Its time to catch up on some blogging. We are coming to the close of winter, but we certainly cannot complain about Brisbane weather. We have had our fair share of chilly nights, but lately we see temps in the mid to upper 70s by mid-day. Absolutely gorgeous! We haven't run our heat all winter. (Ok, that is really because it has been broken for 4 months, but that's another story.) Anyway, we have had some fantastic adventures this winter, so I thought it was time to start sharing.
Right before our winter break, back in June, we went on a day trip to the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Moreton Island with our good friends the Kfourys before they moved back to Houston.
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| Anna, Leah, Ashleigh, and Paul |
Moreton Island is the 3rd largest sand island in the world and an hour boat ride from Brisbane. Unfortunately, it was an extremely windy day which put quite a chill in the air and rock in the boat.
The water is so beautiful and clear. It is a good site to snorkel as there are 15 shipwrecks off the coast.
(you can see one of the dive sites on the left side of the picture above.)
When we came ashore we were greeted by the pelicans, seagulls, and pied cormorants.
We quickly signed up for the day's activities and grabbed a bite to eat.
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| Julie, the kiddos, David and myself |
To start off our afternoon, we took a desert and sand tobogganing tour. We jumped on the 4-wheel drive bus and headed inland to a massive sand hill.
We were all given a "sled," or what I would call a piece of plywood, and a bar of wax to maximize our speed potential. The kids were all given goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes. They say you can reach speeds up to 40km per hour (roughly 25mph) and I believe it.
Then it was time to make the trek up. Between the steepness of the hill, the instability of the sand, and the sand-whipping wind, it was not the easiest of climbs.
But then the thrill of the hill made it all worth while! Down....
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| Anna |
down....
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| Ashleigh |
down...
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| David |
down....
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| Janelle |
down....
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| Gaby and Leah |
and down we went!
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| Paul |
As time went on and our legs grew weary of the climb, there weren't many of us willing and/or able to make the trek up. However, there were a few of us determined to get in as many trips down the hill as possible.
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| This was probably my 4th trip up. The crowd is dwindling. |
Activity number one was quite a success! Even though we were covered in sand from head to foot, we all had a blast!
After our return we had just enough time for a quick break so the kids could burn off some energy (wait, shouldn't they be tired by now?), as well as....
a coffee break for the adults.
Then it was off to adventure number two, the quad bikes! After our quick instructional video, we were loaded on to the bikes. One more quick reminder on how to stop in an emergency and we were deemed worthy to drive.
The tour started off at the beach for a little practice game of follow the leader.
Then we headed up the dunes to the fun of climbing hills, winding turns,
and spectacular sunset viewing. It was now time to park our bikes and get to our third and final activity before boarding the boat back to Brisbane.
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| no photography tricks - the sky really looked like it was on fire |
As the name suggests, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort is known for it's wild bottlenose dolphin feeding. At sunset, up to eight dolphins swim up to shore to be hand fed fish by those staying at or visiting the resort. This was supposed to be the highlight of the day. However, remember how I mentioned the brisk temperatures and high winds in the morning. They were worse once the sun went down. The temperatures had to have been in the 40's but we were determined to feed the dolphins anyway. We were walked up to the shoreline line and told to grab a fish out of the bucket.
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| waiting with our fish. |
Then it was time to be led out to the dolphins. If you were to head out to the Tangalooma website you would see children standing in very placid waist deep water one or two dolphins hanging out right in front of them gently eating fish from their hands. Unfortunately, we had a slightly different experience. First, please notice that the guides leading us into the water have on full drysuits and flotation devices. We, on the other hand, are in rash guards and swim shorts/skirts.
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| The guide starting to lead us out to the dolphins. |
Second, we all had to hold hands for dear life while the waves crashed over our heads and kept trying to throw us back towards the beach. Not only could we not get close enough to the dolphins, but with all of the saltwater in our faces we couldn't even make out where they were.
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| trying to keep our footing....at this point Anna and I are back to back and Leah looks far from happy in Gaby's arms |
About right after Ashleigh's water shoe got ripped from her foot and I had lost all feeling in my lower extremities is when I yelled something like "Girl's just take your fish and chuck it towards the dolphins! This is all kinds of miserable and it's time to get out!" There were no complaints, the fish were tossed out to sea, and we were on our way out to change and get warm. Although we look really happy, we were all pretty disappointed that the dolphin feed didn't happen like we had envisioned.
Thank you David for being the only smart one in the group and staying dry to take photos for everyone.
Here are the dolphins hanging back behind the rough surf. However, one dolphin must have been hungry enough to venture toward land because Julie was the only one of the seven of us that actually fed one.
We all had a great time and have fond memories of our day at Tangalooma. We certainly miss the Kfourys here in Brisbane, but look forward to crossing paths again in the future.
