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Across Australia Trip, Animals, Family Happy Snaps, Featured, Photography, Travel Journal, Video

Day 343: 9 Mile

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Sunday, 11 May 2014

Mother’s Day! Bacon and eggs were cooked for me for breakfast this morning, and I received the most beautiful driftwood mobile hand made by my family. We had a chat with Jen and Pete on the way to the boat and left shore around 11am.

Within a few hundred metres Hendrix stopped a Dugong cruising along. He was moving too quick to get in with so we left him to continue on his way. A couple hundred metres later and Nath spotted a big Tiger Shark and then not far after him I spotted a big turtle. So much life in such a small space.

We then crossed the channel and almost immediately saw an eagle ray. At first we thought it may have been a Manta, but upon closer inspection, we saw in was an eagle. Nath jumped in with it and struggled to keep up. Only when he rode the swell was he able to get close to it. When he got back in the boat we cast lures at it as he had seen a cobia swimming with it. Nath managed to hook a small cobia, but it wasn’t legal so it was returned. After that we found 3 bull rays swimming together close to the bottom. Nath got in with them and before he had even reached them, promptly turned around and headed back to the boat. I instantly asked what was wrong. This is stupid was the reply I got as he had 5 Cobia swim towards him and thought it better to throw a lure at them. So we both started casting. I hooked one, but the bugger got off. Nath had one follow the lure but not take it. That was the end of that.

We then headed over towards the coral of the reef. On the way we spotted on the surface a bright yellow shark. At first we thought a Leopard shark, but as it turns out, it was a Zebra shark. It swam down to the bottom, so we left it alone and continued to the reef.

We trolled over the coral for a while, but it got too shallow and we kept getting snagged. We decided it best to not lose a lure and headed for deeper water. We were on our way to a bombie that Darrell had given us co-ordinates for when we saw 2 Zebra sharks together on the surface. I GoPro’d them from the boat but it was a bit too choppy for me to keep it in the water. One was biting onto the tail of the other one, in what we believe to be a mating act. Nath figured they were pre-occupied, and given that we were only in about 2 metres of water, got in with them for a snorkel. After a bit, Hendrix decided he too wanted to get in with them. I was still dubious, and El was happy to stay with me in the boat. The next thing I know, Mr Touchy Feely had touched the tail of the rear one, followed by his side kick. At this point both boys had been in with the sharks for ages, and the sharks were still happily doing their thing on the bottom. I decided that I too wanted to get in and swim with them. Elokin willing followed me, not to be out-done by her Ma. Nath gave me the GoPro to capture him touch it again, as he was unsure if Hendrix had done a good enough job. After he did it, I said I wouldn’t touch it, but I would dive down and swim alongside them. Well, as soon as I dived down, I have no idea what possessed me, but I instantly touched its tail and then swim up them to get a good view. As I came up for a breath I looked back and saw that Elokin had followed me down and touched its tail too. Nath hadn’t realised she was doing it, so we thought he hadn’t caught it on video, so of course, we made her do it again! When we had all finished touching them, and incidentally they feel like sand paper, we hung back to watch them. At this point the female had either had enough or they had finished their mating act, but for whatever reason, she managed to slip out of his mouth and start to swim away. First she had to deal with the remorer that was suctioned onto her head so she hit the ground to grind him off. While this is going on, the male is still trying to find her again as he obviously wasn’t finished and wanted to suck/bite on her tail some more. She headed straight for us and circled away with him hot on her tail. By now we are huddled together with the kids in the middle of us trying to stay out of the way. In the confusion, and with their terrible eyesight, the male bumped into Nath’s leg and then chased my flippers thinking I was the female. My brain was telling me feet to stop flippering as I knew he was wanting to latch on, but my feet were replying with faster movements to shoo it away. This wasn’t working for me, so I added some vocals screaming: ARRRGHHHHH!!!!!! through my snorkel at it. This must have done the trick as it left me alone and started to head away. I grabbed Elokin’s arm and kicked with all my might to get us back to the boat, only to be stopped by the damn shark circling back around again. We huddled again and when it took off for the second time, before Nath could even say “back to the boat” I had already grabbed Elokin’s arm and was off again. We made our speedy exit into the boat. Nath and Hendrix had waited to make sure that it was gone for good and then followed us to the boat. Nath said afterwards that Zebra sharks have downward pointing mouths like the Tawny Nurse shark, so he would have a hard time taking a good bite out of us. So really I hadn’t needed to freak out like I had. I advised him that he could have told me that sooner and I probably wouldn’t have freaked as much as I did. All in all, it was great fun and a terrific story to tell. Even though we were only 20 or so metres away from the boat, this situation drives home how vulnerable we are in the water if something was to attempt to eat us, i.e. White pointer.

After our excitement, and we were all pumped, we made our way to the bombie. We cast on it, and although we could see the fish, nothing took a bite. We then called it a day, and headed home after 3pm to watch our movies. We then ate an early dinner and headed to Tonia and Darrell’s camp to share our movies and experience from today. While we were chatting and watching we discovered a rather interesting fact. It started with: Nath is a Leo. Tonia is a Leo….. I am a Scorpio. Darrell is also a Scorpio. No way, this is amazing….. Nath’s birthday is 8 August. Tonia’s birthday is 7 August! I then asked the question. “When is your birthday Darrell”. Out he comes with: Halloween. NO WAY!!!! I am All Saints Day. (For those that don’t know, Halloween is October 31 and All Saints is 1 November). So that means that Tonia and Darrell’s birthdays are both the day before Nath and mine! How freaky is that!!!!

