1st April
Brendan and Molly were coming back today from their honeymoon, so I spent the entire morning attaching the edging that I'd cut yesterday for Brendan's floor, to the skirting with no nails, and with pins to hold it while the no nails went off. Once I'd done this I swept and hoovered the whole house so they had a nice clean place to come back to. I even washed the bed sheets, towels and bath mats and hung them on the line. Aren't I a good house sitter :D I then packed up all my bits that I'd brought round and took them back to Sandra and Geoff's before taking Gidgie for a walk. I went round later on to give him his dinner just as Geoff pulled up with Molly and Brendan in the car having picked them up from the airport. I helped them with their luggage and they told me briefly how their honeymoon, in the cook islands, had gone. In short they said it was the perfect honeymoon destination. They were due to come round for dinner later so we left the rest of the conversation till then. Geoff and I went home and we left then to unpack and unwind from the long journey. Once they'd arrived we all sat down to dinner and chatted and then they took us through their photographs. The sea was picture perfect, the snorkelling looked awesome and the islands did indeed look perfect for a honeymoon. We chatted for a bit more after the photos and then they both went home. I went to bed shortly after they left, knackered from all the house work. A woman's work is never done.
2nd April
Today I went round to Elaine's, the daughter in law of Sandra and Geoff's neighbour Lillian. It's just like 'Neighbours' this isn't it, too many characters to remember. She needed me to do a few odd jobs round the house that she couldn't do herself and I had plenty of time on my hands so didn't mind helping her out. In the afternoon, once I'd finished at Elaine's, I needed to do a bit of shopping so went to the mall on the way home. After that I spent the afternoon in the pool and relaxed at the house. Geoff, Sandra and I had the remains of last nights dinner as there was loads left over. I watched some TV, had a beer and then went to bed.
3rd April
Sometime last week my aunt saw a deal on a website called scoopon, similar to Groupon, for a visit to Penguin Island just off the coast near Rockingham. So I bought it as it was such a good deal. I rang through and booked it for today so I was up early to make sure I got there in plenty of time. The island isn't that far from the mainland and it could easily be swum out to but sometimes the current is too strong to do so. There's also a sand bank that runs the whole way but that closes sometimes too. The day started with an hour and a half boat ride around the coast nearby Penguin Island to hunt for dolphins. There are a few little islands dotted along the coast and these provided a perfect shelter for the bay between the islands and the mainland. The sea was like a mill pond and it took us no time to spot the splash of dolphins on the surface and were soon in viewing distance of them. There were about 6 in the group and they surfaced every now and then which was really cool to see. After about half an hour of circling them and keeping up with them the skipper worked out they were probably heading for the next bay and so drove the boat past them at a faster speed hoping they would use the bow waves to their advantage and ride them to the next bay getting there quicker. It worked. The dolphins were soon skimming through the water next to us and they kept jumping out the water and diving back in loads of times too. There were about 15 of us on the boat so at times it was difficult to see because everyone was on the same side of the boat but the dolphins changed position enough for everyone to get a view at some point. In the next bay we tried to find another group of dolphins but were unsuccessful and so headed back to the first bay. We still couldn't spot any there and so moved on to the next part of the boat ride. We went to see some sea lions on one of the islands cunningly named seal island. No one is allowed to go on the island but the boats are allowed to pull right up to the beach and there we saw a group of sea lions sunbathing on the beach. High up on one of the rocks were a couple of researchers taking some notes of the sea lion behavior but they had a special permit to be there. We stayed for a while to get some good photos and then moved on to see some of the other inhabitants of the other islands. On one island we saw some rock formations that showed where trees used to grow when this part of the land was above water. On another island we saw a few sea birds and on a massive rock we saw a couple of sea eagles nesting. Our boat trip ended with us being dropped off on Penguin Island where we could spend as much time as we wanted. Ferries left every hour and the last one was at half 4. It was now about half 12 and we were just in time for the first penguin feed of the day. The island is home to a large number of wild penguins that spend 80% of their lives in the sea hunting and only come back to land at night to sleep. So the beaches are covered in tiny penguin footprints. Either that or there is someone going round with a mock footprint mould stamping it into the sand to create footprints every night for the next days visitors. Some of the penguins are kept in captivity from being rescued and it is these ones that we were seeing being fed today. The room is circular and there is a viewing area right the way round with the penguin area in the middle. It wasn't very big but then neither were the penguins. They are called 'little penguins'for a reason. They were still moving like torpedos in the water though. After a while the woman who looks after them came in and gave us a brief talk about the penguins and fed them as well and answered any questions from the crowd. It was all very interesting and good to see. After the talk I sat on the beach to enjoy the sun and had some lunch that I'd brought with me. The island doesn't have any shops there. It is literally just the penguin sanctuary and the toilets that have been built. After lunch I took a walk round the island on the wooden walkway and read the various information panels that they have up telling about the history of the area and enjoying some of the views. I finished the day having a swim in the shallow waters off one of the beaches in the turquoise water before catching the 3 o'clock ferry back to the mainland. It had been a good chilled out day. I got changed into my bike gear back on the mainland and was soon on my way home. I was back by half 4 after another good run on the bike making me look forward to the journey I had roughly planned up the coast that I would be departing on in a few days. I had a quick snooze when I got home before telling Sandra and Geoff about my day. We had a home made curry for dinner and I spent the evening in front of the TV before heading to bed.
And now Rolly island
ReplyDeleteM&D