Drift snorkelling and helicopter ride

I woke up ahead of the alarm and was ready for the 630am briefing for the drift snorkel. Dad opted to sit that one out and be ready for breaky at around 730am. We took 4 tenders out to the beginning of the channel and you literally drift through the narrow channel to the opening the other end. The current takes you quite quickly. This time we saw star fish, schools of larger parrot fish and many more species. Right at the end we saw a huge moray eel slithering along the edge and then disappearing into a crevice. We then went to the main channel for another snorkel drift. This was wider and a stronger current that really propelled you along. At the start I saw a few reef sharks and a big school of wrasse fish. At the end of the drift it was very choppy and surly. A great experience and start to the day. We then had breaky (fired egg and bacon with pesto sauce) or continental style. We relaxed reading until our 11am helicopter flight over the atoll - circular formed Clerke reef. Amazing what you can see from the sky. We saw whales, the crystal clear water, coral and the ships looked tiny from above. We also spotted a dinghy going up the channel where we drift snorkelled today. We had delicious rainbow trout salad for lunch and then I headed off with Clarice snorkelling. She is Mum’s doppelgänger while Dad opted for a snooze. We had 4 crew join us. We went to the outer reef to Cave Gulley and saw the wall of the reef. It was a different perspective of the reef. We saw reef sharks, trout, so many different types of fish and coral. We then snorkelled across the shallow reef and saw so many blue starfish, fish and again different coral formations. Each snorkelling experience different from the previous one. Back to the boat and I headed over to Bedwell beach, where they have one of two habitats in the world for the red-tailed tropic bird and we found two under their shelter. Back to the boat and we headed over for a sunset cocktail dinner party with the True North boat. A fun night meeting some new people. One when introduced to Dad said he’d saved her marriage as her husband has sleep apnea. We saw a massive manta ray and many fish from the boat’s light and a shooting star. We caught the tenders back to our boat and had a few more drinks and dancing on the sun deck. A lot of fun.En savoir plus