Brisbane Trip Day 8: Coffs Harbour

My cold was still hanging around but I was in a much better frame of mind today. We had a very quiet morning hanging around the campsite – I did some washing and optimistically hung it on the clothesline even though there was still a bit of rain around. AMelie played in the playground and once the kids had had breakfast they headed to the office to get equipment to play in the games room.  I stayed at the tent waiting for the auto electrician and tidying up a bit – our hectic set up when I was stressed meant that things were really messy. The auto electrician arrived and was able to fix the window easily – and explain another problem I’d been having with the window and gave me some tips on fixing it. I really appreciated this as the last time I had the window fixed the problem started and the guy didn’t want to know about it – this guy said that the problem should have been anticipated and fixed when I had my switch replaced.

Feeling very relieved that my window was now working, I joined the kids for a game of mini golf. They’d also played pool and table tennis and were hoping to play air hockey when the equipment was returned. We snacked on cold sausages and salad from the night before, then the kids had a swim while I sat at the pool edge and caught up a bit on my blog and email and started to search for accommodation options for the next parts of our trip. It was hot and humid again, with occasional rain showers.

Around 4pm we got out of the pool and headed up the coast for a look around. (Some of my washing was dry and I grabbed that off the line before I went). We went one headland north of our beach to Moonee Beach – apparently voted No 3 on the 101 Best Australian Beaches of 2017. We waded across the river – Amelie and I found a shallow crossing,  the others went a bit deeper and it was a little scary/exciting – there was a slight current and the sand was very soft, but at no point was it too deep or strong for us to handle. On the main beach we played in the edge of the surf – again, it was too rough to go out far, but there was a wide shallow area of knee deep waves and that was a lot of fun. What we could see of the beach was quite pretty, but the rain had set in again and combined with spray from the surf we couldn’t see very far along the beach, it was just mist. There were sea birds on the shore who were interesting to watch, and the water temperature was beautiful. It was great to be in the ocean, even if it was just at the edge. Eventually we wandered back through the river to the carpark – the current was stronger this time although we found an easier place to cross. We played on the sand for a while, investigating the little crab holes that appeared to all be in pairs. We wandered over the bridge that led out to the headland and saw lots of fish in the water, and the kids saw an eel.

We got back in the car and headed back to Coffs Harbour. It was weird - looking out from the car the day looked cold and miserable, but when we were outside the temperature was lovely - just a bit wet. We drove to Boambee Beach which looked beautiful but still too rough to swim, then out to the break wall on the southern side of the harbour and walked out a little way so we could see the waves breaking on the ocean side - they were big and were making awesome thumping sounds as they hit the wall. We were all still in our swimmers because we'd hoped to find another beach to swim at, but by this stage no one wanted to swim again so we got changed into dry clothes in the car. We sat and watched the harbour for a while - little waves on the rocks, fishing boats going out, birds flying around. I did a bit more research on accommodation options and discovered that Sea World Resort had a deal on, because their main pool is closed, which meant we could get accommodation at the resort, plus entry to all the theme parks, for less money than it would have cost us to get theme park tickets on their own! I decided to think about it for a bit and check the details again once we'd eaten.

We ordered fish and chips from Sea Salt Fish and Chips and drove around to pick them up. We'd wanted to sit near the jetty and eat them but it was raining pretty steadily by now - we found some covered picnic tables, not with a view to the jetty but in the vicinity, so sat there to eat. The food was delicious - fantastic chips and the seafood was great. Possibly the best fish and chips I've had.

Back at the caravan park we found that the rain had pooled in the roof of the annex again so I spent some time rejigging everything to prevent that happening overnight. The seam above Liam's bed also started leaking, which happens when the roof just gets too wet, so Caitlin and I put a tarp over the tent to try to cut down the amount of water coming in - it slowed to a slight trickle so we just put towels and a bucket underneath and hoped it didn't get worse.

Half-lap Day 90: Edagee -> Shark Bay

I woke up around 5am and decided to get up and start catching up on my blog – with so many early starts lately I’ve got a bit behind. It was cold, though I was still comfortable enough sitting outside, until it started raining. I covered up or put away anything that we didn’t want wet, then I sat in the car to finish my cuppa and do some typing.

