomorrow is our reef tour.

We’re booked at Zephyr’s for dinner but there’s always time to admire the sunset.

We’ve nominated to pay for half board which gets us breakfast and dinner and we sort out our own lunch. The food is top notch and so is the service. Hmmm, I wonder if we’ll ever have dinner at Foxy’s?