Dolphin spotting....

What an amazing time I had today, we were picked up this morning and taken to the beach to get geared up for the dolphin kayaking. I was a little bit dubious about doing the kayaking again, especially after what happened when I went with Wrigley in Thailand!! but I was put with Ted from Melbourne, he was a bit older, so I was quite confident that we wouldn't end up getting lost from all the others!! So we got into the kayaks and set off, it was quite hard getting out into the ocean, we had to make sure the kayak was directly facing the waves near the shoreline so that we wouldn't tip over, as you can imagine there were a few screams from me, but we got out there without falling in! It was pretty hard work, my arms aren't the strongest at the best of times, but luckily I had Ted behind me...honestly I think he was doing practically all the work...my meager efforts didn't really get us anywhere!! So after we paddled right out and we'd had a few talks from the guides explaining about the area and the wildlife, we saw our first dolphins. It was absolutely amazing, the dolphins were headed right towards us, some of them were surfing the waves and jumping right out of the sea, it was totally awesome (sorry, I hate that word, but can't think of another!!) I have to say it literally brought a tear to my eye seeing this in the wild, absolutely amazing, a really emotional experience. Then even more pods of dolpins swam straight past our kayaks, so close we could have touched them...they are amazing creatures, so graceful, I feel really privileged to have witnessed this, I still can't believe it now! So after that it was time to go to the shore to get some tea and biscuits. It was good fun getting to shore as we had to surf in on the kayaks, again we were lucky and didn't fall in. We went up to one of the lookouts I'd been to yesterday and then it was time to get back to the boats. On the way one of the guides came up to me and said, so I hear you're from Bournemouth, it turns out he'd been there on his round the world trip and stayed in Poole for a little while...he'd even been to Munich!! We didn't see anymore dolphins after that, but the memories of the ones I did see will stay with me forever, it's not until you experience something like this that you truly realise how wonderful life is (sorry if that sounds cheesy, but it's so true!)

It's not one of my pics, but it's nice to look at!!

The guides told us some sad stories about the loggerhead turtles that call Byron Bay their home. They are an endangered species and we will probably be the last generation to see them, apparently the turtles mistake the cigarette butts that get blown into the sea for food, and it eventually kills them, one was found quite recently with over 300 butts in it's belly, that's why the people on the coast are so dedicated to stop people dropping them on the floor...they have butt trays all over the place, but sadly not all people use them, not realising what damage they are doing.... a sad story.

Anyway, it's my last day here today, next time you read this, I'll be in Coffs Harbour.

See below for some more pics....