Adventure before Dementia

So, on the advice of many we set off early to Tin Can Bay where apparently the dolphins would arrive promptly each morning at 8am to feed. Well if the start of this trip is anything to go by - we have yet to see koalas, kangaroos or dingos - what were the chances of seeing dolphins. Anyway we arrived and there was quite a crowd at the quayside so we felt a bit more optimistic. At 8am we were given a welcome and some history of the dolphins, and rules and regulations about how to behave when you are in the water with them, i.e. no sunscreen, dont touch, dont go in the water if you have a cold or open sore - apparently they can catch human germs. We were also informed that there was a chance that they would not visit today as the tide was very low over the sand bank into the bay and if there was not enough depth of water they would not cross. Here we go I thought, another Austalian myth. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We watched the fisherman go out, families kyaking, the sea rescue crew practice - and seriously mess up - many attempts at docking the rescue boat, we watched a crew of locals go out on a dragon boat but still no dolphins. Janet, having no patience, decided it was time to go - 10 more mins suggested Jeff, and lo and behold after 9 more mins they turned up. Not a shoal or a feeding frenzy as expected but just two very sweet dolphins gently floating in the water awaiting their breakfast. A couple of photos and it was all over. Still pretty amazing though.

We stopped at Tin Can Bay spit for breakfast and chatted to a local who was originally from Birmingham and still had his brummy accent mixed in with his Aussie twang - quite amusing. You can take the brummy out of Birmingham but you can never take Birmingham out of the brummy - eh mum?!

Most of today was spnt driving North, stopping to buy a tray of mangoes - only $10 and delicious.

We followed a caravan which had a wheel cover slogan "Adventure before Dementia" that should have been our slogan too!

We managed to have an hour on the beach before setting up camp. The beach was quite different to the ones we had seen so far, the sand was very grainy, made up of thousands of crushed shells, I guess because we were now in line with the Great Barrier reef.