Paradise Lost: An Island and a Cyclone

Well, I have been to Paradise and back. We were scheduled to spend this entire week on Heron Island at the Research Station, which is on the Great Barrier Reef. However, at the beginning of the week, the looming threats of Cyclones Ului and Tomas threatened our departure for Heron Island. Nonetheless, we made the call on Monday to go forward with plans and left late that night for Gladstone, where we would take a ferry out to Heron Island. The ferry ride there was rather choppy (numerous people got sick), but the weather was still gorgeous when we got there. It is such a beautiful place. The island is rather small, consisting solely of the research station, a resort, and a small tract of bush where there are numerous birds (the island is like a rookery). It is surrounded by reef, and the water is of an incredibly blue hue. I will attach some pictures next time. We spent Tuesday walking around the island, getting our snorkeling orientation, and enjoying the delicious food (the caterer who was making food for us was excellent. Best food that we've had all trip!). Unfortunately, late on Tuesday we found out that we would be evacuating the next day before 14m swells made the waters impassable. We were all bummed out, but class got cancelled for the next day, so we enjoyed it as best as we could. I went snorkeling for the first time, and it was fun, but the conditions were not great (low visibility, strong current). After lunch, we took the evacuation ferry back to mainland. It was a beautiful ride, making us long to stay on the reef longer. On the bus trip, we watched movies and worked on our essays due the next morning. I am glad that we got to go for at least 24 hours, for it was a true paradise. I should also mention that we did get to see a lot of nice coral, some turtles, rays, sharks and fish, and that was all really nice. The turtles are in hatching season, so they are especially active.
Now, we are back in Brisbane with no plans for the weekend, so hopefully I can catch up on some sleep and recover further from this illness that has been plaguing me for a while.