DAY 12 – MARCH FOCUS ON NORFOLK ISLAND’S REEF
No focus on Norfolk Island’s reef would be complete without a look at Cemetery Bay.
It’s worth strolling along this beautiful beach at low tide. It is the island’s dog beach, so you will see plenty of locals out walking here, but better still is what you can see in the water – healthy corals happily growing right up to the beach. I suggest wearing a pair of waterproof reef walking shoes to protect your feet from the jagged calcarenite, then you can walk in comfort along the rocks peering into the pools at the corals, fish and anemones. Just be careful not to step on and break the delicate corals as you go.
The corals in Cemetery are how I remember them to be in Slaughter and Emily Bays; it is a useful benchmark, and is the condition we should strive achieve in those two more degraded bays.
View across Cemetery Bay to Nepean Island, with Phillip Island behind
Above and right: rockpools and corals