Kayaking Monkey Mia

Kayaking at Monkey Mia was keenly anticipated by all, so there were no worries getting everyone up. In fact, Lachlan and Jackson were up so early that they got some fishing in before we left. Lachie caught a puffer fish, which ballooned on the jetty before deflating in a bucket of water. They were excited to see a spanish dancer twisting its way through the water to its internal flamenco! Another boy fishing near them caught a squid and gave Jackson a lesson in making squid rings. We are eagerly anticipating the results of his new-found expertise! He managed to bring up a squid jig on one of his casts, so there are no excuses now.

Red Bluff

We got our kayaks organised and were soon in the bay, being buffetted by the winds. It was more like sailing than paddling and we were constantly battling the wind's intention of sending us out of the bay and across the Indian Ocean! We sought the relative shelter of Red Bluff and although the wind was no less fierce, we had a snack and waited on the beach for the wind to drop. Three other adult canoeists passed by and were struggling to make any headway back to Monkey Mia. I confess I was getting pretty worried - although we had enough food to last us for about a fortnight! In Biggles speak it was a case of "By Jove, chaps, we're in a bit of a tight spot, what!"

Jackson and Marcus catching up!

By mid-afternoon the wind had mercifully dropped and we started to really enjoy the paddling. The water was nearing high tide and the ocean life we saw was incredible. An enormous loggerhead turtle was sailing along with his flipper in the air; we saw a school of 16 sting rays, dolphins, sea snakes, another turtle, fish, cormorants catching and eating large fish, plus many shovel nosed rays. Jackson and Marcus saw a sea snake eating another sea snake.

Cockle Count

We pulled in to another little bay, where Lachie was soon chatting to a fisherman. While we helped Marcus do a cockle count, Lachie availed himself of the fisherman's spare rod and caught a fish!

The last photo from our backup camera, which was
drowned in a pool of water shortly afterwards!

Our paddle ended with a few races and a spectacular dive from Jackson trying to catch Dave and Ella's kayak.

The kids were really tired today, so we had a quiet day at the campsite. I managed to rescue the photos from the drowned camera at a photo booth and Dave played guitar nearly all day. He may not be so happy tomorrow, depending upon the Rugby result!

Stay tuned ...