Entries about dolphin

Admittedly, we have been spoiled by the warm and pleasant temperatures back in tropical Broome. As a consequence, we are a bit hesitant to continue moving further south, as this inevitably means cooler and cooler temperatures. But after a couple of days in the same place, the curiosity to see something new is usually taking over again. And that means that we left Coral Bay and headed south.
Along the way from Coral Bay to Carnarvon is – as we already expected – pretty much nothing. Well, to be fair, there was a sign when we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We have one of these pictures already - from Namibia. And it feels like ages ago when we took the picture of the sign 'Tropic of Cancer' on the Baja California in June.

And there is a roadhouse to fuel up. Other than that, it was a really boring drive once more, forcing Sam and me to change drivers repeatedly. Already after less than an hour of driving these really boring stretches of road, we felt unable to continue driving with the required attention. After all, once in a while there were goats, emus or cattle seen somewhere in the bush. And as they might as well stand next to or on the road, we should watch out.
The last couple of kilometers into Carnarvon were actually representing a change to the endless bush we passed through before. Due to Western Australia’s largest river passing through the region (which seemed actually to be dry when we passed over it), Carnarvon and surroundings is a very agricultural region producing a large part of Australia’s tropical fruit.
We had lunch at a great playground right next to the town beach overlooking the Fascine. While the playground was simply excellent, the locals around it were quite strange. We had the impression that most of them were spending their afternoon doped in the sun.
After an extended shopping at Woolworths to stock up our depleted inventories, we headed towards one of the town’s campgrounds. Once again, it was windy. But that did not stop us from jumping into the refreshing pool.
That evening was focused about getting stuff sorted back at home. A couple of things had piled up that needed our attention. Part of that was fun, part of it less so. So we wrapped our minds around things like Christmas calendars, selling my Passat, sending out bank details to the US as Phil was successful in getting our van sold (Hooray!!! Thanks, Phil!), realizing that there are some issues with shares, talks with work, the tenants of flat... We had a night with less sleep than usual and managed to get the most urgent stuff sorted.
Using the opportunity of the fruit growing region, we picked a couple of mangoes and then moved on. The drive along the North Western Coastal Highway was boring – as expected. The only was a nice lookout which also served as a location for RIP stones and other paraphernalia.

Once we turned off onto the ‘World Heritage Drive’ towards Shark Bay, the landscape got more interesting and we were treated to nice views of bays with white sand and turquoise waters on both sides of the road. As we learned, Shark Bay is one of the very few (16 out of 203) world heritage sites that meet all four natural criteria (btw, the Grand Canyon is another one that meets all four criteria).

After a short stop in Denham to meet our campground neighbors from Coral Bay Anthony and Co, we headed on to Monkey Mia. There we found a nice spot right with a perfect view to the beach and the sea. The beach was just a few steps from our place and it was lovely - a great place to take pics of Max with his elf hat. He only had to watch out not to run into one of the many pelicans resting at the beach.

And as we soon realized our neighbors were Desi and Alex from Munich – who we already knew from Osprey Bay. We really enjoy meeting so nice people all along our way – and even better when we’re crossing paths multiple times. So, we ended up sitting together in front of their campervan having nice talks until late in the night.
The next morning, we participated in Monkey Mia’s main attraction, the dolphin feeding. While the Parks and Wildlife Ranger explained all kinds of interesting information about dolphins, the dolphins already swam along the shore.

And soon afterwards, it was feeding time. And Max was lucky enough to be chosen to feed Piccolo. He waded into the water to meet Piccolo, got a fish and gave it to the dolphin, who carefully took it from his hand. And an hour later he got to feed again on of the dolphins, this time pregnant Shock. Sam also had a go and fed Surprise.

Back at our tent, Max found a new friend: another four-year old boy called Max who was dressed as Batman. Soon enough our son Max emerged from their tent dressed as Captain America. They ran round the campground chasing the ‘baddies’. Surprisingly enough, they ran around in their warm costumes in the hot midday heat. Eventually they did agree to cool off in the pool though.

That evening Sam treated us to an excellent Thai Curry – a much better value than the Thai Curry that was on offer in the resort’s Monkey Bar.
By the time we got up in the next morning, Max and his family had left already. That was fortunate, as otherwise our Max would probably not have liked to leave either. But like that we were happy to go on new adventures, heading into Francois Peron National Park.

After two relaxed days in Busselton, we were keen to explore the coast on the way to Margaret River. Our first stop was at the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse for taking a walk to the whale lookout. As whale watching season is over already, we were it was not too surprising that we did not see any. Instead we got to see a seal playing in the waters below us.

A short ride in the car brought us to Bunker Bay, where we found a nice and secluded spot for lunch. Our only companion was a big lizard that seemed not to take notice of our presence.

At Sugarloaf Rock, we had hoped to see a couple of phaetons that are supposed to nest there. Even though we did not see any, the detour was certainly worth it: the coastline was spectacular with the waves hitting the rocky coast. And it was not only us enjoying the waves: a pod of dolphins surfed the waves seemingly having lots of fun in the process.

But not only the dolphins were keen to surf the waves. At Yallingup Beach there were lots of kite surfers enjoying the powerful wind and the breaks coming in.

