Day 85: What a day!

Today was GREAT and certainly one to remember!

The morning started off with a lovely walk along the beachfront, then a bit of school work. Not in itself an earth-shatteringly fabulous start in the scheme of things you might think, but it is what came next that was so enjoyable.

We took a drive around to Shoal Bay again and headed for the Tomaree National Park. There is a walk to the summit of one of the Tomaree heads that we wanted to do, so off we went. Again we were at the very bottom and the summit, well, of course it was at the very top. So, up we went and had a great workout on the way. Much huffing and puffing, but definitely signs of being much fitter than at the start of this trip. It was kind of exhilarating in a sick, exercis-y sort of way. The views at the top were absolutely spectacular:

Have you ever seen the sea so calm that the clouds are reflected in it? Beautiful.

A view of Shoal Bay from the summit

Lunch was under a shady tree at Fingal Beach, en route to Anna Bay where we had booked a 4WD sand dune tour. This was a 2hour tour of the Stockton sand dunes, which included a visit to Tin City, sand boarding and collecting pipis. The dunes are 32km long and anything from 1.5 to 3.5 km wide. This was an amazing experience and we were very lucky to be the only ones on the tour, so we had our own personal guide and it was great.

A rare family picture

There is a lot of evidence of WWII in the dunes and it was strange to see the remnants of the barbed wire barriers and anti-tank concrete pyramids that still poke out of the dunes. The Japanese would have had a hard time getting through that lot had they ever tried.

Anti-tank thingies. (The rest are under the sand dune.)

Tin City is a very small settlement about 10km down the beach, which sprang up in the Depression. Today people still squat there - for free and with permission - but limited by a number of constraints.

Tin City

Sand boarding on the dunes was 'awesome' (to use one of Callum's favourite words). We were taken to one of the best and steepest dunes and given freshly waxed boards, with a quick lesson on how not to end up on your face (which was particularly helpful). We were not disappointed. Downhill was fast and smoothe, with a dignified dismount at the end. Getting up the slope again for another go was hard work and I think we burnt off a few calories in the process!

These are fairly self-explanatory:

Last stop was for a bit of pipi gathering. Not at all what we expected - a bit of 'Let's Twist Again' in the sand, digging your feet down to about ankle deep. You can feel the shell under foot if there is one there. Pipis are used as bait for fishing and one is not allowed to take them away from the beach. So we found some, then watched them dive back into the wet sand. Fascinating.

Pipis!

...and pipi collecting

There is also quite a bit of bird life along the beach and our guide pointed out a few different species, including a white breasted sea eagle, which was magic.

As we were on the afternoon tour, the sun and light was just perfect and Duncan took lots of photos. What a fabulous day.