January 31st – Out On The Ocean Waves
The sun beat down hard from early on so there was only one thing for it – a trip on the sea. By the time we had parked and found out about the dolphin watching trips we had 5 mins to get ourselves to the harbour so it was a quick dash. The boat was about half full with a mixture of Japanese, Australian and Brits. There is a permanent colony of bottle nosed dolphins in the estuary and we saw many pods. A few even swam along with us at the front of the boat for a while. I always enjoy seeing dolphins as they seem to be having fun but these dolphins were not a patch on the ones we saw in NZ, we had more fun watching the Japanese tourists get rather over excited every time they saw a fin. Our highlight was seeing a hammer head shark – we were just looking over the front of the boat and it was right there briefly near the surface. Let’s just say we were not that far from shore.
The boat also had a “boom net” like a large fishing net out the back that sits just in the water and you can go and sit in as the boat moves. I could not be persuaded after seeing the shark but it looked like a lot of fun.
The scenery of the afternoon was a bit different. The Tiligerry reserve at Lemon Tree Passage gives guided koala walks so you can spot them in the wild. This is koala country so the opportunity was too good to miss – even if it was about 35 degrees. Our guide, Brian was a retired volunteer and was wonderful. We learned so much about the trees and fauna of the reserve and the koalas themselves. A male koala needs about 100 trees for his territory so with modern housing destroying a lot of his habitat there are less and less spaces for them to thrive. We saw 2 close together which was amazing, apparently it is only the males who are territorial – females can live anywhere. We got to throw boomerangs too – Josh got it straight away whereas O and I were absolute pants. Something to work on, but I already have visions of them both sabotaging each other with a quick flick and evil grin. We spent over 2 hours wandering along the path that also took us near the beach and into the bush. I was eaten alive by mosquitoes on those small bits of flesh that were visible but we learnt which leaves to use to get rid of the sting too.
Our return to the community centre interrupted a French lesson with Brian’s wife so it was nice to have a go conversing in French for a while. The centre is a hay stack building which is the hub of the retired community and really friendly. A meditation session was about to begin when we were leaving – or more fitting “medication” session as Brian said. If anyone gets a chance to go here, do the walk and ask for Brian, you’ll be in for a treat.
To top off a great day the holiday park was right by the estuary – sea/river front location and with a boarded koala walk. O and I went for a “hike” but we didn’t see any. A storm loomed in the distance so our quick return was to the sound of thunder in the distance and some spectacular lightning displays. We were followed all the way by a Kookaburra though and a Heron was wondering around when we got back to the van. I am still astounded by the variety of wildlife here and as suburbia encroaches on precious land I only hope the casualties are few.
Tags: Australia, Travel
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