Mystery Bay/Narooma San Bar

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Montague Island (where we were the other day) is in the background.

Sydney trying to body surf.

Dagan actually going under the water.

After going fishing, we headed to Mystery Bay.  The kids wanted to do some swimming/exploring.  Adam and I took our beach chairs and relaxed as they kids did some exploring along the beach and rocks.  By the tidal pools, they found some black crabs.  Sydney was very excited.   They went swimming with the rocks in the background.  They are getting more adventurous in the water.  They are starting to dive and try to ride the waves. 

Dagan with the frog rock.

 All us went for a walk along the beach.  We found these cool green shells.  I ended up filling my pockets with them.  As we were collecting these, Sydney asked if we could go back to the area by Australia Rock to collect more of those shells.  We headed back there.  Since it was low tide, we didn't have to climb through the rock again.  Thank you!  We found a whole bag full of shells.  Some of them were large and still intact.  Sydney and Dagan are hoping to take some home for their friends.

We went back to the place where the seal was yesterday.  There ended up being 4 on the rocks and two in the water.  We sat on the top rocks and watched them for a while. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the wharf.  A really large stingray came by.  It was in the shallow water for quite some time.  It was eating the scraps.  They are fascinating to watch.

Fishing in Wagonga Inlet Estuary

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Dagan's trumpeter

Sydney's Tailor

Adam's nipper bait

We went out fishing today.  We went on a pontoon boat in the Wagonga Inlet Estuary.  It was really pretty.  It reminded us of being on a lake in the U.P.  There was both forest and open land surrounding the water.  We only caught 3 fish.  Sydney caught a Tailor; Dagan caught a trumpeter, and I caught a Bream.  Adam didn't catch anything, but baited all our hooks for us with nippers (or saltwater Yabbies), funky looking crayfish like creatures.  As we were moving to a different fishing spot, we saw a seal floating with its fin out of the water.  It didn't even try to move when the boat came right next to it.  Even though we didn't catch much, it was really nice to out on water that reminded us of home.

The seal that wouldn't move.

Montague Island Tour/Whale Watching

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The lighthouse on Montague Island

Some of the nesting sea birds

View of our boat from the light house

We headed to Montague Island.  It is a nature reserve.  The national park staff live on the island and guests may stay, but there are no permanent residents anymore.  We saw lots of nesting birds, the lighthouse built from one rock on the island, a spot where the US had a secret military base in the 1950's, a very barren landscape, and a glimpse of a baby penguin.  Unfortunately, it was in a penguin house, so it was very hard to see.  If we had gone to the island at dusk, we would have been able to see the penguins as they come ashore to their nests.

New Zealand fur seals

Australian fur seals

Once we got back on the boat, we went to see the New Zealand fur seals and the Australian fur seals.  They don't ever combine groups.  Also, the New Zealand fur seals like to have space between them while the Australian fur seals like to be jumbled together.  They were really neat to see.  We thought about going swimming with them, but the water had come up from Antarctica and was too cold.

First family photo in Australia

A small glimpse of a whale

The next part of the tour involved whale watching.  We went really far out trying to find the whales. We actually can now say we have been on the continental shelf of Australia.  We saw a few from a distance and a couple came next to the boat, but they wouldn't stay near us.  We were not too upset because we had such a good view of them while going to the Great Barrier Reef.  Dagan was especially happy because he thinks when they come up under the boat, they will end up tipping the boat over.  He will be happy if we never go whale watching again.

Some of the dolphins

One of the albatross

Fortunately, we did see lots of dolphins.  We enjoyed seeing them.  They were swimming and jumping right next to the boat.  There were also more birds than we would have thought.  There were shearwaters and albatross.   It was the first time any of us got to see either of these birds.  The albatross is a huge bird.  We learned that they can fly for 20 hours straight and can go 10 years without ever going to land. 

On the way back, we stopped to watch bait fish busting the surface of the water.  There were tons of birds swooping around trying to get the bait.

First sting ray

After we docked, we saw our first sting rays.  They were feeding on the scraps left by the fishermen.  They didn't stick around very long, so we will have to come back tomorrow.

Australia Rock

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

View of Australia Rock

It must be a good shell!

View of Australia Rock from the other side

We let the kids sleep in today.  Then we headed to see Australia Rock.  It is a rock that has a hole which has eroded into a shape that looks like Australia.  We climbed through it, so we could do some exploring on the other side.  Sydney found some good shells, and Dagan found a few good rocks.  They will have quite the collection once we return to Wisconsin.

Dagan found a place to relax.

