I came up for a look around to see where I was in the bay, there were a lot of heads in the water, probably a hundred or more and Donna was out there somewhere. I wondered where she was. I came to a place that was grassy, like a field of grass on land but the grass was waving like hair in the gentle sway of the water. There were big grey fish cruising around occasionally picking at it, like the birds of the sea picking at small insects in the grass. There was something blue that caught my eye, it wasn't moving just sitting on the sand at the bottom. But I couldn't work out what it was from the surface. I decided to use my newly discovered ability to dive underwater with out taking off my snorkel and not getting a lung-full of salt water - for those of you who have snorkelled you know what I mean, you have to save enough breath to blow out water from your snorkel when you come up - it’s like a plastic blow hole. Anyway I went down until my ears almost popped but not quite thank goodness, that had happened to me yesterday and was so painful (I learnt the hard way about equalizing your ears before you decide to dive more than 2 metres or so) and I saw what had attracted my interest... It was a clam. It looked so unnatural, like it was out of a cartoon because it was bright blue! Not the shell, the shell was greyish, but the wavy cartoon-like lips that were clamped shut were so bright! The colour was a blue that was so deep and bright I wonder about it. The history of this bay is in 1800s divers came across the giant clams here and discovered the biggest pearl in history in the mouths of one of these blue clams.


I swam some more and saw more of these remarkable clams with blue inside. There were some bigger ones, their greyish shell bulged like there was something the size of a tennis ball inside them. They reminded me of Alice in wonderland with the singing clams and the walrus, but they certainly weren't singing and there was no walrus here only me floating by in my own strange blue suit and orange flippers doing my best impression of a tropical coloured fish.


I ran into Donna an hour later and we followed around another big fish for a while. Sometimes just floating and watching the fish peck at the coral and dart around. When we got back I couldn't stop raving about how beautiful the reef and fish and the clams were even though most my friends already knew and agreed. I hadn't seen a turtle yet though, maybe next time.

There are a few ways to get to Blue Pearl Bay. The most obvious is stay on Hamilton Island Resort where you can hire snorkel gear (or diving gear if you have your licence) and be dropped off. Or you can walk there from the resort (it takes about 45minutes and the view is stunning before the track descends to the beach). The other way is Google Blue Pearl Bay and you'll find a bunch of cruises to choose from. And remember, don't feed the wildlife if you want it to still be there in 20 years time. Happy travels