The rain was only light, and hung around for a couple of hours. It stopped and started for a while, but wasn’t too much of a pain. We stood up to eat our breakfast so that the chairs didn’t get wet (they were folded up under the table). We enjoyed having a slower, quiet morning, without anywere to be in a hurry. The kids played in the tent for a while, and Tony and eventually started packing up. Once the sun came out it was a beautiful morning. We did things in a funny order because we wanted to give the tent (and the washing I’d hung up the night before) as long as possible to dry, so it took us a couple of hours to pack up, we were done by around 10.30. Having the trailer already hitched saved us a bit of time and mucking around too. I rang ahead to caravan parks in Denham so that we didn’t have to stress about getting there early – there wasn’t much choice left, most were full or almost full. I took at powered site at Blue Dolphin Caravan Park, the last one available for the 3 nights we wanted, and it cost more than we have paid anywhere else so far. I did ring the resort at Monkey Mia – it was significantly more expensive still, and we would have had to move after our first night to an even more expensive (although beachside) site.

We made some sandwiches before we left so that we didn’t need to stop for lunch, then headed towards Shark Bay and Denham. Millie has been wanting to get to Shark Bay since we first started talking about the trip, it was all she really wanted to see, so she was very excited. The land as we drove was still very red and sandy, with sparsely placed black trees and low scrub. This is one of the few places in the world where the desert comes right up to the ocean. We saw more wild goats, and a couple of cows.

We stopped for petrol at the Overlander Roadhouse, then turned off the highway, through a big stone entry way into the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It was 100km from here in to Denham, during which time we had glimpses and sometimes long looks at the water of Shark Bay – Millie was thrilled and we were all impressed with the view. The water was flat and almost exactly the same colour as the sky, it created a really hazy, glassy effect that I haven’t really seen anywhere else. This country is obviously still extremely dry. The hills are covered in plants, low lying bushes, and occasionally in between hills there’s a round area which has obviously been filled with water at some stage and now is dry and filled with red and purplish plants that look like the plants on the surrounding hills, just a different colour and more sparse. The road was long and straight, up and down over hills, it felt like we were driving somewhere very very remote. Tony and I saw a Thorny Devil on the road – we’d seen one yesterday as well, exciting as I’d really wanted to see them, and had thought we were past the point where it would be possible (I’d expected them in the Northern Territory, with no luck, and hadn’t realised that this area was desert as well).

We reached Denham and found our caravan park. For a minute the girl couldn’t find our booking, then tracked it down. We were in a fairly small site, right in a corner, with someone else’s car parked quite close. Tony very skillfully backed the trailer in, then the lady next door came out and said she could have moved her car. The kids saw a dog with her and went to pat it, she asked if they wanted to pat the bearded dragon (called Charlie) so they happily played with the dragon and dog while Tony and I figured out how we could fit the tent on the site. We attempted to turn the trailer around to put it in the best spot, but the ground was too soft and sandy and we couldn’t get it far enough into the site. We eventually set it up sideways into the site, which means that we won’t get as much shade as we’d like, but we can put the annex up and we will fit.

We got the trailer into position, then the kids and I left to go and check out the Aquarium. Tony stayed at the site to watch the Collingwood game on his phone. Ocean Park Aquarium was about 10km out of town – we got there just before 3 and it closed at 5, so I hadn’t wanted to delay any longer. It was well set up – there were lots of tanks, some with open tops and some enclosed glass cases, and a marine biologist took visitors around from tank to tank, explaining about each of the creatures in there. The tour went for an hour, and as each group of people arrive, they just join the tour wherever it is up to, and then stay with it until its done the full circuit, then they can leave.

clownfish

green turtle

Blue spotted ray

lionfish

We arrived about halfway through the sea snake talk. We saw several turtles, moray eels, a frog fish, a squid, clownfish, boxfish, lion fish, stone fish (they are one of the few creatures that really scare me), blue spotted rays,  leopard rays, shovel-nosed rays, and lots of fish. We discovered that the silver fish we’d seen in schools at Cape Range would have been tailor. We were the only people left on the tour when it got to the shark feeding, so the kids got to ask lots and lots of questions and talk about some of the marine creatures we’ve seen on our travels so far. The guide was really interested in all the things we’d seen and asked lots of questions herself. The sharks weren’t hungry and didn’t come up to eat anything, but we saw a couple of lemon sharks and a couple of sandbar sharks, incredible animals and I really love watching them swim, so graceful.  We finished up back at the sea snakes and listened to the whole talk there (also incredibly graceful animals) and then we had a quick look at a few of our favourite fish again (the rays for me, and the lion fish, also the stone fish because they are so fascinating). Out to the gift shop, where Caitlin bought a turtle necklace, and LiAM a dolphin puppet. Millie wanted a huge soft crocodile (it was very cool) though I convinced her to save her money until tomorrow when we’d be at Monkey Mia with the dolphins.

sea snakes

Sandbar shark

Stonefish

Out in the carpark we were looking at the view of the beach when the marine biologist came out – she chatted to us for another 15 minutes or so, telling us lots about the local area and more about the marine life, and talking more about our trip. We left her there and drove back to town, seeing an emu foraging along the side of the road.