Finally, it was time to drive the last couple of kilometers to Margaret River, where we planned to be over Christmas. Along the way, we passed at least 20 wineries, some distilleries and a couple of specialty food places, like a very tempting chocolate factory. We resisted the temptation to make a stop at any of the nicely landscaped places and headed on.
After all, our campground featured not only a pool, but also a bouncing pillow. That is a guarantee that Max will have fun and consequently we’d be happy as well – an important prerequisite for Christmas.
Also the weather treated us to a special pre-Christmas present. As we soon realized, it was not windy anymore. Since back in Exmouth and Coral Bay, we’d been getting used to (and sometimes upset about) the constant heavy winds that made even the hottest days feel chilly and uncomfortable. And suddenly, just in time for Christmas, the wind was gone!
Life is good. And even more so when it’s Christmas Eve and the day starts already with a traditional and relaxed breakfast: rolls with salmon and horseradish with sparkling wine from Capel Vale. Max was happy with his choice of jam instead of salmon and apple juice instead of sparkling wine.
Another tradition of the Dorner family is to take a hike up a mountain in the afternoon. Due to the acute lack of mountains around Margaret River, we skipped the mountain part of the tradition and went for a simple walk into the town of Margaret River instead. We made it all the way to the River and the Rotary Park before going back to our campground.

After all, we were ready for having our Christmas Eve dinner. And contrary to what we usually have, this time we went for the classical Aussie Christmas meal. In other words: we headed to the ‘barbie’ and had steak and sausages with mashed potatoes and a glass of white wine to go with it.
It is not necessarily straight forward to create a traditional Christmas celebration, when outside it’s sunny and warm and there’s not even a living room to set up a Christmas tree in. Despite the challenges, it still seemed like an almost ‘normal’ Christmas, starting with the ringing of a bell up in the rooftop tent. And when Max got to check what’s up there, there was a (painting of a) tree, there were presents, cookies and mulled apple juice.
Once all carols were sung, wishes exchanged, presents opened, we had a very pleasant evening. Calling home, playing with Max’ new presents and simply enjoying the moment.

Christmas Day is the big day for the Australians and we were surrounded by Christmas carols and greetings. As we had celebrated already the day before, we took it easy. Sam edited probably two weeks’ worth of pictures while I swam, jumped and played with Max.

It had been a very peaceful Christmas indeed. Different than usual, but very close to the ‘normal’ version we’re used to.

After almost two weeks on the East coast of the South Island, we were ready to discover Southland. We did not take the highway, but ventured along the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins. Our first stop was Kaka Point. We admired the fact that the lifesavers were on duty with flags posted along the beach despite the cold and rainy weather. Surprisingly, there was not a single swimmer but two surfers enjoyed their ride in the water.
By the time we reached Nugget Point, luckily the rain had stopped and we were able to take the nice hike to the lighthouse and back. The seals were not only laying lazily at the beach, but some of the also ventured out into the sea and jumped dolphin like in the waves.

The drive was very nice – sunbathed rolling hills with the ubiquitous sheep dotting the landscape. Due to the heavy wind gusts, we were forced to drive very slowly anyhow and consequently had lots of time to enjoy the scenery.
The hike to the Purakaunui Falls was short but impressive, as it led through a dense rainforest. For the first time, since we arrived two weeks earlier, this felt like classical New Zealand as you would imagine it. The ferns and silver fern trees are just special and in our mind strongly connected with New Zealand.

We camped in Papatowai close to the estuary. It seemed to be low tide, as it was easily possible to walk all the way to the beach. Even though the water was absolutely clear, it was heavily stained by the tannin from the rainforest.

The next morning, we realized that the tide was even much lower then as the estuary seemed to be almost completely dry. So we headed off quickly to make sure we arrived in Curio Bay while the tide was still low. We wanted to make sure that the rock platform with the petrified remains of a Jurassic forest was still accessible.

Once we had excessively explored Curio Bay, we headed over to Porpoise Bay for our lunch break. Even though it is just around the corner, the wide sandy beach there seemed like worlds apart. After a while we realized that there were not only some swimmers and surfers enjoying the surf in the bay, but also a pod of the small (and rare) Hectors Dolphins.

On our way to Waipapa Lighthouse, we passed Shole Point, the southernmost point on the New Zealand mainland. That made us realize that we were just further south on our planet than we had ever been before. After all, New Zealand is further south than Africa, Australia and Tasmania. With the obvious exception of Antarctica and the islands of the Southern Ocean, one can get further South only in Chile and Argentina. And while we have been to both countries before, we had not gone that far South.

For the night we stayed at the Lignite Pit Café. Its obvious feature is the former pit of lignite (admittedly we had to look up what that is and found out that it’s just the scientific way of saying ‘brown coal’). For the last couple of years the pit has been transformed by a garden lover into a marvelous place featuring secret places, lookouts, bridges, islands set around the water filled former pit. Both Sam and I agreed that while we loved the place, our mothers with their love of plants and gardening would have probably appreciated it even more.

The next morning, we enjoyed the heat and the sunshine in the morning. And luckily we did so, as just a bit later when we reached Invercargill it started raining heavily. We used the opportunity to do some shopping, but then quickly headed out of town.
As we passed some stretches of coast line and a lake, we wondered how nice the landscape might look in more favorable weather. But the grey day did not help to set a nice scene. Consequently, we ended up at our free camp at Monkey Island Road without further stops. That left enough time there to keep ourselves busy in the camper (once again congratulating us on renting a camper vs. camping in a tent) by playing Lego, publishing the blog and reading.
In the evening the rain stopped for a short while, just enough to allow us to hike to Monkey Island during low tide. We were treated to the light of a beautiful sunset. Sam used the opportunity to test his photography skills. Eventually it got too dark and we returned to the campervan just in time before it started raining again.

The next morning it was dry and we used the opportunity to hike along the beach. It was extremely windy, but wild and beautiful.

Continuing along the coast, we realized that it is probably always so windy there. At least all bushes and trees were clearly oriented towards inland. With those last impressions, it was time to wave good bye to the Southern coast. The almost impenetrable Fjordland Nationalpark was waiting for us.