Tropical Snowflake: The Honeymoon

Bedarra Island is paradise!

Instead of a desert island, it is a tropical rainforest island. If I were to be stuck on there, I'd want to take Giles. London and Paris would also love it there and with there hunting skills the native fauna would thrive.

Giles and I stayed in a pavilion - room 16. It was the furthest from the main complex. That made for tranquil surroundings. The pavilion had a plunge pool on the deck overlooking Wedgerock Bay. Our wedding rubber duckies enjoyed the view for the entire time we were there. The staff that cleaned the rooms each day had seen them and told everyone else about them. They were quite a hit.

The romantic newly wed rubber duckies watch Wedgerock Bay

Ain't love wundiful

The main complex centred around the pool. This is a view of the pool from the restaurant. If you stay long enough on Bedarra, your life starts to revolve around each meal. You wake up for breakfast and sit there eating it while you decide what to do between that and lunch and if lunch should be eaten on a private beach in the sun. Then there is dinner...

The view from the restaurant

This spider is a golden orb [Eriophora biapicata and E. transmarina]. It was the star of the restaurant. Each new guest to the resort would stare out and the pool and then focus on the spider. Shock would be followed by "ooh"s and "aaah"s before cameras came out. Apparently they only live for 12 months and this one is a girl. They have small fangs so when they bite, it's not that bad. You'd probably get a nice helicopter ride over the reef to Cairns hospital and some nausea.

Bedarra's golden orb

The main beach at Bedarra is where the deck and rooms 1-14 look out on to. Cyclone Larry tore up the island, the beach and the nearby reefs but it's still gorgeous.

Looking at shells

Giles on the main beach on our first day

There are a few walks you can do around the island that give great views. The lookouts around the island are set up with deck chairs. Giles and I started a walk but after 5 mins of walking uphill (Everest style), we decided to stop and eat all our supplies and then return to the bar. Afterall, you don't go to Bedarra for the tramping.

Giles at the lookout overlooking Wedgerock Bay

The best way to see North Queensland and the method I will employ on our next visit to Bedarra will be to do what a couple of guests did on our second day there. They had spent a couple of days at Bedarra and took a private helicopter to Lizard Island for a few more days. There are luggage restrictions so some of the luggage might have to be shipped up later but if you take too many clothes on this kind of holiday, you really are missing the point of the tropics.

Watching the helicopter that landed on my beach and interrupted my nap with all the noise

The day after we arrived, we arranged for a boat and driver (or whatever a boat driver is called) to take us out to our own beach with a picnic. We were abandoned for a few hours and spent the time snorkeling, eating and relaxing. No one else shared this beach with us. When we were landing on the beach (in style of ANZACs but with less dying and my feet didn't get wet) there was another boat from Dunk Island hanging around. Our guide/boat driver guy told us he'd drop us off and then tell them to leave the island immediately. We said we were fine and didn't mind but he told us that it was our island and they would be driven off. It felt exclusive and all that but a little mean.

Our own beach. Debris from the recent Cyclone Larry is evident even three months later

The view from where we had our picnic. We snorkelled here

After the lovely picnic and swim, the boat driver picked us up and took us for a spin around the island. He showed us the old deserted resort (very "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), the private residences on the island and the view of our room from Wedgerock Bay.

Leaving the site of our picnic to circle the island by boat

Wedgerock and our room above it

After a long hard day of relaxing and being pampered, we would come back to our room and swim in our plunge pool. I came out of it a prune many times. That's one thing I really miss to this day. This is the kind of thing people should go home to every single day.

Swimming in our private pool after a long day

The pool and our bedroom taken from the sun lounge

Drinking french champagne on the deck of our room

You can only get to Bedarra Island by boat from Dunk Island. Both resorts are run by Voyages but Bedarra doesn't allow children under 16 and YAY for that!

The view towards Dunk Island from our room

After lunch on most days, Giles would go snorkeling and I would read a book on the deck by the main beach. We would also have a bottle of wine and just hang out. Most of the guys would stand and watch Giles floating around (snorkeling) and then go out and join him. The reef out there was mostly destroyed by the cyclone. Hopefully it has a time to recover before global warming kills it.