Back at camp Tony had almost finished setting up the tent by himself, so I helped him with the last little bit. Collingwood had won and he was very happy (although keeping quite about it since they’d beaten West Coast). I hung the (still wet) washing out, and the kids wandered around the park and chatted to dog owners. We decided to walk down the main street of town and get some (local caught) fish and chips for tea – there wasn’t much open at 6pm on a Saturday night in Denham, but we did find a fish and chip shop. It was a bit pricey but within our means. We ordered then went across the road to play in the playground and walk along the beach a little. It was windy and bit cool. We sat and ate our dinner on the foreshore, enjoying the fading light on the water and the sea air. The kids played in the playground a bit more and I tried to find an ATM (no luck – although enjoyed walking further along the main street and seeing some of the old buildings).

Back to our tent and everyone was on edge – very tired and also a bit anxious, we’d been waiting a long time to get to Monkey Mia and I think everyone (especially me and probably Millie) was worried about how it would go. If no dolphins came or we couldn’t see properly or the weather was terrible – Millie would be devastated. We were all hoping that the experience would live up to what she’d imagined it would be like.

I was so tired I went to bed as quickly as I could, and we didn’t read for the first night in a long time. We had an early start in the morning and everyone was OK with just going straight to sleep and trying to be rested for tomorrow. 

Half-lap Day 89: Coral Bay -> Edagee

I was woken once by people being loud in the carpark near the overflow area, then again by someone’s alarm going off in a nearby tent. I thought perhaps someone had set their alarm to get up early to pack up, so was going to get up myself – I looked at the time and it was only 3.45. I spent a while trying to get back to sleep and eventually drifted off and woke up again around 6.30. Tony and I got up, I got a cup of tea and we agreed to wake the kids around 7. Tony took the dishes over to the camp kitchen to wash them, and I woke the kids. All we had to pack up were the chairs and all the bedding, and we did it easily in about 45 minutes once the kids were out of bed. We folded the tent up and put the solar panels, table, annex roofs and walls, rubber mat and the bikes on top of the trailer, then had it hitched up by 8am. A very quick and impressive pack up, and great to know that we really can do it when we need to.

We drove across to the information centre which had parking out the front, and had some breakfast out of the back of the car. Caitlin and I wandered over and chatted to the guy at the info centre, finding out about the best places to snorkel, and looking at the fish charts they had there – he said they were hard to find and he didn’t have any to sell. I might try and get one online when we get home, to put up on our wall.

Millie wanted Nutri Grain for breakfast, and all our Nutri Grain was packed in the back of the trailer. After she had something else to take the edge off her hunger, she and I walked up to the supermarket to see if we could buy some more. It was $8 for a small box, so I suggested we look and see if there was anything else she’d like. She decided on a packet of mentos in pink lemonade flavour, which were not exorbitantly priced, so we were both happy. We also bought some cheap (but good quality) milk and some salami on special. Caitlin walked over to our friend’s van to pick up our computer and camera battery, which they’d charged for us overnight, and they said they’d meet us on the beach once they were packed up. 

We moved down to the carpark at the end of the road, right next to the beach. The girls ran up the hill to a little whale watching lookout, and we all walked down to the beach and put our stuff under a little shelter that was on the edge of the sand (there were a few corrugated iron shelters dotted along the beach, a very good idea). The beach looked incredible. The tide was going out, and the first 20m or so of water was very shallow, only ankle deep, and absolutely clear, we could see the sand in detail through the water. It was glistening and shining and looked so inviting. As the water got deeper (there was a sudden point where the sand sloped off) it was bluer, and then a very dark blue quite quickly because of all the coral underneath. We walked around for a while in the shallow water and had a look around the red rocks at the end of the point. It was beautiful around the other side of the rocks as well.

