Sun 27th Jun '21 - Day 16

Yardie Homestead

A full day on the West side of the peninsula and although it’s getting warmer in the mornings, 9:30am is probably too early to be in the water so we try a different beach to explore but Tulki Beach turns out to be stony with just patches of sand and although we’re the only ones there we push on back to Oyster Stacks as we’ve learnt the tide times now and know it’ll be coming soon to high tide.

The toilet block that was being finished yesterday is now complete; you can still smell the freshly painted varnish. On the rocky foreshore there is a swell in the water crashing, or at least something between splashing and crashing, into the rock edge. After watching a few others, I jump in. Kate asks Seb if he’s ok to be thrown into which he gamely answers “of course you can.” Seb is wearing, much to his displeasure his floaty – a zipped on lifejacket – so I can leave bobbing away from the rocks and collect with noodle and Kate following.

Writing about seeing coral and the marine life doesn’t really do it justice – there’s too many different shapes and sizes to remember afterwards. Similarly, with the coral and the miniature forests of differing colours, or the platelets precariously balanced on narrow stems.

Again, by watching other people get out successfully or unsuccessfully we swim along the beach a little to emerge, ready for a towel and morning tea. I head out for another snorkel and then switch over with Kate, all the while the kids are making a fairy house just behind us on the edge of the sand dunes.

We have lunch on the beach before hopping in the van to go a few minutes up the road back to Turquoise Bay. The kids have a melting Magnum on the walk through the car park, but the power of our freezer does not have enough to maintain the structural integrity of the ice-cream on a stick – Seb loses his to the sandy floor. Sienna is kind enough to share the end of hers with him.

The kids are happy to splash in the shallows especially Seb, freed from his floaty. I go out for a snorkel having to swim 30m just to reach the start of the coral due to the high tide. There is still a pull parallel to the beach to whilst keeping an eye out for the sandy spit as the exit point – so as not to get swept out to the sea and outer reef – I continue to spot new fishes including a pair of cuttlefish and much to Sienna’s excitement a small brown starfish and large bright blue starfish.

Without time on the road in the van Seb has missed his nap so falls asleep on Kate and the towel. As he does get motion sickness, we have been giving him Quell for journeys of an hour or more which further increases the likelihood of him dropping off for a nap in his car seat. His best so far is 3 naps in the same day.

We depart the beach at 16:00 and head the now well-trodden road back to Yardie Homestead. We were told when we checked in that there was going to be a clown show for the kids at 9:00am tomorrow (now today), but there was no sign of it when we looked this morning. They said it was in fact at 17:30. Sure enough when we went over after dinner to the pub-benched area by the café there was no clown activity. Sienna did at least find a friend she’d made on the inflatable pillow at Coral Bay so they roam about together. Seb also ran around, without necessarily knowing why. A musician setting up said with confidence, like a man in the know, that the clown show would in fact be at 9:00am tomorrow. We’ll see.

Whilst Sienna went back to play with Jaydon, Seb chatted with the two men in the tent and caravan next door to us who went out early this morning on their boat which is also sat on its trailer by their camp spot. Seb’s questions prompted one of the to ask Seb onboard to the fish they had caught as well as a couple of 4 feet long sharks they’d thrown back overboard. When sat in the captain’s chair he asked what happened to the wheels of the trailer when the boat was I the water – he’s probably never seen a boat come off a trailer before. These gents were another pair up for 4 months for winter from Perth. There’s definitely something to be said for it.