Saturday, December 27, 2008

Merry Christmas!















Electrical storm

I don't know why this is not straight! But it's a great shot Lindsay took - real Cristmas Lights!


Sunday, December 7, 2008

Bundaburg to Mooloolaba

Celestial navigators on passage to Bundaberg


Not long after arriving in Australia we met Bayswater friends Shaun and Erin off Whimsey and had a super evening under the setting sun!

We spent about 4 days exploring Bundaberg and generally sorting ourselves out after the ocean voyage. We have been amazed at how friendly people are here. Some of it is because it is a rural community but people seem very open and relaxed.

We are really conscious of opportunity the boat provides us to enable us to visit and see wildlife in their natural environments. This is something that is becoming harder and harder to do with diminishing habitats. So it has been great to see some amazing Australian animals here.






We find the Pelicans incredible – they are so big! One of the children’s first experiences was getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning and going to the back of Bundaberg’s Port Marina area where they watched a group of Kangaroos playing in the grass






We enjoyed the trip up the Burnett River and visited a small zoo. The zoo had wallabies, Emu’s and several other birds.





In the bush beside the river we saw a large Water Dragon (Lizard). We stayed there a short time mainly to re-provision ready for the passage south.



Even the ants are huge here!!!!

From Bundaberg we sailed down through the Sandy Strait which flows between Frazer Island and the mainland. Frazer Island is the largest sand island in the world and we were disappointed not to get to see any dingoes there. We stopped at a spot called Gary’s Place for morning tea with friends Dennis and Joy off Molokai and there we heard our first Kookaburgh laugh.



From there we sailed to Tin Can Bay and anchored for the night. Early the next morning we all went ashore to join the locals who feed 2-3 dolphins at 8am every day. Kate and Hamish got to feed a couple of fish to these Indo-Pacific estuarine dolphins. They were very friendly and quite confident around people. It was well controlled and a great experience. Sadly there are only about 50 of them left in the area.



We had to leave promptly so that we could cross the large sand bar at the entrance to the Sandy Straits on the high tide. That was quite tricky and for a while the roughest sea we had seen for a long time. After that it was plain sailing down to Mooloolaba. This is a canal type holiday town about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane. Hamish thinks he is in heaven as across the road from the marina is a beautiful white sandy ocean beach. He wants a surf board for Christmas!





We have been thrust into the Christmas Season all of a sudden and it was a bit of a shock. The first Saturday here was a Christmas parade of boats lit up with flashing, colourful lights and a Santa playing an organ on the deck of an old runabout. We have also hit the wet season so it is hot and muggy with spectacular lightning storms most nights. Great after dinner viewing! (No T.V and not missed)

So what are our plans for the near future? Well we really like it here so will be here over Xmas -New Year apart from a visit to Brisbane to stay with Lindsay’s brother and do some theme park stuff. After that it is a whole new year with some decisions to make over where we will go and what we will do next.