The guy had suggested we walk around the rocks and enter the water further down, then drift back to the main bay – but there was a bit of a wind blowing from the north and it really looked as if the current was going the opposite way to what he’d suggested. Tony went in for a snorkel in the bay, and said he saw some cool coral and fish. By the time he came out our friends had joined us. Neither of the kids wanted to snorkel, and Millie didn’t either, so we left the 2 girls in the charge of the big brother, and the rest of us went into the water.

The coral started only a few metres from where the sand sloped down into deeper water. At first there were patches of sand between the coral, then they thinned out and soon the entire bay floor was covered in coral, and we were snorkeling a metre or 2 above it. There was more of the fairy light coral here, as well as lots of types that we hadn’t seen before, lots that looked like big heads of lettuce, some fuzzy coral, lot of different colours. It was even more of a different world that what we’d seen up at Cape Range. There were fish too, parrot fish and angel fish and blue damsels, coral trout, lots of little fish in the anemones, and LiAM and I saw a Painted Flutemouth, a very long thin yellow fish.

We decided to try to swim out to Ayers Rock, a very large bommie coral out in the middle of the bay, that apparently has lots of fish around it. The information guy had told me it was bout 30m to the left of a black and white mooring, and in  line with the last 2 wind turbines on the point. Caitlin was a bit nervous about how deep the water might get out there, but swam with our friend and was willing to give it a go. LiAM swam next to me and was able to do most of it without help. We enjoyed the coral and the fish all the way out there, then started looking around in the area we thought it might be. I was looking further out than the others, and noticed a slight disturbance in the gentle waves – looking under water I could see a large mound coming almost to the surface (at low tide it is visible above the water). I called out ‘It’s over here’ – we all swam to it and around it, and it was pretty amazing. Lots of fish swimming around and the size of it means that it was really, really old. Over a thousand years probably. Coral all around too, so pretty and somewhere we could have stayed for ages. While we were looking at it lots of other snorkelers arrived as well – my friend thinks they probably heard me yell out and everyone came swimming.

We headed back to shore, looking up every now and then to make sure we were swimming in the right direction. Caitlin managed fine in the deep water, it didn’t scare her at all. LiAM held my hand for some of the swim back, we’d gone out a long way, although it wasn’t a difficult swim, it was further than he’d swum in one go before. More beautiful coral and fish on the way back in, we were all so so glad we’d made the effort to go in for a snorkel, it made the trip in off the highway, the expensive overflow camping, the saltwater showers, the early start all worthwhile.

The kids played in the sand together, Caitlin was buried by her friend and the little girls built sandcastles and played games about lost sisters and so on. I asked Millie if she wanted to go in to see the amazing coral, and she was happy to have a go. Her friend was going to come too but decided not to once she got to the water. Millie came in with me and we swam around not far from the sloping sand, there was still so much to see within a few metres. Some black and white striped fish (possibly sergeant fish) swam up to Millie’s face mask and nearly touched it, that was pretty exciting. We had surfaced and were readjusting our masks when Millie saw a pelican swim between us and the shallow water – it was so close to us and quite exciting to essentially be swimming with it. It swam right along the shoreline and lots of people came running down from the beach to see it up close, including all the rest of the kids with us, but we had the best view.

We got out and the kids played a bit more, we said goodbye to our friends – they are going inland for a few days while we are heading along the coast, so we probably won’t see them again until after we’re both back home. It’s been really great getting to know them and spending so much time with them. They left and we had a bit of a snack then got ourselves organised and changed and headed off ourselves.

We drove down towards Carnarvon, through more desert type terrain. We saw wild goats, something we haven’t seen from the road so far on this trip. Approaching Carnarvon we saw lots of banana plantations – none of them were open though so we couldn’t pop in and get some bananas. We drove into town and filled up with petrol, then drove through the town to have a look. I’d hoped to find a department store here to replace Millie’s carseat and get a few other things – apparently the Target closed permanently in July and now there is no department store. The town looked interesting, lots of very old buildings and interestingly laid out.

We drove out to see the mile long jetty. There was a little railway museum there, which was free. Trains used to bring people from town out to the jetty – to work and for pleasure I guess. It was a very busy port in the 1800s and early 1900s. We walked up to the top of the old water tower which gave great views of the jetty and surrounding area. The land here is very low and there would be lots more water around at very high tides and after a lot of rain. Apparently they’ve had a lot of trouble keeping the river out of the town when it floods. We looked around at the trains in the museum and at some of the boating history of the area, all very interesting.

