After yesterday's excitement of the whaleshark swim, we were all keen to hang around and relax for the day. Andy and I began with a short run hoping to find a few track to explore but ended up doing an out and back.
Returning our campsite, we cooked eggs and bacon for breakfast. Everyone was enjoying a lazy morning. The girls were playing clock patience - a new favourite. We played cheat. The girls wrote in their journals.
Just as we were about to decide on lunch, a high pitch piercing continuous alarm rang out from the battery of our car. Prior to this new sound, the battery that charges the fridge, our phones, torches, watches and ANdy's iPad had let out an intermittent beep when the battery storage had dropped below 40%. We simply pressed a button and the beeping stopped.
This new intense noise couldn't be stopped. The battery was down to 30%. We looked at the manual provided with the car and there was nothing on battery alarms. We decided to turn the car on, hoping that might do the trick but it still rang out across the camp graound. By this stage the girls had fled to the beach to escape the racket. We were thankful at least the it was the middle of the day and most people had left the camp ground. Nevertheless we decided that we needed to call our friends at RedSands. Unfortunately as we had no mobile reception, the only way to do this was to drive to the visitors centre (4km down the road) beg to use a phone.
Hurriedly we packed up the tents and canopy and during this the alarm stopped. We noticed the battery was now up to 35%. We still decided to go and have a chat to see what cause this alarm and figure out how we could avoid it in the future.
We had to use the pay phone (with coins!!) at the visitors centre. Andy chatted to the company. The upshot was that alarm goes off at 30% which is considered to be 0% and can't be turned off!! Well at least this hadn't occurred during the middle of the night in a packed caravan park.
With this new knowledge, and now out and about we opted to try a snorkel at Lakeside only a few minutes away from the visitors centre. The good snorkelling spot involved a 500m walk down the beach and indicated by where all the people already had gathered.
Our aim was to tick off Katy's last bucket list item - to swim with a turtle. The fish and sea cucumbers were once again fantastic - better than we'd seen at Turquiose Bay. After a little while and with no turtle in sight Katy decided she'd had had enough so I swam back to the shore with her. As we arrived we heard Andy shouting and gesturing in for us to come back in. They had seen a turtle!
As fast as we could we swam out to Andy who took us back to where Ella was and there under a coral ledge was a turtle quietly hiding. We dived down a few times for a better look and then backed away hoping the turtle would come out. In the end sick of waiting, we decided that it was having a rest.
Our afternoon which began so badly with a shrieking alarm was actually a blessing in disguise cause had we not been forced to go out, we may not have seen a turtle!
To ensure the battery was sufficiently charged, we drove the 30km or so to Yardie Creek under the pretence that there were seasonal kayak or SUP board that could be booked to explore the Yardie gorge in a few days time. Unfortunately there were none to be seen.
By the time we got back to camp, the battery was 65%, sufficiently charged for us not to stress about it going off in the middle of the night.
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