Tanned and Wiser

I'm baaaaack...

I will first blog of pleasure, then another post on business shortly after this.



I had a lovely holiday. I learned how to fish, and I caught 18 of them! And 18 is my lucky number too! Only 2 keepers though, a whiting and a brim. The rest were only babies and Matt let them off the hook and sent them home again.

Burrum Heads is a lovely, quiet, friendly place to stay. Only the essentials when it comes to shops (eg, a butcher, an excellent bakery, a bait shop, an IGA, etc.), but that's all you need really for a week away. The house we stayed in was beautiful and we felt very much at home there.

"Lynman Inn", our home away from home. (this photo was taken by Matt, not me. Credit where credit is due.)

Aside from fish, we saw lots of other wildlife! It was so great, we saw a few runny babbits (hares really, but you get the point), a green tree frog was under our house one day along with his two marsh frog friends (one of whom later snuck into our fishing bag and went out to the beach with us x) silly frog). Kangaroos were nearby and yes we did have to stop for one who hopped across the street in front of us, lucky we spotted him early on and were crawling along at the time. There were always dogs running around on the beach (friendly ones only), and THOUSANDS of soldier crabs, that burrow into the sand to hide when you get near them, along with hermit crabs, sand crabs and other little creatures all over the beach, but I've saved the best for last...

Turtles! Not on the sand, in the water. When the tide is out at Burrum Heads, you can walk out really far along the sand, over coral and rocks, to fish or just go for a walk. We fished from this spot on the rocks (which appears to be some sort of coral shelf going by the behaviour of the animals in the water below) a few times during our holiday.

Then on Thursday we were fishing away there when the BIGGEST TURTLE I HAVE EVER SEEN popped his head up from under the water to get some air. I would say that in length he'd have been as big as a golden retriever! I could have had a ride on that shell easy. But I wouldn't. He was only about ten metres away from us at the time, I've never seen one in the wild that close up before. We didn't get a photo because they are up for a few seconds and then disappear under the sea again, and I'm not quick enough for that.

Then on Friday, out there again, we spotted one about the size of a dinner plate, swimming right near the edge of the rocks we were standing on, about five metres away! And THEN...One about the size...of...oh, I know, a school bag...yes. He popped up several times that day, and at one point he swam towards me, stopped directly in front of me, facing me, popped his head up and had a look at me!

I MADE EYE CONTACT WITH A TURTLE!

I have since put turtles at the top of my prefered pets list. I love them.

I have more photos of this adventure but they are loaded onto a different computer so I'll post them another time. I have come back tanned, a fan of fishing, and eager to get back to business, which is handy seeing as I'll be at the markets in the morning :s -please don't let it rain, please don't let it rain- fingers crossed. See my newest post for more info on the markets. Eep!

xnata