We drove back to the township and the kids and I played at a cool playground along the harbour shore, while Tony went to the supermarket. The foreshore has been done up quite nicely, and the old train line out to the jetty is a footbridge across the harbour and then a walking track out to the jetty.

We left Carnarvon around 4.30, heading for a free camp further south. There were a couple near the coast that had been recommended to us – one required a chemical toilet, and they both said to check tide charts because they were low lying, they were also at the end of dirt roads. Given that we weren’t going to get in until around 5.30, close to sunset, we decided to play it safe and stop at a 24 hour stop a bit further along, just next to the highway. We arrived with plenty of light to find a spot and set up. We’d been vaguely worried that it would be full, but there were several sites still available (and 4 or 5 people arrived after us and found a spot.) There was large, flat dirt area with enough room for car and trailer. We decided to try leaving the trailer hitched seeing as it was just a quick stop. This meant we had to sleep the other way around on our bed, as the trailer was sloping down a bit, which felt weird but was not a problem.

We set up the tent (only takes us about 20 minutes now to get everything off and the tent up) and explored the area. We saw the couple that we’d talked to in Exmouth the day before, and had a bit of a chat to them. The sunset was quite pretty over the low scrub. Tony cooked rissoles and eggs for dinner and we had hamburgers. Everyone was pretty tired so we headed to bed as quickly as we could and read Inheritance for a while. We were camped quite close to the road and the trucks were pretty loud as they passed by – everyone was tired enough that they fell asleep despite the noise.

Half-lap Day 87: Cape Range National Park

The wind became very strong through the night, the strongest night time wind we’ve had on the trip. Tony and I were awake several times, and for a long time each occasion. Tony got up 3 times and went out to tie down things that were flapping or knocking, and to make sure that everything that might blow away was put away. The wind was slamming into the tent behind our head and slapping the canvas against the pole, I felt like it was a constant punching right behind me and it really wore me out. The kids each woke up, worried, once or twice, but we reassured them and they went back to sleep, and the tent and all our stuff survived the night without any damage or loss.

We eventually fell back to sleep at some point in the early morning, then I woke up around 6.30, as it was getting light. We had to be up and out early today to go on a glass-bottomed boat tour, so I decided not to go back to sleep despite feeling exhausted, and went up to the beach instead. I sat at the tables and drank my cup of tea and watched the waves and the whales, and the sun coming over the ranges and slowly lighting up the ocean. It was windy up there too and my travel mug got blown off the table, so I lost half of my cuppa.

Back to the tent and I woke the others up around 7.30 – we wanted to leave at 8 so we could call in and see our friends at Neds, they were packing up today and I wanted to see them before they left. The kids got out of bed fairly quickly, and had some breakfast. I made sure we had swimmers and snorkels and food for the day, so that we didn’t have to come back to camp until we were ready, and we were in the car by about 8.10, one of our quickest getaways on the trip.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, although still quite windy. The swell didn’t look very big though, so we hoped the wind wouldn’t impact on our boat tour. We got to Neds and walked up to see our friends, who were happy to see us. The girls played in the car and we caught up on our news of the past few days. They’d gone to Oyster Stacks on the day we did Turquoise Bay, so we’d missed them there. It was great to see them again and to share our plans for the next few days to see if we could catch up again somewhere soon. I mentioned that we couldn’t find Millie’s thongs (missing since Karajini – they could be in the car somewhere, or they could be with Tony’s missing hat and sunglasses…) and my friend said someone had given her a pair that they thought were her daughters (same pattern) but were a size too small – they just fit Millie, so she has thongs again, that look exactly the same as her friend’s thongs. Perfect.

We had about 15 minutes there, and then headed back to the car and drove to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp. We got there just as the boat driver was reading off the names to make sure everyone had arrived. He introduced himself, Alec, the owner of the company, then we headed out along the jetty to the boat. He suggested that kids go in last as there is more room at that end of the boat, so we let everyone else get on and then we climbed in and sat on the bench seat to the left. The boat had a bench seat along either side, then 4 glass panels covering the entire middle section of the boat – so everyone was sitting facing the glass and could look down and see whatever was underneath. There was another family across from us – a young couple with a 2yo boy.