After wandering the beach, we followed the path by the wharf.  We saw a seal sunning himself on the rocks.  We watched him for a while before heading back to get ready for our tour.

The seal sunning himself.

Camel Rock

Monday, October 1, 2012

Camel Rock

It is nice to have kids who like to take pictures.

Who is going in?

After our exciting time at the falls, everyone was hungry.  We stopped for fish and chips in Bermagui.  Since it was still a little early, we decided to stop at Camel Rock before heading back to the hotel. It was another pretty beach with a large rock formation that looks like a camel.  Of course, the kids had to climb on the rocks.  They are too hard to pass up.  It was a nice way to end our day.

Our King and Queen of the mountain

I love watching the waves come over the rocks.

Another of Adam's videos:

Mumbulla Creek Falls

Monday, October 1, 2012

We had a great day.  We went out for breakfast at a fun restaurant.  It reminded us of a place Jimmy Buffet would own.  It was very colorful and right on the water.  After breakfast, the kids went out on the jetty to feed the fish. 

We stopped at Central Tilbia as we headed south.  It was a cute town.  We found some really interesting stores.  The kids especially liked the store that sold juggling equipment and other fun stuff.  They had an area on their porch to try all the toys out.  Everything was lots of fun.

This is a good part of the dirt road.

Dagan's first slide

Then we headed further south to find the falls we read about.  They are called Mumbulla Creek Falls, and it said in the information that we could slide down the falls and jump off a rock face into a pool of water.  This sounds right up our alley.  We drove on a paved road for a good 40 minutes.  Then we went on a dirt road for 20km.  It was very rough.  There were deep ruts and rocks, and we were winding our way up and down the mountain.  Where was our 4 wheeled drive truck when we needed it?  Adam had to drive really slow.  Neither one of us wanted to break down out here.  When we finally got to the park, we discovered we were not the only crazy people to go out there in 2 wheel drive vehicles.

Sydney's first slide

One of my slides

Adam's jump.  Compare Adam's height with the the rock face.

We walked out to the falls when we got there to see if we would be safe.  Thankfully, a group was sliding and jumping, so we could see how it was done.  We went back and changed into our swimsuits.  The kids and Adam went first.  Sydney and Dagan went down the rock slide.  Adam jumped off the rock face first.  It was a good 15 feet high.  The kids jumped next.  I tried to jump, but it was just too high for me.  I did go down the rock slide.  The three of them told me the water was cold, but I didn't realize how cold.  It took your breath away.  The kids jumped and slide down the slide multiple times.  This will end up being one of their all time favorite days.

Sydney's first jump

Dagan's first jump

We got to drive again on the horrible dirt road on the way back.  We did try a different route, but the road wasn't much better.  At one point, a kangaroo jumped in front of the car.  We wondered if it is like deer and looked for another one, but he was it.  It took a long time to get to a paved road, but we finally made it.



Enjoy the video that Adam made. 

Pebbly Beach

Sunday, September 30, 2012

We headed on our vacation today.  We are headed to Narooma.  It is about 3-4 hours from us.  It is amazing how long it takes to get a short distance here.  The roads are very curvey, mostly two lanes, and the speed limit only gets up to about 55 (110km).  Then you go through all the little towns which makes it an even longer trip.  At times, it felt like we had been driving for hours instead of just one.

Adam, Sydney, and Dagan walking on the "shelf."

Adam waiting for our return.

The kids exploring.

To break up the drive, we stopped at Pebbly Beach in Murramarang National Park.  We drove for a few miles on a gravel road to get to the beach.  It was really pretty.  The beach had a "shelf" of sand, so we were able to walk a good ways out into the ocean without getting super wet.  On the north part of the beach, there was a rock face and rocks by the water.  We walked around them to do some exploring.  There were some really cool formations.  We could have spent most of the day there.  You really need to have on shoes because the rocks and shells hurt bare feet.  Next time, we will take our crocs. 

Sydney and Dagan finding smooth rocks to walk on.

Dagan getting close to a kangaroo.

When we headed back to the sand, we saw kangaroos on the beach.  This was one of the reasons we stopped here.  This was the first time we got to see kangaroos in the wild.  The kids walked up pretty close to them.  Fun!

Sydney by the kangaroos

We got back into the car and headed to Narooma.  It took another 40 minutes.  We checked into our hotel, went down to the boardwalk to look for stingrays (no luck), and got some dinner.  We relaxed tonight, but realized the kids needed to be more active today.  They didn't burn enough energy.  We will have to run them hard tomorrow.