Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Reef

Today we explored "the reef" which is at the opposite end of the lagoon. We had to cross the inlet at low tide to get there. At high tide the inlet is probably up to 2 metres deep in places. At low tide it is ankle depth!


Here we are crossing the inlet and walking on the reef while the last remnants of the tide continue to rush out. You can tell by the long shadows that we were up pretty early to catch the tide!



Exploring the reef and rock pools we find clams and crabs, coral and small brightly coloured fish. Live trochus and cowrie shells go about their business.

Trochus shell feeding (and therefore cleaning) the coral while the girls "reflect"




Making the clams squirt was a lot of fun but the highlight would have to be when Ben found an anemone complete with clown fish (baby and parent):


A couple of hours later the tide is well on its way in. The reef is covered and the inlet is filling once again.




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