Sitting at the jetty, LiAM and the girls spotted a sting ray on the sand under the boat – a very exciting start to our tour. We motored out to the Tantabiddi Sanctuary Zone, a rectangular area of the reef where this tour operates. Alec told us about himself and his company and the boat, and made lots of jokes, he was fun to listen to. He then asked where each of us was from, and I was surprised that everyone on the boat was Australian. There was another couple from Melbourne, and he said ‘ooh, you’re not Collingwood supporters are you?’ – they said no, but when he got to us, Tony’s Collingwood hat gave him away. Alec offered to throw him overboard for a free snorkel…

On the way out to the reef some people saw a turtle – it was under our side of the boat and we missed it. Once we got to the reef, we saw amazing amounts of coral and fish, and it was great having a commentary about what each thing was, and interesting facts about behavior, diet, fragility and so on. We saw staghorn coral with blue tips – they looked like fairy lights (so we call it fairy light coral now) and large rock like coral formations which are called bommies. All the fish that we’d been seeing over the last few days were here, and we learnt more names. A very long, thin yellow fish that Millie and I had seen was a Spanish flutemouth, then LiAM spotted a silver one that looked the same – he pointed it out to Alec who said it was also a flutemouth. The most exciting thing was seeing a green turtle, feeding on the bottom. Alec turned the boat around 5 times so we could all see it properly. Very exciting and what I’d been hoping to see on this tour. We also saw a crayfish, and a large reef shark. I managed to get a fair few decent photos, as long as I remembered to hold the camera very close to the glass, and not on an angle. The 2 yo boy was so excited about seeing all the fish, it was very cool to listen to him talk about them.

Staghorn, or Fairy Light, coral

More coral

Green turtle

As we headed back to shore Alec handed out a DVD to each couple or family, filled with underwater photos of the reef that he has taken when diving or snorkeling here himself. I love going on tours when the operator is so passionate and knowledgeable about the area we are seeing, we always learn so much.

Once we were back at the car we looked at the map for a while to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day (it was only 10.30 at this stage). We decided to drive all the way down to the southern end to check out Yardie Creek and the gorge there. We drove down then had a bit of a snack, then set out for the short walk along the creek. It was quite pretty, and we could see the gorge walls up ahead, the permanent water of the creek next to us, low scrubby land in either direction, and the ocean and reef behind us. The walk to the lookout at the start of the gorge was very quick and easy, so we continued up along the gorge walk, which was slightly more difficult but not hard. We saw some tenacious little yellow flowers growing out of holes in the rock, there was much less vegetation up here. We walked to the first lookout, where we could see down into the gorge. We watched some people float past on what I said were kayaks, but were actually stand up paddle boards. One guy was doing yoga on his, head stands and chimneys and so on – fairly impressive. The view was great in all directions from here, seeing the gorge, the ranges, the creek, the ocean and the land between the shore and the range. We could see whales way out in the distance. We walked back down, looking at the tough trees that live here – all bent over quite significantly, with very hardy looking branches and leaves.

Yardie Gorge

Yardie Creek

I wanted to snorkel at North Mandu (our original campsite) at high tide, which was just after 3pm today. We drove back up there, arriving a little after 1.30. Everyone was exhausted after our disruptive night’s sleep, and we considered just going back to the tent for a nap. The wind was still quite strong and was also wearing us out. We decided to stay though and just have a quick try at a snorkel once the water was high enough, then go back and rest. The kids and I wandered down to the beach, and walked towards the creek bed. We sat on the side of the creek bed and watched the ospreys – one was sitting on a dead branch on the other side of the creek bed, the other was in the nest. When seagulls started swooping the nest again, the osprey returned to the nest to help its mate scare them off. We didn’t ever go close to the nest so don’t know if they had eggs or chicks in there, but both adult birds kept looking down into the nest, so we’re sure that the nest was occupied by something. LiAM and Millie made rock cairns out of some of the flatter rocks, and we looked at shells and all the other things on the beach. There were huge white clam shells here, and more of the pink and brown shells, bits of coral, lots of driftwood, and rocks of a whole range of colours. Mainly white, pink and brown, and some were stripey. More whales were going past and I finally got some photos of one breaching – and all the kids saw it too, they have mainly only been breaching a long way out so it’s hard to show people, but these whales were just beyond the reef and one whale went up 4 times in a row, incredible to watch. We wandered back to Tony and sat at the table in the middle of the campground and had some lunch. By the time we’d finished eating it was after 2.30 and a good enough time to go in the water.

