A Sunday morning stroll has never been so interesting or exciting! Around the corner from Joe and Vicky's house, (where we stayed last night), is a river that leads out to the breakwater and beach of North Haven. So within minutes of leaving the house this morning, we were watching Dolphins making their way upstream beside us.
Then, as if that wasn't unusual or exciting enough, a few minutes later we glanced down into then clear waters to see a massive shark glide slowly past!!
A 'Grey Nurse Shark' to be precise! And about 7-8 foot long!!
It was a real jaw dropper for us, but the locals seemed much less surprised! We saw three altogether, graceful swimming up against the currents. They sure were big, but not scary like the Jaws films, which is the basis of most, if not all, of my shark knowledge.
It followed us as we headed out to the breakwater, where as if on que, we looked out to sea and saw some whales splashing around in the bay! Quite extraordinary!
Later we took a drive (well Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest after all), up the nearby mountain to get to the local viewpoint. From here we could clearly see the town, river and breakwater where we had spent the morning.
Inland, in the other direction were big lakes, rivers and estuaries. It was a fabulous view.
As Vicky had to work in the afternoon, she left us to go for a quick surf at 'Rainbow Beach' before going to see her at the rainforest park, where she is employed as a park warden. It was a lovely spot, mostly gentle waves, no sharks and well set up for surfing; it even had showers and changing rooms on the beach. We both got a few good waves, although I was a bit stiff and sore from yesterday - I definitely need to build up a bit of surf fitness!
We got to the rainforest in the late afternoon and did a quick lap of the boardwalk trail.
It was totally fantastic, made all the better by Vicky's knowledge. We'd have never have stopped off otherwise and it turned out to be a real hidden gem. We only saw four others on the boardwalk, which went for over a kilometer through dense jungle and rainforest. It almost felt a little spooky at times and we were both quite glad to not be on the actual forest floor!
Finally, we checked into the hotel that we had booked tonight, as Clare has some coaching to do online. It's a fantastic work life balance, when before doing an evenings work, you can spend the day watching incredible wildlife and go for a surf!
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