 | Tushingham |  | Tin Can bay Dolphins |
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Dec 21 2009
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Tin Can bay Dolphins
We all got up at 6.30am as we were off to feed the Wild Dolphins this morning. The feeding place was at the end of the Harbour, and just a few minutes drive away. We arrived about 7.15am and there were already lots of people stood at the edge of the water. We waded in, up to our knees, and sure enough one male dolphin called Mystique was slowly swimming around. He had lots of black stratches all over his body, which V has just reminded me, were called "Rakes". These are from other males teeth as they fight over the females. Mystique was soon joined by another dolphin called Patch. They would swim up to people and gently touch any outstretched hands that were in the water. They liked bright colours, red, pink and bright blue, but didnt like lime green. We then had to queue up with about another 60 other people to buy a fish in order to feed it to the dolphins. One fish per person, which you had to lower into the water and the dolphins gently took it from your hands. The rules were quite strict as they are wild dolphins... no touching, all hands had to be washed in anticbacterial wash, no flash photography, and definitely no swimming with them. V&L both fed a dolphin whilst Rog and me stood by with the camcorder and camera. As soon as all the fish had been eaten, they swam off into the deep waters, only to return the next morning. They were lovely gentle creatures, and definitely worth getting up early for.
We returned to our lovely Dolphin Waters apartment, where we swam and sunbathed for a couple of hours - how wonderfully relaxing. The temperature is definitely less here, a very pleasant 28 degrees and not nearly so humid as in Cairns. L spent about an hour on MSN enjoying catching up with his mates from back home. He then reluctantly did a couple of hours maths homework on the laptop. We all had some bacon and eggs for lunch (cringe cringe how very British, but it was just what we fancied).
We then all went for walk along the beach front. To our surprise there were all these trees growing in the seawater... Mangroves along the beach! It look surrreal, and not something we expected in Oz at all. We thought Mangroves we only existed in America. Anyhow, Rog had sorted out another spot of Treasure Hunting... and yes we did another Geo Cache. We found the Cache at the edge of the Mangrove, and took out the Dolphin travel bug as it wanted to "Travel Around the World". Yep, I think this little fella might just get a trip back to the UK. We finished off our relaxing afternoon in a cafe overlooking the Harbour, with a lovely coffee and cake whilst watching the parrots. Tin Can Bay is a sleepy little town, with a Main Street of shops, and not much else, but we liked the relaxed atmosphee. The main reason people come here seems to be to feed the dolphins.
Anyhow, we headed back to the apartment - V dived straight in the pool for the rest of the afternoon and made friends with a little Ozzie girl, L watched TV, whilst Rog and me settled for a cool lager. We then had a BBQ by the pool, in the dark - dont forget it gets dark here at 7.00pm.
Finally I dont think we have mentioned that horrible word... money. Yes its expensive here for us with the exchange rate being so poor at the moment. We bought a bottle of Jacobs Creek wine which was AUD$12.99 which equates to £7.38. Amazing that this lovely little Ozzie wine is cheaper in the UK! Has this stopped me having a couple of glasses of wine every night?... not on your nelly! Most of the food in the supermarkets is more expensive than the UK, cereals approx AUD$6.99 a box, about £3.97 and bearing in mind L seems to chomp his way through about 1/3 a box every morning, it doesnt go far. The other night we ate out - nothing posh at all - pizzas for Rog L&V and Chicken and Chips for me, with 4 non alcholic drinks and it was about £39. Not particularly cheap. So most of the time we are cooking in the apartments, which is absolutely fine with me. It doesnt feel a chore - I'm cooking easy stuff, pasta/curries with cook in sauces and of course bbq's with salads and lots of fruit during the day as snacks. Several of the apartments have had dishwashers, so there's not too much washing up to do either, and L&V have been very good at helping out with the washing up and drying up when we havent had one (little angels!).
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Calendars Sent!
Written by Tripplenipple 42 months ago
oh, and its still b****y freezing here!! Saw the wild dolphins at Monkey Mia in WA - brilliant!