We headed home after 8pm and I made pikelets as we were all hungry by then.

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.

Across Australia Trip, Animals, Destinations, Family Happy Snaps, Featured, Photography, Travel Journal, Video

Day 83: 9 Mile

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Saturday, 24 August 2013                                                                                              45kms

It was a great day for boating today. We all got up early and headed out on the water. From camp we headed west. It is a big stretch of sandy barren ground only 2-3 metres deep before you reach a 10-14 metre deep channel which in places can be only a few metres wide and in others hundreds, depending on where you cross it, followed by more sandy barren 2-3 metre deep before finally reaching the reef, which is about 5kms out from shore. We decided to troll across the channel. Now to be honest I was a bit apprehensive about crossing the channel, purely because for so long I could see the bottom in this beautiful aqua coloured water, to now having this dark blue ominous looking water in comparison stretched out before me. Anyway we did cross it and caught nothing. So then Nath thought we should try trolling along it. Still nothing, so we decided to head for the reef. Yay, back over the nice clear aqua coloured water.

We found lots of weed beds, huge weed beds. We had a dolphin come to check us out, plus saw lots of turtles. We did lots of squidding, but caught nothing. The other guys came over and we saw a manta ray, so Nath jumped in with it, but it got spooked by all the boats so he only got to see if for a second and then it was gone. Al had caught a squid by this stage which was fantastic.

While we were running around after the ray, 2 dolphins came right up to the bow of our boat. Nath was sitting up there with his full snorkel gear on, GoPro in hand, ready to jump on the manta while I drove the boat. These dolphins looked very inquisitive and friendly so I threw it in neutral and Nath slid quietly in off the bow. What unfolded next was spectacular! Nath got to swim with the dolphins for over 2 minutes. Now, Nath was rather slow in comparison to how fast a dolphin can swim, but these 2 waited for him to catch up. Holly got in further up, so when the dolphins saw her splashing around, they swam off after her. Perhaps they were hoping she could swim faster than Nath. Ryleigh and Lochi got in as well, so the 3 kids were swimming with the 2 dolphins as well. It was a magical experience for all of them.

After that we found another ray, that we thought was a manta, so I jumped in with this one. Turns out not. After swimming after it for a while, I noticed the really long tail and a totally different shape head. It was an eagle ray. It was still a majestic ray to swim with.

We then headed back over the weed beds and finally caught 5 squid. Yay!!! We also saw a shark, a small reefy we think, but it was too quick. Back to camp, again across that eerie channel. For some reason it just gives me the creeps.

We cleaned the squid and then headed to Coral Bay via the coast track. We joined Ken and Anne in the caravan park where they are staying for happy hour before heading off to dinner at the Resort restaurant. Dinner was absolutely delicious. Both Nath and I had a beef roulade with crispy sweet potato curls. It was divine and well-priced considering where we are. We also had dessert, sundaes. The kids meals came with them, but after our meal we decided we wanted one too, and the kids another so we went back and ordered another 11 sundaes, after the 5 the kids had already eaten. They were cheap as at only $2.50 each. Nath ended up finishing off most of them, including the one that I was still eating! We did have a great night with fantastic company.

We drove home on the coast track in the dark, and watched the moon rise. It looked awesome.

 

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.

Across Australia Trip, Animals, Destinations, Family Happy Snaps, Photography, Travel Journal

Day 77: Winderabandi Point

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Sunday, 18 August 2013

It was blowing a gale again this morning, even though we were told it was going to be calm. Bah! We decided we were best to stay inside rather than venture out into the sand storm, so we went through our photos.

The wind did eventually dip off, it left completely. It turned out to be an awesome afternoon. We took Elokin and Hendrix out in the boat, and El drove. We went to the drop off and had another snorkel. Again Elokin and Hendrix stayed in the boat. I saw my first shark and it scared the crap out of me. I am not sure what kind it was…. BIG and GREY! Does that help?! By then I was cold so I thought it best to get out of the water and headed back to the boat.

We then pulled up the anchor and headed to the other side of the drop off channel, to the outer reef. It was shallow on this side, not a steep drop off like the other. The reef was almost out of the water and we could see reef tip shark fins out of the water. There was a cool ledge to snorkel around, a place for tomorrow.

On the way back to shore, as we were cruising very slowly over the now very shallow reef, we spotted a huge ray on the shallows. We headed over to it and eventually Nath got out with the GoPro and swam the rest of the way as it was too shallow. He got caught on the coral and it undid his shorts. The ray wouldn’t let Nath get too close to it and always put its tail between itself and Nath. It was massive and very cool to hang out with. I then had trouble getting back over to Nath when it was time to pick him up with the tinny and he had trouble swimming over it as it was too shallow. We did make it back together and he safely got into the boat, with some difficulty.

We then made our way back to camp and once off the coral, Elokin drove again. She almost threw herself out of the boat going over the wake from Showy’s. We all thought it was quite funny. Nath and Pete then went fishing in our tinny as the wind was still absent. Pete caught a cod of some kind, but Nath accidently let it go on the way back in to shore when letting some of the water out of the bucket as it was splashing everywhere. Oops.

For something a bit different Nath took the tuna carcass out and found a shark with it. The GoPro died, so he didn’t get any footage, but he thinks it was a Tiger shark. It was very timid.

For dinner we had a cook up of tuna and potatoes and then sat around the fire. The wind has started to pick up again now that we are going to bed.

On a side note, we were almost out of water today so we emptied the water bladder into the tank and now the water tastes Yuck! Next time we won’t let the water sit so long in the bladder before using it and see if that helps.

 

Until next time…. Happy and Safe Travels.