Squabbling Seagulls & Sparkling Sea

Our lovely week away is over :-(  Last night we went to the harbour to buy fish and chips and eat them by the water.  We bought them at a restaurant on the wharf.  It was nearly closing time and they were out of 2 kinds of fish but still had 3 kinds available: basa (which we aren't that keen on); blue trevally (which is a nice fish): and barramundi (which is also really nice if it is ocean caught).  We chose the trevally this time.  While we were waiting for them to be freshly cooked from scratch we 'chose' which of the many boats that were moored on the other side of the harbour we would like, and said 'hello' to Mr Pelican who was sailing majestically around all by himself.
 
Then we sat at a convenient table in a little grassed area right on the edge of the water and enjoyed our dinner.  We were surrounded by many, many seagulls of course, optimistically eyeing us off in the hope of a handout and even Mr Pelican strutted along the edge of the bank like a king surrounded by his courtiers, then went flying off over the water - giving some great aerial shots.

After we had finished eating (and it was delicious!) we gathered the batter that Marilyn and I had removed from our fish, plus the leftover chips and broke it all up into small pieces.  We then amused ourselves by  throwing them one by one into the air for the seagulls.  They performed wonderful acrobatic manouvres and Peter was shooting away with his digital SLR (a Canon EOS   350D) After a while we left it to Richard to throw them because he was able to get the pieces to go higher than Marilyn or I could, and we enjoyed watching the birds.  They are so flexible and Peter got some great photos.

Peter put his camera on timer after we had eaten, and took a couple of shots of the five of us, surrounded by seagulls.

It was so nice sitting there watching the ocean and the antics of the birds, chatting with our friends.  Such a delightful way to spend the evening.

So, you ask, photos?  where are those great photos?  Well, Peter took some really good ones of us as a group, of Mr Pelican, and of the seagulls performing.  Unfortunately his camera played up and they have come out really dark.  I can make out what they are, when I look at them on the computer, but they are too dark to be useful.

However, sneaky man that he is, he took this really unflattering candid one of the rest of us without us knowing.  Marilyn in the pink t-shirt at the front is deep in conversation about poetry with our son Nathan, and Rick and I were talking about cameras.

We had just realised that the photos had all come out dark on Peter's camera and he had gone off to take a photo of the anchor outside the restaurant

and to see whether Mr Pelican was still around.   We didn't catch sight of Mr Pelican again, but at least we did get a shot of the statue.

This morning saw the dawn of another glorious day and I was determined to have that swim I've been promising myself.  When we walked along the beach yesterday the water had something floating on the surface.  It was foamy and we couldn't see what it was but I wasn't going to risk it.

Today the ocean looked just wonderful.  The waves weren't all that big if you wanted to surf but big enough for us, with a very strong outflow.  There were also lots of little bluebottles washing up with the waves - what a disappointment!

We stood in the shallows and the water felt so good.  And yes, sure enough I did get stung there at the edge of the waves when a bluebottle washed in to land beside my feet.  I moved away not realising that the tentacles were across my foot, and as I walked off the tentacle brushed across my ankle.  But it wasn't very painful, so I was fortunate. 

After a while though they seemed to stop coming in and we decided to risk going further into the water.  I promptly got bowled over by a wave so I splashed Marilyn and Peter as well and soon we were all good and wet.  And I did deliberately get some up my nose, so I hope it does some good in those pesky sinuses!

We didn't spend more than half an hour in the water because sadly we had to pack up ready to leave.  But what a lovely way to end our holiday at the beach!