Been gone a few days. Family Holiday.
Parents booked a house down at a beautiful location about 300km away (4 hours, as have to drive through the big smoke).
200m from a very nice beach protected from the Pacific by being part of a funny sort of bay. Looks small, sleeps 11...not that we had that many there.
First day out in the water, there was a pod of around 25 dolphins (and no camera)...swimming less than 30m from my Dad and Nephew...same day there was a shark attack 25 miles north of us in another bay.
Third day, and I had an excuse to be up at 5:30, and thought that we should take a pre-dawn walk along the beach.
Looking North East
Looking South
Some shellfish left us a message, which we couldn't decipher
Then the sun started to come up.
And we started North/NE along the Beach.
A couple of fishermen in the sunrise.
Nets
With stingrays.
These guys were great to watch and talk to. All of the undersize and bycatch lived through the netting, and were returned. Including stingrays, which the deftly picked up through their mouths and flipped back into the water, and these charming beasties...
Pufferfish (fugu). Apparently this guy was lucky that there was an audience, as the local sea eagles sweep in, pick them up, and rip their brains out, leaving the bodies to dessicate at the bases of trees.
Looking South of the fishermen, their boat trailer (can be seen in the fisherman pic was starting to become wet.
The day prior, we caught some weed whiting.
Threw a few back, thinking that they were undersized for any sort of fishing, and were advised that they were not only legal, the bag was 20 per person per day...never chased that target, just some nice fish.
They were flouro blue at time. Their spines were blue, their swim bladders were blue. Their vents were blue.
(No pics).
Salt, pepper, olive oil, and a very hot grill, and they were most tasty.
While cooking, some kookaburras (native kingfishers) must have picked up on the smell, as they flew in to very very close quarters, until we worked out what they were after...fish ( :doh: )
So we gave them the fish tails.
The motion in this pic is the juvenile Kookaburra "slapping" the fish tail against the ground as they do lizards to kill them before they swallow them whole.
Parents booked a house down at a beautiful location about 300km away (4 hours, as have to drive through the big smoke).
200m from a very nice beach protected from the Pacific by being part of a funny sort of bay. Looks small, sleeps 11...not that we had that many there.
First day out in the water, there was a pod of around 25 dolphins (and no camera)...swimming less than 30m from my Dad and Nephew...same day there was a shark attack 25 miles north of us in another bay.
Third day, and I had an excuse to be up at 5:30, and thought that we should take a pre-dawn walk along the beach.
Looking North East
Looking South
Some shellfish left us a message, which we couldn't decipher
Then the sun started to come up.
And we started North/NE along the Beach.
A couple of fishermen in the sunrise.
Nets
With stingrays.
These guys were great to watch and talk to. All of the undersize and bycatch lived through the netting, and were returned. Including stingrays, which the deftly picked up through their mouths and flipped back into the water, and these charming beasties...
Pufferfish (fugu). Apparently this guy was lucky that there was an audience, as the local sea eagles sweep in, pick them up, and rip their brains out, leaving the bodies to dessicate at the bases of trees.
Looking South of the fishermen, their boat trailer (can be seen in the fisherman pic was starting to become wet.
The day prior, we caught some weed whiting.
Threw a few back, thinking that they were undersized for any sort of fishing, and were advised that they were not only legal, the bag was 20 per person per day...never chased that target, just some nice fish.
They were flouro blue at time. Their spines were blue, their swim bladders were blue. Their vents were blue.
(No pics).
Salt, pepper, olive oil, and a very hot grill, and they were most tasty.
While cooking, some kookaburras (native kingfishers) must have picked up on the smell, as they flew in to very very close quarters, until we worked out what they were after...fish ( :doh: )
So we gave them the fish tails.
The motion in this pic is the juvenile Kookaburra "slapping" the fish tail against the ground as they do lizards to kill them before they swallow them whole.
