When we awoke, there was total silence today, not even the noise of the water lapping against the banks of the nearby island. There was no wind at all for a while. We were perfectly secluded, a long way from the nearest other boat and any buildings. We loved this place, just surrounded by nature. However, we knew that we needed to move on, so we prepared for a long and arduous voyage. We moved just over 1 mile, to a place that was in sight from our previous mooring!
Our new spot was much closer to a prime tourist centre for
the Nature Reserve, and as such was much busier. We had read that the anchorage
can be effected by the wash from boats bringing day trippers, but these seemed
to be few and far between this late in the season. Anyway, we found a mooring buoy that we
liked, and made fast to it with no difficulty.
We had broken one of normal operating practices by leaving the tender in
the water and towing it for this short distance, so there was no effort
required to get it ready for use. We were so close to the landing site that we didn’t
even put the engine on, we just rowed ashore.
There were 2 major things to see from this starting point,
the cliffs and a salt water lake. We headed
for the cliffs first, a stiff climb to the other side of the island. The cliffs
were formed by tectonic shifts in the earth surface, which pushed one side of a
fault upwards. Once at the top, the path
wound along the cliff top, offering a succession of views in both
directions. The path was initially good,
but as we got further away from the designated viewing point, it deteriorated to
be quite challenging in places, with loose boulders and angled surfaces. Just
as with our walk yesterday, we could follow the trail because it had discreet
markings painted on the rocks every so often.
Eventually, we decided that we had seen enough of the
cliffs, and found a path to head down to the lake. We had had glimpses of this
as we negotiated the cliff path, but now could see it in all its glory. The
lake was originally formed by the uplift of the land cutting off a portion of the sea,
and it is now kept fed from underground sources.
We returned to Equinox for lunch and then participated in the
other attraction of the site, a snorkelling excursion. We saw some fish, but decided that we were getting
cold and returned to the boat after a while.
In the late afternoon, we saw an unexpected site, a small
ship entered the bay. It proceeded towards
the quay, but dropped its anchor and swung around to reverse towards the
shore. Two guys were lowered in a rowing
boat, and they then took a line ashore to hold the ship in the correct
orientation. They then took pipes from the
ship ashore, and we presume these supplied water to the site, and took away
waste. Just after dark, they had
finished and departed, leaving us in peace, apart for the singing (?) from one
of the other boats.
Miles Today - 2
Miles 2022 – 1341
Steve (and Tricia)
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