After our humbling turtle experience last night, we were all pretty tired having arrived home late. We woke and got on the road in a pretty good time, although we weren't rushing as we weren't unhitched and we were only going 180km down the road to Tin Can Bay. We were so close to being with Boof, Nik and Ella now that the girls couldn't understand why we weren't just heading there. Once we told them that we were taking them to see some dolphins, they decided that they could wait a few more days.
It was a quiet trip, a little unusual for us, but l think the late night took its toll. Not that I'm complaining, lol! Two hours down the road and we arrived in town, treating ourselves to a caravan park stay seeing it was cheap enough. The bloke who checked us in only charged us for one kid which was appreciated. Tin Can Bay is a little cosy seaside town with a population of around 2000 people. Its main draw card is that they provide an up and close encounter with some local dolphins and they are close to the popular Rainbow Beach.
We booked in for 2 nights and set up, very impressed with our beautiful grass site with lush trees out the back. The park was so clean and tidy and close to town. We decided to lay low for the day, needed to catch up on school work for the kids and thought might be good to chill for a bit. We all headed to the pool for a swim after lunch, otherwise the day was wasted by doing nothing, love these days....l even had time to go for a well and truly overdue walk! Love pounding up the pavement.....especially along the gorgeous foreshore!
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| Nice cosy spot under the shade of a tree.... |
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| Girls loved this little area within the park! |
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| Cooling off in the lagoon style pool! |
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| Ain't that the truth! |
The following day we made sure we were up and ready to head down early to the marina for the girls to get up and close with some local dolphins. Up until a year or two ago this experience was free, and alot of travellers called in for that reason, but the locals must have thought that there was a bit of coin to be made out of it and so have started charging now. It was a bit of a rip off really, you have to pay $5 each to just enter and then a further $5 each to feed the dolphins. We decided that the girls could just feed them, which meant it cost $30 for the experience. Now it mightn't sound like much, but the life on the road is lived thru budgeting and being picky about your paid experiences. We didn't know it cost that much, otherwise we probably wouldn't have done it seeing we had a lengthy experience in Western Australia at Monkey Mia. But we had told the girls so couldn't back out.
The local scavenger pelican made sure he was present for any left overs as well as some ducks. They obviously know the time table. After paying, the girls lined up with their small bucket amongst the other tourists, and waited patiently for their close encounter. It was a pretty impersonal experience, seemed to be like a factory line being filtered thru. There were strict instructions to feed the dolphin and then move on, minimal time for pics. The girls were next in line, they received their fish, headed down to the water where they went to feed the dolphin then they were told to move on for the next person. So disappointed with the experience, especially seeing the cost associated with it. Anyway, the girls were happy, that's the main thing.
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| Resident ducks out for the easy fish! |
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Had a bit to say!!!
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| Tin Can Bay..... |
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| Resident dolphins arrive... |
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| Girls with their 'one' fish to feed.... |
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| Boo's turn..... |
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Meg dropped her fish in the water, a little timid when their mouths
opened for the fish.... |
We thought the morning would have been taken up with the dolphins, but seeing that went so quick we decided to head off for a drive to Rainbow Beach. The country roads were lined with pine forests and lush bushland. We arrived at Rainbow Beach in quick time and got out to check out the beach, named for its coloured sand dune lined beach. There was a surf life rescue competition on down on the beach which was cool to watch as we strolled along the busy beach. The wind was very present, luckily as it was a stinking hot day! Cant believe we forgot to pack our bathers!! Bloody idiots. Anyway, we enjoyed just getting our legs in the water as we strolled up the beach and back for an hour or so.
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| Rainbow Beach below.... |
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| Life Rescue Competition in action.... |
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| 'Donkey Doodle' tree... |
Back at the van, we had some lunch and did some school work. We then decided to take a family walk up along one of the tracks along the bay, enticing the girls to get on their scooters as their was an awesome park there too. Was great to get out and have a fun cruisy family afternoon. Once at the park, l kept walking on while the girls had a play, on my way back l found that they'd ditched the park and found some exercise equipment. Was pretty funny coming across them, Marty had worked up a sweat, lol. Once we got back to the park, the girls were well and truly dying to get in the pool, both sporting beetroot faces!!!
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| Scooter fun.... |
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| Park as their reward... |
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| Glorious bay surrounding the town..... |
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| Found these guys working out on my way back from the walk.... |
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| Apparently Tin Can Bay is a popular place for kite surfing... |
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| Beetroot face #1.... |
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| Beetroot face #2!!! |
Our stop at Tin Can Bay was just what we needed before heading to the Sunshine Coast.....will definitely come back here one day for a restful week or so!
Bell Xxx
