Open water and sand

The grey clouds had all disappeared by the time we arrived at Nelson Bay to board our big cruiser. Today we were to chug out into the Port Stevens waters to see some of the dolphins that live out there. It was warm enough to shed fleeces and jackets but once we made our way out onto the open deck of the cruise boat and were underway it was certainly cold enough to put them back on again.

It wasn’t long before the first dolphins were spotted. A pod of around seven swam across in front of us. They didn’t do anything dramatic but they were beautiful as they did their formation swimming. The majority of people on the boat were young tourists from China and they were at first quite excited at the sight of the dolphins, however their enthusiasm soon waned and their interest switched to taking photographs of each other in poses around the boat! Fun to watch!

There were not too many dolphin sightings, so watching the young people perform for their cameras became far more interesting. I did take two still photographs of distant dolphins – the ones that were closer to the boat I took with my little video camera.

Unusually the boat pulled back into the marina and tied up before lunch was served. I guess it makes sense that the boat is not bobbing around on the water while people are wandering around with plates of food. We had out meal and left as the afternoon dolphin watchers boarded and started their tour with the second sitting of lunch on board! I think I prefer sailing before eating!

In the afternoon we drove only a little way north of Nelson Bay to where the beach reached for ever – inland! It looked as if we had arrived at the Sahara desert! Huge concrete pyramids reinforced that impression.

Our chariot was a regular looking street bus on a four wheel drive chassis. To negotiate the soft sand a special vehicle was imperative – we did see just how useless a two wheel drive car is on the sand – when we were leaving the beach we watched through the windows as a group of people valiantly tried to get their car un-stuck!

Our little group had fun being driven over the beach and up and over sand dunes. All of us “chickened out” at sand tobogganing. I was tempted but since I am accident prone I resisted the urge! There are a few more days to this holiday that I want to enjoy.