Although the holiday is not officially finished until we arrive home, today is effectively the last holiday part of the holiday. We pack up all chairs, tables and toys etc. The awning gets rolled away and the kayak gets strapped down on the roof of the car.
Ross was planning an early morning fish out on the bay this morning, but he unfortunately hurt his back packing up the morning we left Byron Bay. His back was getting better, but the chinese massager at Salamander Bay yesterday appears to have busted more than she fixed.
To add insult to injury Ross met an older local guy who also kayak fishs in and around the bay. He said there are some bombies on the ocean side out the back of the northern headland which is a snapper free for all. There apparently has been some huge examples caught, big enough to tow a kayak around.
Ross was up at 6am, and there was a power drill sort of noise coming from the neighbours van next door ….. a look out the window and Ross saw a woman, half sitting at a table under the awning on a sewing machine.
That begs the question … what the hell do you need to sew up at 6am … who takes a sewing machine camping anyway??? Taking into account the early hour, plus the annoyance to others, we can only assume is was an emergency repair of some kind, to something that wasnt upto ‘some’ task that is performed in the middle of the night …. the exact details of what was broken and how it got broken, we will leave to your imagination.
We were thinking socks!!!! (The couple are in their 70’s, you filthy minded people)
Great beach morning until the wind picked up after lunch. A water fight was inevitable when two water pistols went to the beach.
Daniel and Barb snorkled over the rocks at the eastern end of the bay. The report was, heaps of small fish but bloody cold especially with the breeze as it was picking up
The childs snorkling kit fits Barb perfectly !
Back to the pool on the way to camper for lunch. We talked about starting our 1100km drive home this afternoon, getting 4 or so hours of the 12 hour drive behind us. That would put us around Goulburn where the temperture is in the high 30’s.
So, stay here with a pool and cool evening breeze, or camp in a truck stop in 40deg heat …. hard choice. F#ck it, we’re staying put.
So Barb decided to squeeze in a dolphin cruise. Ross was immediately concerned when we arrived at the boat and the name tag on the ticket collector read … “Captain”. Captain??? Collecting tickets; obviously a quality operation.
The boats called the SS Minnow and its a 3 hour cruise. The first mate Gilligan said we should be back by Sept 4th 1967.
Barb soaking up the experience
Daniel on lookout on the Poop Deck
We found a pod of maybe 10 dolphins, and in the same area were a bunch of penguins. Penguins are Ross’s favorite creature (aside from Banjo, but shes more a mate). After the dolphins have been found and everyones had a good eye full, they lower a large framed net into the water behind the boat for people to sit in. It was way to breezy and cool in the water for us, but plenty of others jumped in
If you spend $50 at the seafood wholesaler at the wharf in Port Stephens you get free fish and chips at the award winning Bubs on the wharf. After the cruise we headed to the pub to get all liquored up before our Bubs fish and chips. Fate smiled upon us when another couple offered us their free fish and chip voucher (they obviously purchased $50 of seafood)
At the pub, Daniel was feeding coins into the chocolate games machine like smartees. It kept him amused whilst Ross and Barb got on the gas. Daniel won 2 chocolates, and at the time it didnt seem expensive to feed a small fortune into a game in order to win 2 chocolates worth all of 50cents.
Cooooooool. Off we went to the wharf with huge smiles, waving the free voucher above our heads like prancing fairies, only to find the “open till 8pm every day” Bubs fish and chip shop closed at 6pm ….. arseholes!
We went from free fish and chips to expensive Hogsbreath. Barb grabbed a Dirty Granny cider, which is topical …. hey Granny Barb?
The food at Hogsbreath is ok at best and a little on the expensive side, but like many of the places we’ve eaten in along the east coast, the view makes up for it some what
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