What a great day, we took the Sea Lion - Penguin Tour from Rockingham as we see plenty of dolphins at home and the cost was double for that one.
While we were waiting for the glass bottom boat etc to arrive a dolphin started feeding in the 1.5 mtr deep water around the jetty, swam under us and around the sea grass beds which abound here. She got a couple of cobbler (cat fish) close enough for us to see her mouth open then she moved away a bit before we saw 2 fish going flat out along the shallow water next to the beach, the dolphin absolutely hit the after burners after them, under the jetty and about 50 mars up she nailed one in a shower of water then cruised back a bit then off again but only a short distance before she nailed the second one, spectacular to see and we didn't have to fork out the extra dollars to see it.
A short cruise across to the small rocky islands to see the sea lions, all males as the females are up at Jurien bay. While looking at these rather large blokes, a sea eagle swooped down and took a King Skink from the grass/herbage stuff and swung back towards his mate to share it, this freaked out the pigeons which also nest on the rocky ledges, much to the disgust of the NP Rangers. It was fantastic to see these magnificent birds so close.
Then onto the Island to see the breeding sites for the gulls, turns, pelicans and penguins, this place is an absolute treasure. They have 9 captive penguins in the discovery centre which are fed hourly and are rescued birds which wouldn't survive if returned to the wild. We have seen them before in Tasmania but not this close, the Ranger gave a talk on their life cycle etc which was interesting to say the least.
Kath and I had a stroll down the beach and soon found a gulls nest with 3 eggs then a bit further on was another with 1 egg and a chick, the parents carried on a bit as I took photo's. Down at the end of the beach where the rock outcrop extends into the sea I noticed a fairly well used track in the sand/rock and with a little investigation found a pair of Fairy Penguins in their burrow sitting on eggs, wow what a find that was ! a few quick photo's and away from them before other tourists saw me and stared looking for them selves, as they are shy birds this added attention may have disturbed them. The best part is that the wild life is not afraid of humans and tolerated us getting up close and personal with them.
When we returned to Rangers hut I showed her the photo's and she remarked " you were extremely lucky to see that as they are mostly still out at sea feeding"
We spent most of the day over there exploring and trying to get photo's of the Terns and Pelican rookery but they are in a roped off area. We could see them from a distance so had to be content with that. We also asked why there were so many Dead Sea gulls on the beach and were informed that 3 reasons 1. Botulism 2. Starvation due to the high concentration of birds over the food resource and finally just natural attrition, it didn't seem to have the same effect on the other species of birds though.
Free Camped back at Jarrahdale where we met up with two Scottish travellers, had a pleasant few hours with them discussing Scotland and each others travels and experiences, the bonny wee lassie described the cold wind as 'Baltic' apparently likening it to the Baltic winds experienced over there but I do't think we come even close to those.
Travelled down to Manjimup this afternoon and found a fresh fruit and veg place called " The Spud Shed' prices were way below Coles,Woolies or Aldi etc and fresh as. Apparently there are few of them and most of the produce sold is grown by the owner as well as the beef and lamb, sea food was supplied by local people an couple are even open 24 hrs !
Well Kath was happy to see her nickname so we did a rather large stock up, at those prices who wouldn't.
Any way we headed south, visited the Thrombolites at lake Clifton before free camping at the John Tognela rest area tonight.
Off to see some more lakes and National Parks tomorrow.
Stay safe and be happy.
Bob n Kath
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