Humpback Whale

I went in first with LiAM and Millie. We went in pretty much from the end of the path to the beach, over the rocks and then into the deeper water (it’s not very deep here anyway). I wore my reef shoes so that it was easier to walk on the rocky shore and then over the rocks into the water. The swell was higher than we’d snorkeled in before, and the current seemed to be running strongly to the south, so I tried to go straight out then swim a bit north then head back in. We saw lots of fish again, and it was quite beautiful once we got out past the rocks. Millie coped well with the swell, and both kids could swim easily out there as long as they were holding my hand. Heading back in to shore I was really missing my flippers as I had to do all the work with my legs.

Tony decided to walk further north along the beach and go in at a less rocky part, then drift back down towards us. We walked along the beach near the shore, and saw a little reef shark darting in and out. He kept swimming quite close to us, then shooting back into the water. We followed him along the shore for ages, and later found out that juvenile reef sharks are very inquisitive and often come up to check people out and will swim near them along the shoreline. Tony swam way out and back towards the point, he saw a fair bit of coral and fish and said it was a good way to do it. At one point he was out pretty far and directly in the sunlight and I couldn’t see him – I was starting to wonder what I should do if he’d disappeared when I saw his orange snorkel come out of the shiny sun reflections – a big relief. I went and got my flippers and headed back in with LiAM. We were debating how far out we should walk before submerging, when Caitlin (still on the shore getting ready) shouted ‘Oh my God!’ and pointed in front of us – there was a turtle, right in front of us, only about 10m away. We both dived into the water and shot straight out there, Caitlin was not far behind us – but it had disappeared by the time we got there. We swam out beyond the rocks, and LiAM and I saw a blue-spotted ray hiding in under a ledge (my first ray of the trip, I was very excited). Back along the coral towards where Tony was on the shore, and saw lots more – every time we go out it’s as good as the last time, there’s so much going on under the water, fish eating and chasing each other and swimming around, interacting at times or going about their own business as if no one else was there. It was much easier swimming with my flippers, even though the blisters hurt a fair bit when I put them on. Once I was in the water though I didn’t notice them at all.

Millie came in for one more quick snorkel, then I took the others out again for a lap, and then we’d all had enough. Feeling very happy that we’d seen lots of cool things again, we headed back to the car. We stopped off at Bloodwood Creek on the way back to camp and walked up to the small lookout there. There was a bit of water in the creek although it wasn’t flowing, and there were a few birds around. We walked over to the beach and the kids and I decided to walk back, our beach was really not far. So Tony drove the car and the rest of us wandered back along the beach and rocks. The shoreline here was a series of low rocky outcrops, with small crescents of white sandy beaches in between. There were lotts more of the moss covered rocks on the edge of the larger rocks, interesting rockpools and holes in the rocks that we walked over, beautiful white sand with shells and fascinating driftwood in between each rocky part. The dunes to our left were covered in low bushes – great for LiAM to hide behind when he ran ahead, then jump out of as we came past.

Back at camp Tony was using up some leftovers for dinner – bread and eggs and bacon and maple syrup for some delicious French Toast. Caitlin and Millie went and talked to the guy with the guitar again, and they offered the girls a Harry Potter book that they didn’t want (The Deathly Hallows). Millie eagerly accepted it and then sat looking at the words while we ate our tea, she was very excited to have her own copy of a Harry Potter book. We finished eating then grabbed our drinks again and headed up to the tables for sunset. The sunset itself wasn’t as spectacular tonight, but the company was great once again. Caitlin took my camera up and asked the camp hosts about our nocturnal visitor from the night before – it was a Western Antichenus – I’ve always wanted to see one in the wild so was very pleased that it had chosen to visit us. We chatted with the camp hosts and some of the other couples, then with the other homeschooling family again. All the kids played on the beach again, having races and exploring the rocks until it was dark. The wind had died down by now and it was quite pleasant. We weren’t the only ones who had had a disturbed night, everyone was commenting on the wind and the lack of sleep that had resulted.

We gradually drifted back down to our sites and we got ready for bed. The stars were amazing again and I got my tripod out and took some photos – more successfully than last time I tried (at Devils Marbles) – I still need more practice though. Millie and I went to bed first and started reading her Harry Potter book, she asked me to show her where I was reading and she read the words that she knows (that’s how Caitlin started reading too, with the first Harry Potter book). We did that for a while, then the others came in and we read Inheritance for a short while before everyone crashed.