After taking off from Brisbane just after dawn, our tiny propeller plane skims miles of Queensland coastline before heading north out over the crystal-clear waters of the Coral Sea –— revealing the beauty of this vast reef system beneath its surface.
Our destination is Lady Elliot Island, a remote coral cay perched on top of the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
Pilot Peter Gash is the island’s leaseholder, and his family has been operating tours to the island for nearly 20 years.
"We made it our life’s work," Gash said. "My wife and I married, I went and learned to fly airplanes so I could bring people here."
Gash negotiates his small aircraft through bumpy crosswinds to land safely on the short, grass-covered runway.
Decades ago, трипскан сайт the island was a barren landscape devoid of vegetation following years of mining for nutrient-rich seabird waste — known as guano — in the late 1800s.
